Critter Day Eight

Environmental Impact 03

As temperatures begin to slowly warm once again, and some of the ice gradually begins to melt, a bacteria that has not been seen more years that can be remembered is released into the air. These tiny organisms travel across the globe, hitching rides on breezes and creatures alike. As the bacteria spread, it was found that xxx... Sneak a peek here for some real-life inspiration for what your bacteria could do: See links here for how current melting ice may be exposing the unforeseen and preserved:

Stephen felt trapped in his safety. The relative comfort of this rotting corpse of a building is too tempting to stay forever. He knows that the longer he stays, the more damage this place will do to him. He can feel the plague taking over his heart. He can see what it’s doing to his body. He hasn’t eaten in days and he’s starting to this everything looks like food.

Critter Day Seven

Stephen found himself wandering in search of shelter. Here he is in the pages of a book on abandoned spaces. There is little that nourishes here although the character consoles his spirit like warm blankets pulled over his face one cold morning when he just couldn’t dream of going to work.

Critter Day Six

Environmental Impact 02

SOCIALIZE//GET WOOLY: With the grip of the ice-age tightening, large swaths of ice cover the planet. As the gigantic glaciers creep across oceans and landmasses, they force ecosystems that were once separate to either cohabit in the more temperate pockets that remain, or to further adapt to their now frigid and ice-encrusted habitats.

Check out these links for articles about different types of ice-age evolution, and the consequences of different ecosystem changes:https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-climate-change-may-have-shaped-human-evolution-180952885/ (Links to an external site.)

https://www.npr.org/2011/09/02/140121917/an-ice-age-beast-evolved-to-beat-the-cold (Links to an external site.)

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-happens-when-predators-disappear-32079553/

Stephen is sad and lonely. His heart is racing, not making a sounds as it beats rapidly in his chest. The cold does not affect him like the others so he will weather this storm relatively unscathed. His heart, on the other hand, will not escape the damage from the cold shoulder he has forced himself into to defend himself all these years. It’s hard for him to step away from himself and see how much he has buried himself into himself.

Critter day five

The attack was brutal and Stephen is not holding up so well. Although he was able to defend himself, he has been wounded badly. I’m considering ditching the sounds aspect of his narrative but I’m still interested in sounds as a core component of storytelling. I want to hold on a bit but I guess we’ll see what happens.

I started looking for sounds from a wounded bear but that was pretty depressing. I then switched to soundscapes of Antarctica. Then I took the bloop and put a synth track over it and got a sullen recovery track.

Critter day four

Environmental Impact 01

CLIMATE CHANGE COMBATTING TECHNOLOGY GONE WRONG: A new technology, designed to combat climate change, overcorrects and global temperatures rapidly drop sparking a new ice age...

(see discussions of real-world potentials here: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190220-how-artificially-brightened-clouds-could-stop-climate-change )

It’s been reported that polar bears have been resorting to cannibalism in response to climate change. Stephen has responded to his natural habit being taken away by developing a taste for his own.

I’ve been listening to this.

Critter day three

Critter is getting closer to something. He is now more tardigrade. I think this means that he can survive in more extreme scenarios than before. I think he will become less literal bear/water bear and come into more of his own in time. His heart is still on the outside. Drawing on an IPad is weird,.

The critter has added water bear arms

Critter Day Two (ish)

I started to imagine my critter as a polar bear. It’s warm and strong. His heart is on the outside. He’s not afraid.

I’ve poetically added more to the backstory. It’s read in a dramatic narrators voice. There is a sound that emanates inside a snarl of brambles waiting to be released, the diamond molecules, compressed ages like sand. This sound was created by the first outstretched arm slicing through the air. The waves of sound pulsed out and away and this created the critter.

Critter cannot make any sounds. Not one. This is not simply in reference to speaking but any vocal sounds. Imagine stomping your foot on the ground in silence. Scratching your nails down a chalkboard or banging a trash can lid with a hammer only to hear nothing. Critters ears are fine but it’s ability to create any sound whatsoever does not exist. As a product of sound, it was left without the ability to willfully vibrate all matter leaving it focused on developing it’s visual communication skills. I interpret this as it lacks the ability to vibrate anything. Maybe Critter is naturally dampening, or maybe it absorbs all vibration.

It speaks through movement. 

I’m also considering calling it “Stephen”

Critter Day One

Critter’s backstory

If all sound comes from vibration which is basically any movement, what does it mean for sound to come before anything else? What does it mean for the sound to come first? Can sound be created without movement? What does it mean to have sound happen in reverse? What is the absence of vibration? Imagine a sound whose vibration creates a life.

Sound has created the critter rather than the critter creates sounds. I envision this sound as a rogue noise that wouldn’t act like the rest of the sounds and just fade away.

What are things that it is very good at doing? 

The Critter is very good at defending itself. It knows how to survive. Extremely good Survivor. Some might call it an extremophile in that it lives in some of the hardest conditions and hardest environments found on Earth but yet lives with what looks like ease to outsiders. It's vital organs, heart, it’s most delicate parts, are on the outside of its body and as such, need to be protected at all times. Although, you wouldn't know how delicate it really is from its attitude. It offers itself up, without regard for its own safety. That is not to say that it won’t protect itself in those moments, it would just rather not defer the burden of its own survival to another being. 

What are some areas where it needs improvement? 

The critter could benefit from learning to let go. Its grip is unrelenting. Its focus cannot be broken when it becomes obsessed. 

What are its vulnerabilities? 

This Critter is very emotional and it’s emotions can get the best of it. It struggles to learn humility and often treats itself as much more invincible than it should.

Where does it live? 

Critter comes from a dense snarl of brambles woven too tight to see the center of.

The following sounds are a manipulation of audio recordings alongside electronically created sounds.

This is the landscape that came my first thoughts of a critter.