Lost Woods Interpretation

Intention

Write about the big ideas behind your project? What are the goals? Why did you make it? What are your motivations?

I wanted to create Lost Woods in a physical form because it was one of the songs that I used to make my mashup in a previous project, and I thought that it would be beneficial to further study this piece to be able to understand it more. I wanted to help wrap my head around all aspects of the piece, not just the base sound that the average viewer would notice when hearing this within the Legend of Zelda.

Product

What was the final representation. What did you create? What is it composed with (materials, shapes, forms)? Describe the textures, colors, etc.

I took a more literal approach to making this product by creating a physical interpretation of the piece when viewed in Audacity. I viewed every 5 peaks in the amplitude within the piece, and placed a colored pin accordingly. I decided on the color of the pin by how loud the particular peak hit within audacity, ranging from blue(the quietest) to red(the loudest). I then connected all of the pins with string to more accurately represent the amplitude of the piece. When looking straight down at the product, it is clear that it looks very similar to what the song looks like in Audacity.

Approach

How did you approach the assignment and re-creation of the work in a physical medium? Cite examples that informed your approach

I originally was going to approach this project by creating an actual symbol based from the Legend of Zelda using the colored pins that would work similarly to how I ended up using them. After speaking with one of my TAs, I then realized that created a symbol from the game does not necessarily create an accurate interpretation of the sound itself. She recommended just starting the project by placing the pins, and seeing what comes out of the product. I actually did not look to any other examples to base my interpretation off of, rather I just decided to create whatever came through my mind at the moment.

Reflection

Do you think you captured the content and aesthetics of the audio accurately? Is it recognizable as the original sound? What did you learn? What would you do differently?

I believe that my creation does capture the content and aesthetics decently well, especially the content. What I found interesting about my final product was that when viewing it from the side, the product creates almost a forest of its own with all of the pins scattered throughout the cork tile. However, there is close to no reason that any viewer would be able to figure out what song I used to create the product. I also was only able to actually represent a small section of the song with the constraint of time that was given to this project. If I had to do this project again, I definitely would have somehow tried to create an interpretation that was more easily recognized as my song.