This Monday I reviewed a number of techniques helpful for idea generation: brainstorming, mind maps, collages, mash-ups, round robin, opposite thinking, crazy eights and SCAMPER. As part of an activity for my studies, I was asked to pick a creation developed by someone else, and use one of the techniques in an attempt to transform the piece into something new.
The input: Totaka’s Song
Kazumi Totaka is a Japanese video game music composer, mostly known for his work on Nintendo titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and the Animal Crossing series. Most of these titles share an easter egg – a short hidden tune, which only plays once certain conditions within the game are triggered. This elusive melody became known as Totaka’s Song (Kelly 2012).
Documentary on Totaka’s Song by Phil Bond (2006). Example of the tune begins at 1:06.
I picked the tune as the initial artefact for the creative challenge.
Technique: Opposite Thinking
Opposite Thinking is a process that encourages the generation of solutions based on assumptions that are opposite to the original scenario. It is proposed as a tool to come up with non-obvious ideas (Board of Innovation 2019).
For this exercise, I expected that this would not be the optimal technique, as it would likely result in something with no connection to the original piece; whereas a technique like SCAMPER was inherently conceived as a way to modify an idea. I was curious to see what the result would be regardless.
Problem definition: Create a new version of Totaka’s Song.
I spent 10 minutes on each column.
| Assumptions | Opposite realities | Potential solutions |
|---|---|---|
| The melody is included as an ‘easter egg’. | The melody is not included in the game at all. | It’s a standalone melody that exists outside of another product. |
| The melody is meant to be a ‘Christmas chicken’. | The melody explores a seasonal theme. | |
| It’s so well hidden, it may take years to find in each game. | The melody is used to promote the games before release. | Use it for trailers. |
| It has never been found yet, its existence is just speculation. | Do not create the song, only describe it. | |
| It’s short, only 19 notes. | It’s very long, nobody has heard the entire melody. | The song is randomly generated each time. |
| There might be few notes, but they are extremely long. | It’s an ambient piece in the style of Brian Eno. | |
| It’s monophonic (single melody with no harmony or chords). | The song uses harmonies. | Use harmonies. |
| It is not typically expressed as sound. | The sound (pitch or volume) are represented as an image. |
Gathering the solutions, my proposal for the resulting item was as follows:
A watermark placed on promotional material. Takes the form of a graphic symbol; a collection of elements that, if interpreted in sequence, forms a set of harmonies. The melody is elusive and unique for each product, possibly procedurally generated. The watermark acts as a signature or calling card of the artist involved in the work.
Research
One of my solutions involved creating a long, ambient piece of music that would contrast with the short form of the original. My mind went to another renowned composer, Brian Eno.
Eno, B. (2004). 1/1 (Remastered 2004). Universal Music Group.
Eno’s album, Ambient 1: Music for Airplanes, was analysed in a fascinating article published in Reverb Machine. Eno’s experimental creation process involved recording short pieces, many one-note long, on tape; those were then played back simultaneously in loops to achieve the final composition (Carr 2019).
The particular piece I’m referring to was done by using a whole series of very long tape loops, like fifty, sixty, seventy feet long. there were twenty-two loops. One loop had just one piano note on it. Another one would have two piano notes. Another one would have a group of girls singing one note, sustaining it for ten seconds. There are eight loops of girls’ voices, and about fourteen loops of piano. I just set all of these loops running and let them configure in whichever way they wanted to, and in fact the result is very, very nice.
Eno at the edge of rock, interview published in Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine, Vol. VIII, No. 6 (June 1978)
I felt that I could use a similar technique, digitally, to generate a never-ending ambient composition from a number of shorter tracks.
Development notes
Monday:
Wow, this is actually exciting. I thought I would have to move to SCAMPER, but now that I found this article, I am excited for the possibilities here. I would like to try and create a few simple pieces, and try and see ways in which they could be visualised. I’m going to use three.js and simple javascript to randomly mix a number of tracks together, like in the article. I can then use three.js to either represent the notes as floating polygons, or just rotate a static model pleasantly.
Tuesday:
I’ve read the blog and prepared the audio samples. But 4 hours in, I am experiencing an issue with code (ended event seems to fire when the last sound stops playing rather than for individual sounds) and my enthusiasm is deflated.
Figured out the issue later, cause was incorrect export not code.
Wednesday:
Spent more time on the code on Wednesday and the audio does work, but will have to give up on the visual part as it sent me down a rabbit hole of debugging, which is not the point of this exercise and I only have so much time to spend. Will probably serve a static model instead.
On Thursday, I removed the three.js code and created a static image in Blender to represent the concept I was aiming for.
The result
Source code published to GitHub.
Reference list
BOARD OF INNOVATION. 2019. “Opposite Thinking.” Board of Innovation [online]. Available at: https://www.boardofinnovation.com/tools/opposite-thinking/ [accessed 2 Oct 2020].
BOND, Phil. 2006. “Totaka’s Song: Part 1 of 3.” YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLMAgcGA8Dw [accessed 2 Oct 2020].
CARR, Dan. 2019. “Deconstructing Brian Eno’s ‘Music For Airports.’” Reverb Machine [online]. Available at: https://reverbmachine.com/blog/deconstructing-brian-eno-music-for-airports/ [accessed 1 Oct 2020].
ENO, Brian. 2004. 1/1 (Remastered 2004). Universal Music Group. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKZ3fGR2SDY [accessed 2 Oct 2020].
KELLY, Mark. 2012. “Kazumi Totaka’s Song Guide | NinDB.” nindb.net [online]. Available at: https://nindb.net/feature/totakas-song-guide/index.html [accessed 1 Oct 2020].
O’BRIEN, Glenn. 1978. “Eno at the Edge of Rock.” music.hyperreal.org [online]. Available at: http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/unk-78b.html [accessed 2 Oct 2020].
inverted ↄontrols 