So it might seem less than ideal to create a “Photo of the Week” post for an audio project…but it is a great way to introduce you to a new IMA project created by Nugget Factory intern, Zack Barr. He spent the summer recording various ambient sounds of IMA, creating an audio library, and composing his own tracks mixing, editing and enhancing the raw audio files. And now we are handing them all over to you. Want to submit your own mash up? Keep reading…

Here is an excerpt from Zack’s abstract about the project:

The 20th Century saw innumerable developments in the ways by which humans could document and describe their lives and surroundings. Experiences and perceptions that had previously been subject to the distortions of memory could increasingly be captured and preserved in new and improving mediums. In the early half of the 19th Century, the ability to produce permanent photographs was solidified; with this, a natural and logical inclination lead people to use this ability as a means of creative expression. In the 20th Century, developments in film and cameras, the increasing ability to produce them, and the general shift from analog to digital have allowed modern man to capture, realize, and share visual perspectives with never-before-seen dexterity. Likewise, developments in sound technologies have given us the ability to capture and preserve the myriad sounds that surround us. We have the ability to record, and replay at any time, the grind of any machine or the song of any bird. This ability is especially important for the purposes of historic documentation as, for instance, the sound of some particular city was likely vastly different 50 years ago from the sound of that same city today. We can’t really comprehend what the world would have sounded like to the 15th-Century man. Thus, these “field recordings” can prove very useful in documenting life in the aural realm, just as paintings, photographs, and films have done in the visual. Using these visual images, people have come to creatively explore ideas, tell narratives, and share perspectives. The images are processed, arranged, and displayed in ways that suit these creative needs. In saying this, similar expression can be realized through the interpretation of sound recordings.

• Did you know that you can buy an “Audio Mash Up Construction Kit” on Amazon.com?
• In addition to this project, IMA offers a ton of its audio and video content (really high quality video!) for free download on iTunes.
• Want to share your mash up with us? Submit a comment and give me an e-mail address to get in touch with you. We’ll add your contribution to the available downloads on the iTunes U project.
• Read about the controversy DJ Dangermouse created when he mashed Jay Z’s Black Album with the Beatles White Album to create The Grey Album.

It’s been mentioned in past blog posts. It’s been described in IMA press releases. It’s used regularly by staff. It’s listed on the IMA internal phone list. It’s a space. It’s a way of thinking. It’s The Nugget Factory.

Simply put, The Nugget Factory is IMA’s New Media department – a team of four. The longer story is this – it’s the creative approach to creating digital content. It’s the process of finding the perfect ‘nugget’ in revealing a story. It’s this process that gave birth to the Nugget Factory. It may sound ridiculous (actually it does) but it’s this approach to developing audio, video or web content that drives our department and many of our colleagues cross-departmentally. It’s a creative and fun approach – but don’t get me wrong, we take our nuggets and work very seriously.

Two of the four Nugget Factory members blog regularly (Despi and I), but what about the other two – Dan Dark and Danny Beyer? In true Nugget Factory style, we decided to sit down and create a short audio interview about their roles in the Nugget Factory and much, much more (don’t worry, we’ll get Despi in an audio interview soon).

Take a listen below.

Download audio file (thenuggetfactory.mp3)

(struggling for an image, I decided to show my favorite Pioneer HDJ-1000 headphones…courtesy of pioneerelectronics.com)

So what happened recently to cause this shift? It’s been a convergence of experiences really, and it all occurred kind of like this:

I was on 38^th Street…
This past week I found myself standing in Best Buy, initially contemplating a purchase of a Wii or PS3 (I bought neither). After a few minutes I wandered into the music aisle. I typically download from iTunes but occasionally I buy a CD. I stood in the rap section and an entire world of 80’s old school opened up. I walked out with 2 CD’s – KRS-One and Eric B. and Rakim. I’m listening to Follow the Leader, right now. This set the tone for the rest of the week and the audio coincidences followed.

Meanwhile back at work….
Think of music online and it’s a hard not to think of iTunes. My colleague Despi spent the past week preparing, organizing and finalizing our audio and video content for a new partnership with iTunes, called iTunes U – essentially content from universities and cultural institutions, such as museums. She’ll be blogging about it later, so I don’t want to reveal too much. The IMA on iTunes, pretty cool and it’s kind of a big deal.

Thinking of LOST and Copland…
Previously on…..not LOST (but I can’t wait for the season to start). In past posts I’ve mentioned a project we’re working on with musicians from the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. This project will become an audio guide for our American Galleries, featuring performances from ISO musicians. So when I’m not listening to 80’s hip hop, I’m also now into Debussy, Stravinsky and Barber. We’re in the selection stage for what songs will be recorded and will begin this process very soon….

Local music…
For an upcoming fashion exhibition Breaking the Mode, we are acquiring runway footage featuring work from the designers in the exhibition. You can’t really have runway footage without music, so our web and flash designer Matt Gipson suggested a local band he knows, The Sound Defects. I recommend visiting their site and listening to Kick Stand. We’re working with them to feature some of their sounds in the videos we will produce online (I know – it’s a video…but there is a good audio connection here). Coming soon to imamuseum.org….in some form.

For a totally new experience…
If you’re in iTunes, search for ‘spurse audio tour’. It’s an audio guide we produced with the artist collective spurse, a couple of years ago. Their exhibition is long gone, but the audio tour lives on and might make a comeback. Check it out – I did recently and had a chuckle. It’s not your typical audio guide.

So what does this all mean…
Well, these were my experiences for the week of Jan 21-25, 2008. We may never be an audio powerhouse like MoMA or SFMOMA – but you will begin to see some new and unique audio experiences – and we haven’t given up on audio yet. In the meantime, if you have any audio project ideas, please leave me a comment.

Now who’s ready for The Buggles?