The Fragile Value of Nothing – Developing from Storytelling Through Sonification

George Edmondson

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

In January of 2021 and during lockdown, an internet subculture emerged with the intention of causing disruption to the US Stockmarket and everything they felt it stood for. Armed with only each other's speculation based on ill-considered analysis of stocks, group momentum and a willingness to succeed due to a lack of consequence, they drove Gamestop (GME) up from 11$ in the October of 2020 to over $480 on the 28th of January 2021. Due to the fact this stock had been massively shorted (bet against) by corporate traders, this caused massive disruption on Wall Street. This composition uses sonification of the high, low, end of day, volume and stock sentiment from October 2020 to September 2021 on an intraday basis to illustrate the momentum and excitement that the stock caused. Other elements crucial to the story, such as most popular daily comments on the main subreddit concerned with the social movement are incorporated and convoluted based on the stocks sentiment with the intention of creating fitting levels of confusion and elation as the stock reaches its highest and lowest points. Other sounds have been recontextualised as typing, coins clicking and engines (expensive cars and other material possessions often purchased with profits) which are then automated based on the stocks charts and sentiment with an interesting counterpoint occurring, in which, the sentiment of the stock overtakes the value of the stock, based on the fact that those who had read about the story in articles arrived slightly too late to reap any financial reward. I feel that this moment was very important socially, highlighting the power of the internet as a tool of group communication during a period of time in which physical contact was limited, something that was completely overlooked by Wall Street itself.

Citation

George Edmondson. 2022. The Fragile Value of Nothing – Developing from Storytelling Through Sonification. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.21428/92fbeb44.ee98ecf7 [PDF]

BibTeX Entry

@inproceedings{nime2022_music_15,
 abstract = {In January of 2021 and during lockdown, an internet subculture emerged with the intention of causing disruption to the US Stockmarket and everything they felt it stood for. Armed with only each other's speculation based on ill-considered analysis of stocks, group momentum and a willingness to succeed due to a lack of consequence, they drove Gamestop (GME) up from 11$ in the October of 2020 to over $480 on the 28th of January 2021. Due to the fact this stock had been massively shorted (bet against) by corporate traders, this caused massive disruption on Wall Street. This composition uses sonification of the high, low, end of day, volume and stock sentiment from October 2020 to September 2021 on an intraday basis to illustrate the momentum and excitement that the stock caused. Other elements crucial to the story, such as most popular daily comments on the main subreddit concerned with the social movement are incorporated and convoluted based on the stocks sentiment with the intention of creating fitting levels of confusion and elation as the stock reaches its highest and lowest points. Other sounds have been recontextualised as typing, coins clicking and engines (expensive cars and other material possessions often purchased with profits) which are then automated based on the stocks charts and sentiment with an interesting counterpoint occurring, in which, the sentiment of the stock overtakes the value of the stock, based on the fact that those who had read about the story in articles arrived slightly too late to reap any financial reward. I feel that this moment was very important socially, highlighting the power of the internet as a tool of group communication during a period of time in which physical contact was limited, something that was completely overlooked by Wall Street itself.},
 address = {Auckland, New Zealand},
 articleno = {15},
 author = {George Edmondson},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.21428/92fbeb44.ee98ecf7},
 editor = {Raul Masu},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {jun},
 title = {The Fragile Value of Nothing – Developing from Storytelling Through Sonification},
 track = {Music},
 url = {https://doi.org/10.21428/92fbeb44.ee98ecf7},
 year = {2022}
}