A Low-Tech Everyday Example
I’m bashing my head against the wall trying to figure out how XCode signing works on a prototype Flutter app, and in the process – don’t ask me how – I found the first (?) sound “work” (hard to call it that, but I don’t have another word) that I made with my voice. It was 2012 in Michigan, and I think I was also avoiding something difficult at that time (prob my stats assignment). I had just learned about steganography (!) thanks to my late great Ann Arbor reading group, Deleuze & Friends. (lol)
I recorded and mixed this aimlessly and without intention. It’s not remarkable in any way, beyond its sentimental signficance. I remember being delighted by the unintentional synching of the final words, which created a kind of chorus. It harkens back to a Formative Moment in which my friend Amber’s older brother, Ian, a musical prodigy, sang “Row Row Row Your Boat” in a solo round in the elementary school talent show. (I’ve tried to find other examples of someone doing this, for years, and I never have. I hope someday I will!)
Ian, a D&D devotee, was also very good at magic tricks – a real gamer-savant, a fedora-tipper. Amber was obsessed with foxes. She continually coerced me into playing fox and hound – she went hard. Here’s a related poem, which is still seeking its Final Form. I’m not crazy about autobio and this is a bit too on-the-nose, but I’ve been really homesick for Ohio, and so it is what it is:
I fell apart the first time on the hill
top, a lost pairing of sound and meaning
while speaking – disintegrate downslope, saved
by a chain-link-fence attack dog. Later,
much too late, finding there rocks resembling
teeth, all lost to the crust of Biblical
names – Luke who flew head-first from the rusted
bed of a pickup after football; Mark
who knew angels in his red Chevy kept
us from death; Matthew refusing me
in the forest blue with syrup tubing,
persistent – "Ruth, keep in mind where we are
from" – walking into the desert before
I could confess || my love, if you want
to play the lost game of God you cannot
expect consent when pairing the living
with your accretions – as Amber who played
always a fox forced me
always into the hound
Any way, this gave me a chance to figure out how to insert audio into hugo posts, which has been on my list of things to do. With shortcodes, you can insert audio into markdown:
{{< audio src="<file>.mp3" class="<class>" preload="<preload>" caption="<caption>" >}}
And then into themes/<themeName>/layouts/shortcodes/audio.html:
<figure {{ with .Get "class" }}class="{{ . }}"{{ end }}>
<audio controls preload="{{ .Get "preload" | default "metadata" }}">
{{ with .Get "src" }}<source src="{{ . | relURL }}" type="audio/mpeg">{{ end }}
</audio>
{{ with .Get "caption" }}<figcaption>{{ . }}</figcaption>{{ end }}
</figure>
ref: Hugo Theme Zen
This very helpful post taught me how to escape shortcodes!
02.18.21, Berlin
Tagged #steganography #michigan #hugo #chorus