Kampar, Perak, Malaysia,
I have been reluctantly looking at the new program contest called “Sound of The Year Awards”. I have been considering participating . This could lead to potential recognition in the field. Some big names are associated and judges of the competition. How it works, is that you submit your work and they judge if you are deemed to be awarded. There are several categories possible to submit in as “Sound of the year”, “Worst Sound”, Best naturally occurring sound”, “Best sound tool”, Best Listener”,… It has to be in the last year (2020) . The deadline has been extended to end of February and it is now that I have to decide if I participate. However there are some concerns about this contest I am not sure if it is worth it. First I don’t see how they can know which year the material came from, I don’t think there is some bulletproof method that can authenticate the time origin. Secondly I am very sceptical of this concept somehow, recognition is good, it occurs in the movie industry, game industry, and it is a good thing I believe. But after thinking about my work and the categories they propose, I don’t really see/hear what would mean ‘best’ or ‘worst’ in the context of sound. I understand the categories ‘Best Field Sound Recordist’, and ‘Best Studio Sound Recordist’ as it recognize the work of someone; however for the category ‘Sound of the year’, ‘worst sound’, ‘best sound….’ I don’t see how it can be; in my opinion there is no such thing as ‘best sound’ or ‘worst sound’, it is so subjective! I also don’t understand how they put that up as the main drive for these awards. There are many clever people in the panel so there must have been some dubious communication between the organization organs to come up with these categories. Anyway this is my opinion. Probably it has a marketing potential to say ‘Best sound of the year’. It is funny to think this way. I will ponder about that, I’ll probably participate as I think it is valuable. In the rules it says: ‘A recording is not mandatory but the judges need to be able to experience it somehow. ‘ haha I like it, mmm make me think of so many things.
Now is Sunday, a beautiful day, I might go visit smaller villages around.