Part I: Shush: A Creative (Re)Construction (essay/pdf)


Part II: Shush Me Awake (audio performance/mp3)


[for optimal experience, listen with headphones]


Composer Notes for Shush Me Awake

Instrumentation

alarm-enabled door with crash bar
Honeywell barcode scanner
Summit resource sharing courier bag
Kik Step stool
flat-shelf (trayed) book truck
plastic CD case
3M detection system
metal book ends
microfilm drawer
map drawer
Spacesaver mobile storage (compact shelving unit)
X-ACTO paper cutter
3M book desensitizer
Ideal 6430 stamp
Trodat professional 5430 stamp
2000 Plus 2015 stamp
Spectra S40 stamp
books deposited in an external book drop
books deposited in an indoor book drop
books pulled off a shelf
books placed on a shelf
female shusher
male shusher

Sound samples recorded on a ZOOM Handy Recorder H2; entirely composed and mixed in Audacity 2.1.3.

Notes on Manipulation

Because the piece uses only “found” sounds and no traditional musical instruments, I took advantage of the Change Pitch effect to manipulate the Honeywell barcode scanner recording and create a series of sound files to stand in for the individual notes of a chromatic scale over several octaves. These are used in several staccato sections in the piece. By selectively combining these “notes” and using the Paulstretch effect to lengthen them, I was able to create chords with a synthesized keyboard flavor. I also utilized the Reverse effect to spin some sequences backwards, much like a DJ does.

Some individual sounds were spliced into smaller segments and rearranged to make other sounds. For instance, what I think of as the bass drum and hi-hat percussion sounds in the piece come exclusively from edited shush samples. The final mix has 22 tracks, several of which are themselves made from multiple layers. “Shush Me Awake” represents somewhere around 150-200 hours of labor, not counting the background research mentioned in the framing essay.

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Kathleen Spring is Collections Management Librarian and Associate Professor at Linfield College, where she also serves as the DigitalCommons Coordinator. She holds an MLIS from the University of Alabama and an M.S. in speech communication with an emphasis in performance studies from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Her research interests focus on the intersections of libraries and communication studies, particularly the performance of librarianship, as well as institutional repositories and digital collections, collaborative library partnerships, and international librarianship.