As with most of the projects so far, I tried starting out with something that really meant something to me and I could relate too. When the prompt of choosing a historical text was introduced to the class I immediately though of my favorite book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. I have found Motorcycling to be one of the things I really enjoy the most and this book captures the philosophy I have towards both cycling and life in general. Another source I immediately thought of, especially for the element of sound, was a self narrated reading of Alan Watts speech entitled “The Real You”. This speech is something I usually listen too when stressed out or depressed, just like how I would ride my motorcycle if I felt the same way during the summer.

Originally, my plan was to overplay Alan Watts reading of The Real You with my own narration of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle to draw the parallels and also provided some sort of imagery. Instead I scrapped my own narration and replaced it with motorcycle sounds from YouTube to create the final product: Zen and the Art of Real Sound.

I tried to use the motorcycle sounds as allusion to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to match how his speech made me felt and personally I found the result very powerful.