I think it’s very limiting to confine oneself to one single aesthetic, so in this post I’m going to talk about a handful of aesthetics that I feel align with my (or have been told that they do). Thinking about the aesthetics that exist in my life isn’t something I do often—I kind of just wear the clothes I like, listen to the music I like, and read the books I like. To figure out what aesthetic best describes me, I decided to do the most sensible thing I possibly could—take a BuzzFeed quiz. The one that asks question like “What’s your favorite way to spend a rainy day?” or “Which magical creature would you befriend?” In the end, the algorithm spat out “Classic Academia” as my aesthetic, and it’s honestly not far off.

While my taste in music could fit into Classic Academia (I did get a bachelors degree in classical music), the Synthwave aesthetic that I covered in my first post captures some of my music taste too. I really enjoy ambient synthesizer music, and I think that it’s something I want to attempt to incorporate into my final project.
I took a music course last year called “New Musical Styles and Practices” (which really covered musical styles from the 1880s to the present—that’s “new” for classical music), and one of the things we learned about was Javanese gamelan music and how it influenced French Impressionist music of the late 1800s. These gamelan orchestras are mostly percussion instruments (i.e. bells, gongs, drums, etc.) which are very ornately designed and produce a sound that’s very pleasing but unfamiliar compared to the sound of western music.

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Seems like a cool project! For this project are you prioritizing the visual or sound aesthetic of the instrument?
Very surprised to see gamelan here!! I love that style of music! Perhaps you can make an instrument just out of wood? Maybe a marimba or something similar. It combines the earthy-ness of your personality and your passion for music.
Making a musical instrument will be very exciting! You are going to have to dig into both woodworking processes and metalworking processes, and I am curious on what kind of metalworking you might do as I am sure the sound of the metal is changed as you work the piece.