At Some Point I Am No Longer Speaking

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Text by Martin Baker

At Some Point I Am No Longer Speaking is my senior capstone project for the Electronic Music program at Carnegie Mellon University. It is an audiovisual EP composed for VR, created in the Unity Game Engine. The project is composed of three songs, each in a unique setting, exploring the relationship between sound and audio reactive particle systems. Specifically, the project utilizes amplitude information from the various stems of each track to modulate the environment throughout each piece.

My work tends towards abstract forms and movement a lot of the time, but I’ve found when developing this work that it helps to think about the structure in more traditional frameworks. In particular, one of my biggest points of creative inspiration is Philip Ewell’s paper “The Parameter Complex in the Music of Sofia Gubaidulina”. In short, this paper creates a system of music theory analysis that boils down all possible modes of expression into either dissonance or consonance, tension or release. This paper has been extremely influential on me and how I approach creating art, and it helped shape the eventual emotional arc of the project.

At Some Point… is split into three distinct sections, or “levels”, each with its own song and custom audio reactive environment. The broad emotional arc I wanted was “light tension, heavy tension, release”.

The first level explores an environment and soundscape of a distorted dance floor. The environment is boxy, sharp, and intensely colorful, accompanied by a techno song meant to slowly encompass and (within reason, of course) overstimulate the player.

The second level explores an environment and soundscape of an abrasive field of bell towers. The shape and colors of the bell towers are meant to be looming and foreboding, with the accompanying song ambiently building up tension until there’s a complete cacophony of sound and visuals.

The third level explores an environment and soundscape of a surreal forest. It’s meant to be a cathartic release after the intensity of the previous track, emphasized with a softer immediate environment and procedurally generated trees. The accompanying song, also procedurally structured, is meant to be much lighter in tone and instrumentation, taking on a lighter DnB sound.

This work was exhibited in WQED STUDIO A in Spring 2026.

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for CMU (andrew.cmu.edu) email account holders

For this project I used a Meta Quest 3s. To connect and use the headset in a Unity environment, I deferred to this tutorial (https://docs.google.com/document/d/11aFTAGtRkEiOC5MX4eRLA9vXbr6p-dcOl2HpxP-peU0/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.y5lfhdmyd7jr) from the Entertainment Technology Center at CMU, which I acquired during my time taking the class Building Virtual Worlds.