The Bureau is a sound and illustration project - A story told to you in real time. It describes a full day at a job, beginning at 8:55am (when you arrive and clock in) and ends when your day is complete. Press this PLAY BUTTON at 8:55am: Each sound file is timed to play exactly when timestamped in the story, so if you press play at 8:55am, The Bureau will follow you through your day. (For example, the daily Powerpoint presentation will occur at 9:39am or the early lunch you opt to take will happen at 11:03am) Each track is paired with a comics panel that includes other aspects of the story and informs you about your job. A good introductory Reddit thread on this project If you watch the playlist on Soundcloud (link), each narrated image appears in the playlist with its associated track, so it's like watching a small movie, in a way. |
"Outstanding! I love the dark vibe. The art and music pair nicely."
"Love this audiovisual narrative."
"What a journey!"
"Relevant. Sad. Sobering. Fantastic."
"Little things in each track to find,
almost like a movie for your ears. Different and exciting."
"Brilliant. Apart from A Softer World, this has become my favorite online comic series."
"This is such a massive project!"
"..."Mindbending Audio."
"Great concept! Linear concept and nonlinear storytelling. Cool graphics and nice sounds!"
"...As mad as a bag of badgers but I quite like it."
"There's something very odd and paranoia-inducing about the concept and execution.
The titles, the panels, the sounds. Like a Philip K. Dick audio diary. Love it!"
"Love the magnitude of the work and the visuals combined with the sounds is a nice addition to the experience."
"Fucking Genius ... Really awesome.
Are you going to make a printed version of the comics in the future? Would buy it in a heartbeat."
(answer: Thanks, working on it)
"Fantastic tracks and concept! Been listening for a while and it's great background working music."
Read: "Methoxyflurane, The Sweet Hypnotist,
and Government-Issue Potato Sacks"
A much appreciated thread about this project on Metafilter.
"Wonderfully creative stuff. Made my day to hear it." - Doug Slocum / Synthetic Sound Labs
"This is quite strange and not for everyone. It's also not finished and kind of awesome."
- Andrew Harper / Unique and Bizarre Musical Reccomendations of All Genres
"Ambitious. Inventive. Immersive. If you enjoy the occasional shake-up in your headspace then allow THE BUREAU to feed your daytime dread-laden paranoia." - SinkMist
(Thank you)
"The Bureau. This is very, very odd, but equally rather brilliant. The website’s not the clearest in terms of describing what the actual f**k is going on, but the simplest explanation I can offer is that this is a comic, telling (slowly, panel by panel) the story of a day in the life of a particular office in a surrealistic version of modern America. Each panel is accompanied by a piece of electronica for you to listen to as you contemplate the story and the visual. You just have to check it out. As an experiment with form(s) it’s rather a clever one." - Matt Muir / Web Curios, Imperica Magazine
[Spoiler below] Regarding the conclusion, this assessment from BiggerJ on Reddit:
Caught up to the end and... wow. This was basically the best way this could have ended. Lot to unpack here.
5:57pm applies to the comic, to the things it's about, and to fiction itself. They're not riddles to be solved - at least, they don't exist to be that. In the end, they're just A Bunch Of Stuff That Happens, and in the end, all the questions are supplied by the reader.
The ending is important because of what this comic is, and how the ending elevates it above others of its kind. The moral: you'll probably never win if you try to get rid of all the manifestations of a problem.
The Bureau ends with the admission that Trump is just a walking, talking symptom of a greater problem (it was a nice touch that his death wasn't an act of justice, but of revenge that the protagonist didn't even want). Things just seemed to be getting worse and all it took to become a leader was turn off your filter and say what you're thinking, because a growing number of people are thinking the same thing: everything sucks now. (According to the book Fire and Fury, Trump did this entirely on accident while trying to pull a Springtime For Hitler and improve his reputation through others' pity and anger after his planned loss). Trump's death would change nothing. The Bureau admits that its problem ultimately has its root in a greater, potentially unsolvable problem, and this honesty makes it, quite possibly the greatest Comic With Problems of them all.
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