DISCOMBOBULATION: Reassembled Transmissions from the Infected Past [2020] •100-minutes •Part of the Soundworks boxset
Discombobulation: the fact of being made to feel confused or uncomfortable by something / to cause to be in a state of confusion.
Discombobulation is an archival sound documentary that appropriates audio material from Youtube videos to explore the Western mediascape during the coronavirus pandemic. From the early weeks of public and political confusion, quack remedies and panic buying, to the unprecedented pollution-free skies, lockdown protests and eventual openings of the summer months, Discombobulation explores the production, dissemination and consumption of digital media during the first wave of the pandemic. It sets out to question the role of modern technology today, examining how it mediates and shapes our lives in a highly interconnected but politically polarised world.
The recent past drops away into an amnesiac void, while the long present gets chiselled down to wafer-width, simply because of the incredible pace with which the pages of the current and the topical are refreshed. [Retromania, pg 63, Simon Reynolds]
Discombobulation consists of 40 audio tracks of mixed news samples, music, noise and found sound presented in six chapters. In addition to mainstream media samples, audio excerpts from education films, movies, advertising and vlogger videos have also been appropriated. It has been been designed as an audio archive of online media documenting the early period of the global pandemic, as well as a satirically expanded interpretation of these events. Motivating the work from the very beginning was a desire to document a volatile moment in time that was seemingly rewriting itself anew each and every day.
The concept for the project was inspired by the From the Sound Library of the BBC LPs published between 1968 and 1971. These four records were based on the BBC Radio 4 current affairs review programme and issued as audio documents of key historical events that took place during those four years. Much of the satirical tone and cut-up style of Discombobulation has been influenced by the collage work of US band Negativland and the television films of documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis.
Further links and information:
•All source material with URL links downable here as a pdf
•Full tracklisting information can be downloaded here
•Promo image and text here
•Diary notes: On Media, Information and Noise here
•Collage: Some notes on the Found, Cut-Up and Reassembled here
