Putting Everything Together

So now that I got the mechanics of project working, I needed to work on the concept part. It has been very frustrating for me, I feel like my lack of experience with electronics makes simple obstacles a lot more difficult for me than someone else. Working on the song part of this was a nice break- At least I know how to do that. I've written songs before, and I usually can crank them out a a few hours. I knew that I really wanted to work with either the Mona Lisa for this project, for a while I was considering a self portrait of Van Gogh, in the end I stuck with Mona Lisa, I liked the iconic quality that she had, and also felt that I really wanted to sing from the perspective of the painting, being a female I thought my voice would mesh better with a female subject.

I approached what I wanted to say from the perspective of the painting, not just the subject in the painting in their own life, but the subject AS a painting that has been on the wall for 500 years, and what it must be like to go through so much. Sort of like the saying, "if walls could talk"...

I used my knowledge of the piece to reference historical bit of information, but all in all, this is not necessarily a history lesson. I really wanted to think about the Mona Lisa in terms of using art history to create a persona and a story for her. I though of her as a "Diva" , her image is plastered everywhere, possibly the most famous, talked about, referenced, and visited piece of art. How could she not be a Diva. Plus, she is an old piece, over 500 years- so there's that. I imagined she would be a bit peeved about her aging situation and such.

I wanted to create a song that was really electronic pop sounding- something catchy and upbeat. I wanted her sound to stand out against her age, and image as this classic work. Perhaps, someone at the time she was painted would have composed a classical song for her- but this is 2011 so that was important to me NOT match the sound with her image. Even with the way she speaks.

I had been developing lyrics over the course of the past weeks, but I wrote the music in just a few hours. Originally, I had sung most of the song- however I ran into some audio amplification issues. The sound from the speaker that came with the kit just wasn't loud enough and I was worried that people would not be able to hear the lyrics as well is I were signing them- so I changed the song to more of a rap. I figured what she has to say in the lyrics is more important than my vocal ability, and I'm happy with the last minute decision I made. I think it gives her character a bit more attitude. The original song can be heard in the video below when I tested it at home.






The Perfect Frame!





Attaching my components to the frame



Mona up on the wall