A sonic exploration of lives and dollars spent in the Iraq War.
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- The Cost of War, in Sound
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- Blunt Youth Radio Project
A sonic exploration of lives and dollars spent in the Iraq War.
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Paul Ingles
Posted on May 08, 2008 at 04:15 PM | Permalink
Review of The Cost of War, in Sound
Kudos for an inventive approach from Blunt Youth Radio to, in 2:40, issue a wake-up call to listeners that The Cost of War is severe.
By equating a sum of US Military deaths with an explosion and reffing that explosion in rapid sequence, then doing the same with an automatic weapon to represent the total Iraqi deaths and a cash register to signify the money the US has spent on the war, the producer makes his point.
I wanted to like this more but I'll tell you my quibbles with it. By changing the units devoted to each sound, it doesn't really represent the oversized price that the Iraqis have paid. I'm sure the production debate was over how much a listener could stand to hear but I think if you are going to make a point about one cost being dramatically higher than another, it should be represented sonically too.
The somewhat non-challant use of violent destructive sounds to make the point made me squirm a bit. Probably the intention. I think this was a good idea that could have benefitted from a little bit more brainstorming. But keep pushing that envelope Blunt! Appreciate it!