Minute 43

 Minute 43 (by Ella Brunßen)

My soundscape ‘A Fever of 43 Degrees’ is based on the feeling the minute gave me, and structured after the minute. The minute quickly changes from a fast-paced part of destruction to a slow-paced scene of a man climbing a ladder. I physically felt this abrupt change between the fast and slow pace, and it gave me the feeling I always have when I have a high fever and feel so sick that the slightest bit of movement takes a tremendous amount of effort. In the original minute, the first 17 seconds consist of unrecognizable chaos and destroyed film material. This is represented in the soundscape with what I imagine happens inside of the body when one has a fever; it’s a chaotic mess as the body tries to fight the sickness. Then, for 6 seconds, the minute shows only the ladder. I decided to pair this with the sound of a fly. When I am that sick, it takes too much energy to swat away a fly even if it keeps annoying me, landing on me and walking around on me. I just listen to the fly fly around and let it be. For the next 36 seconds, a man can be seen climbing the ladder. The material is slowed down, and the soundscape switches to a part in which I explore what I associate with being sick. There’s a slowed down heartbeat, cooking water for tea, distorted sounds (I thought of having a fever dream) and eating salty pretzel sticks. For a fraction of a second, there’s a loud sound and something else can be seen; this is a technical error in the minute, however, I have included it in my project. I added the sound of me breathing in, to represent the anticipation of what comes next, which is, hopefully, getting better.