ambient triggers

"Sound comes out of a life experience."

~ Bill Laswell

One of the things we can do to keep our subconscious working for us and focused on our current project is to create a conducive, ambient environment for that quiet part inside that is always mulling things over and turning them into tangible ideas.

One of the new things I’m using to keep the creative juices flowing, when I’m exhausted and have decided to do the dishes instead of writing, are the BBC Sound Effects discs from Nepal. I’m working with a new character “Julian” who is traveling to Nepal to find a child. The discs create ambient noise in my house and hopefully, will result in better writing on my part.


TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

Go the library and check out any of the 60 BBC Sound Effects discs that might be related to your current work or go to http://www.sonomic.com/ and search over 250,000 tracks for tracks you can use to help enhance your work on a specific scene. There are tons of sites online that provide free downloads. Look around.

Think about using sound effects to not only support your current work but to inspire new ideas. Download 30 or 40 minutes of tracks and shuffle them in your IPod and then give yourself that 40 minutes to write or paint or design or choreograph incorporating and adapting to each new sound you hear.

Maybe it starts with a rainstorm and then you hear a doorbell and then a train. Try to find a way to connect these sounds, embed them in your work.