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.