Who knows what kind of creature is making those snuffling noises in the bushes just behind you. Or the animal skittering for cover under that dock at the water’s edge.
Berlin-based composer and sound designer David Kamp recently took on the role of curator and sent some of his favorite illustrators and animators the sound of an imaginary creature and asked them what they think it looks like. The resulting (still growing) menagerie is on view at sound-creatures.com.
Thanks to David for sharing a little bit more about the project below.
How did the project come about?
In my animation projects I often get to define the sonic world of characters. The question I ask myself very often is, “How does this thing sound?”
I thought it would be interesting to turn that process around and ask people, “What does this sound look like?” But I didn’t have a clear idea how to approach this yet.
One day I posted a pretty weird animal sound on my facebook page and wrote, “I have no idea what this is.” My friend Joonas Utti replied that he wanted to draw it. That’s when it clicked, and I thought it might be a fun process for people to create an illustration or animation inspired by a sound I created. I then went on to record (or to be honest record/create/synthesize) quite a few sound creatures and sent them to the visual artists involved in the project.
Are the visual artist previous collaborators? New friends? A combination?
They are people I either worked with before or people whose illustration or animation work I admire.
I was lucky to get many very talented people on board. Soon there will also be a non-curated online version of the project where basically everyone can participate on a new set of sounds.
Are any of the creatures dangerous?
Not unless you connect them to loudspeakers bigger than yourself.
Collaborators featured at the top: Mark Verhaagen, Ian MacArthur, Nick Sheehy, Dave Prosser / below: Janine Rewell, Ville Savimaa.
