Whenever take a turn for the worse, the songs I listen to reflect that. During a week where I felt alone, I decided to take down the name of every song I listened to and make a publication for myself. The process was simple, choose a track to play and write down the name. After a week, I found the lyrics for each song and the metadata (genre, release date and track length). The data I decided to collect was personal yet public. Anyone could listen to the songs but ever since I was able to download MP3 files, every song I listen to has reminded me of something
or someone.
Songs on Spotify have always been classified (through various categories), my aim was to remove the pixels, display all the lyrics at once and summarize my week. I expected there to be a lot of "sad" songs but occasionally, there was an upbeat tune that made me smile or dance around. With a focus on the lyrics, I was able to create a publication that folded out to reveal the coping mechanism. I realized that without the melody or the beat, the songs evolved into poetry - developing a new sense of rhythm and pace. As I dove deeper into it, specific lyrics stood out to me and I started bolding them. Eventually, there were songs with a few lines and one song ended up becoming the most relatable one. It created a scattered spectrum across the page, a new hierarchy to the cacophony of songs in the publication.
A meaning that varies across each viewer but for me, I know what I am looking at. It is a dataset that reminds me about my ability to push through a tough week. The fragility and translucency of the newsprint reflect my vulnerability throughout the process and the week. The process of writing my reflective words on the back allowed me to give weight, physically and metaphorically, to the lyrics that are tucked inside.
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Songs on Spotify have always been classified (through various categories), my aim was to remove the pixels, display all the lyrics at once and summarize my week. I expected there to be a lot of "sad" songs but occasionally, there was an upbeat tune that made me smile or dance around. With a focus on the lyrics, I was able to create a publication that folded out to reveal the coping mechanism. I realized that without the melody or the beat, the songs evolved into poetry - developing a new sense of rhythm and pace. As I dove deeper into it, specific lyrics stood out to me and I started bolding them. Eventually, there were songs with a few lines and one song ended up becoming the most relatable one. It created a scattered spectrum across the page, a new hierarchy to the cacophony of songs in the publication.
A meaning that varies across each viewer but for me, I know what I am looking at. It is a dataset that reminds me about my ability to push through a tough week. The fragility and translucency of the newsprint reflect my vulnerability throughout the process and the week. The process of writing my reflective words on the back allowed me to give weight, physically and metaphorically, to the lyrics that are tucked inside.
