about soft sounds

about...

soft sounds collection can be found here

There is a movie by the director Hirokazu Koreeda called After Life where, when a person dies they are asked to come up with their favorite memory from their life that they’d like to relive and it is recreated for them as a play/performance to savor and watch before the spirit finally moves on.

In "soft sounds", what I’m trying to depict is something similar but more fantastical and nuanced. They are “dream stills” (like a film still but from a dream) created by layers of memories from music, performance, and art shows as well as inspirations from people that I’ve known living in a way where the line is blurred between art and everyday life. The dolls play the characters because it’s not just rehashing a memory but is remixing my memories and making something that never existed but feels familiar.

I first created photo-like images using text prompts only, that were based on memories of an outdoor music festival in the woods where everyone camped and shared meals and there was lots of loud screeching noise, amps and speakers stacked high. The contrast was so beautiful. Nature vs Noise.

The ones I chose became the base images that I used in img2img using Emprops Openstudio and a text prompt layer was added on top. Most of my references are obscure so it's difficult to write a text prompt that leads me to an image I want, I usually have to layer ideas to get closer. Much of my previous ai work was also created using layers, sometimes layers and layers and layers.

memories

Some of the memories and inspirations that I used in "soft sounds" are listed below. They have generally been influences on my life as a whole and not just for this collection.

These are some pictures by photographer Ports Bishop from the book Future Friends from the aforementioned music festival in the woods...

Black Dice performing inside artist Peter Coffin’s installation at Andrew Kreps Gallery

If you go to the NY Times link above you'll see how that manifested in some of the pieces from the soft sounds collection like this one, soft sounds 7

77 BOA DRUM an outdoor music event by the Boredoms & 77 drummers

Photographer Mark Borthwick's musical, poem, event side-project Will Shine

Everything Providence... If you have never heard of Fort Thunder please go read this article. It was the most magical place ever - both beautiful, colorful, and creative but also dirty and really fucking loud.

Also Providence... Forcefield

One more to add to Providence, Barkley's Barnyard Critters

If you've read this far and poked around in the links or streamed some of the videos, thank you. For anyone that decides to purchase this text token, there will be a small surprise for you in the near future.

Long live weird - littlecakes