Aural: An Anagram and a Narrative Experiment

Music has an incredible power. This is common knowledge. Music can instill emotion just as easily as it can trigger floods of forgotten memories. And like everyone else, I too am deeply affected by music. But my love for music is strange in that I happen to feel obscenely strong emotions from music that very few actually listen to. Thus, I present an experiment: “Aural.”

Turn your speakers up. Turn the lights off. And read.

People usually balk when I say that the music that moves me most is “trance.” They usually say something along the lines of, “Oh, you like techno.” Trance is a very different beast than most electronic music, and yet it is incredibly hard to pinpoint why exactly. I have a terribly tough time trying to articulate the reasons why I like trance. That’s why I’ve decided that I’m going to try a small experiment here.

As many of you know, I try my best to pretend like I’m a writer. Though I’ve little talent for it, I do take great pleasure in attempting to be a compelling story-teller. Recently, I had a concept for a new type of rich media narrative technique. Given how quickly video is becoming the dominant form of communication on the internet, I fear the days of the Internet being the last bastion of text-centric communication are coming to an end.

So using the tools made popular by this new age of video-focused online communication, I’ve attempted to take a standard narrative and infuse it with modern media.

For some time now, I’ve been trying to find the right source material to try it. I tried to keep it impersonal when I attempted early experiments, but the result was always lackluster. The time is now right, however, as inspiration has hit me hard, and “Aural” was the product of that. I hope you enjoy it. If nothing else, it was a fun exercise that will live and die as a token video on the Internet. I wrote this after leaving Waterloo following a trip to see a girl—my girl. The emotion is real, and I can only hope the narrative itself reflects that. Other than that, I let the video speak for itself.