A 56k Message in a Bottle

by Lulu Ong

A 56k Message in a Bottle This piece was written for watt concert ‘98, Sydney while the composer was on the faculty of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (albeit part-time...)

Accompanying computer animation for this piece exists. However, it is presented only in its sonic form here. The computer animation aided the return to writing programmatic music after a period of aversion, attempting to tell a story using sonic as well as visual associations.

The "plot":

Some-Strange-Androgynous-Looking-Human (now on referred to as SSALH) is ostracised from the community it once belonged to. Living in isolation, SSALH sends out messages in bottles (analogous to putting up a home-page on the internet about oneself) and waits to see if anyone finds the messages and will write back. Why was SSALH ostracised? Did SSALH resort to sending out messages in bottles because it was the only way to communicate with others? Or did SSALH abandon its community because it preferred this indirect forms of communication and isolation in the first place?

Stay tuned to the next episode of…

Lulu Ong has had the good fortune of studying under Greg Schiemer, Curtis Roads and JoAnn Kuchera-Morin. Other sources of inspiration and guidance include: Martin Wesley-Smith and Stephen Travis-Pope. A formerly Sydney-based composer of electroacoustic and multimedia works, Lulu is currently having a great time being immersed in lots of lovely technology at Apple Computer in Singapore.