Listening to appropriate sound and music while reading a book – that is what this project is about.
Preview
The project is not yet finalized – but it is in its final stage. I do not want to publish the work in an unfinished state, thus I currently only show a preview.
Idea
Ok, this project needs a little explanation. My brother writes stories. In September 2015 he sent the following via email:
Liebe Damen, liebe Herren, auf vielfachen Wunsch hin, erfinde ich hiermit… den Kurzgeschichten-Trailer! 😀 haha, viele Grüsse, Korbi Er hatte sie kommen und gehen sehen. Er hatte sie beobachtet. Er hatte ihnen zugehört. Doch er hatte nie ein einziges Wort gesprochen. +++ “Übermorgen. Übermorgen…” schallte es dunkel aus dem Treppengang. +++ Es sah aus, als wären die Arme des jungen Mädchens knapp unterhalb der Schulter abgeschnitten. “Wundervoll.” sagte ihre Mutter mit tränennassen Augen. +++ “Mach es langsam.” knurrte es an seinem Ohr, woraufhin ein Funkeln in seine Augen trat. Er drückte zu. EIN FEST IN ROT Nächste Woche digital oder im echten Briefkasten
English version
Dear ladies, dear gentlemen, By popular demand, I hereby invent … the short story trailer! : D haha, best regards, Korbi He had seen her come and go. He had watched her. He had listened to them. But he had never spoken a single word. +++ “Day after tomorrow. The day after tomorrow … “it sounded dark from the staircase. +++ It looked like the young girl’s arms were cut just below the shoulder. “Wonderful,” her mother said, her eyes watered. +++ “Do it slowly.” It growled at his ear, after which a twinkle in his eyes. He squeezed. A CELEBRATION IN RED Digital or in the real mailbox next week
I felt that a “trailer” needs music. I had no more information about the story as the lines visible here, but those lines felt dark and heavy and spooky to me. Thus, here is what I made out of it:
It turned out that this trailer music fit the final short story quite well. I thought about how it would be to read a story and hear music and sound accompanying it. I considered putting QR codes next to specific points in the text, which the reader could scan with his phone and would start playback of certain music. Or to eye-track the exact position of reading and use it for playing back the music.
But the final solution I came up with, was the creation of a kind of ebook, which plays the sound at the appropriate page. In order to overcome the variance in reading speed of different readers, I decided to put not too much text on one page, so that the impact of the different reading speeds remains controllable. I coded the ebook reader myself based on a Javascript/HTML5 technology, in order to get the most portable technical solution I could think of.