reading response #3

1. Identify the article you have selected and why you chose it.

I chose the article "Deep Listening: Bridge to Collaboration by Pauline Oliveros. I chose this article because I like doing projects with people and collaborating ideas. Also as a musician, I enjoy 'deep listening' to songs to find complexity in the song.

2. What are the main points of the essay?

The main points of the essay are about what Oliveros accomplished as a music producer/composer. She also talks about her experiences with collaborating with other artists and how she really enjoys getting other opinions. As a teacher, and afterwords, she really focused on teaching people to truly listen or 'deep listening' to songs and sounds. She mainly focused on this with music and performance students.

3. How are the ideas or arguments in this article relevant to your own practice as a media artist?

As a media artist and as a musician it is really important to deeply listen to a song or sound. As a musician I once took a summer class on jazz listening, where everyday we would sit and listen to jazz music. We would listen to a song over and over and focus on different parts of the song. It gives so much more complexity and makes the song more interesting. After that class I have never heard a song or sound that same again. As a media artist, sounds create half of the work. If you neglect the sound, the project will not be as complex or interesting. A work also feels incomplete if the sound isn't as complex, or simple, as the video/visuals attatched to the sound. That is why 'deep listening' is crucial for a media artist.

Video Hardware/Software Repsonse

1. How was your experience with the Olympus digital camera? How did it compare with other still or video cameras you have previously used? Were you able to successfully implement your Image Capturing Strategies using the features of this camera? In an ideal world, how would your still/video camera of choice function?

I had a good experience with the digital camera. It was slow functioning, but it works for the project. The camera was older than what I normally used, but a camera works as a camera. I had no problems with using the camera for my film. If I had a choice I would like a better camera that works faster and gives better picture, but the camera I had worked.

2. Discuss your choice of video-editing software and describe your history with this software. If you used this software for the first time, explain why you chose this particular application and how you think it helped you to accomplish your creative goals (or proved detrimental). Will you use this software again for future projects?

I used Corel Video Studio 12 a downloadable trial program. I liked it. It was easy to use and had many effects that I could experiment with. I downloaded this software when I was ready to start putting together the visual portion of my drifts. I chose this software because it seemed like it would be decent and not overly confusing. It had effects that I didn't have that I experimented with, which was a lot of fun. I will use this software until it expires, I don't know if I would purchase it, but it worked well for this project.

Reading Response #2

1. Identify the article you have selected and why you chose it.

I chose "A Manifesto for a New Walking Culture: 'dealing with the city" by Wrights & Sites because I really enjoyed all the different perspectives it gave on walking, especially walking in a city because I am not a big city person.

2. What are the main points of the essay?

The main points of the essay are to walk in a city in different styles and point of views. For example, it talks about four different kinds of walking: The walker as an artist, the walker as writer of the city, walker as playful performer, and disrupted walking as the new designing of the city. The rest of the essay has quotations from other filmmakers and famous people.

3. How are the ideas or arguments in this article relevant to your own practice as a media artist?

I really liked the point that all of the quotes gave. It tells to go out and get absorbed in the city, no matter what. A city is full of people so you can absorb a persons pace or direction, not stalker like though. They also talked about not following signs and never worry about the weather. I never really thought of completely losing yourself in the city because I have never really absorbed myself in a city before. I think it would be fun to spend a day just walking and looking/hearing things around the city.

Audio Hardware/Software Repsonses

1. Discuss your experiences with building your microphones. Was this process more or less what you thought it would be? How did your microphone rig work on your Drift walks? Were you able to capture both overall ambiance and extreme closeups? Describe your ideal microphone and recorder setup, with unlimited time and money.

I didn't mind building my own microphone. It was pretty much what I thought it would be, a lot of waiting and time consuming work. My microphone works beautifully. I'm very happy with how it sounds, both close up and far away sounds. If I had unlimited money I would obviously get a really nice microphone and definitely get a different recorder than the minidisc because it was somewhat confusing. I think it could be made much simpler.

2. How was your experience with operating the MiniDisc recorder? How does this recorder compare to other audio equipment you've used? In an ideal world, how would your recorder of choice function?

It was okay. It took a while to get used to. The only other audio equipment I've used was a taper recorder, so this is much better than what I have used before. I think an ideal recorder for me would be one that is much easier to navigate and show wavelengths.

3. Discuss the audio-editing software you chose and your history with this application. If you used this software for the first time, explain why you chose this particular application and how you think it helped you to accomplish your creative goals (or proved detrimental). Will you use this software again for future projects?

I chose to use Audacity because I have used it before and it's really easy to use. I've used it before to mix songs and compress sound for videos before.

Ten Questions

After writing and reflecting upon your assessment answers, come up with ten questions that best address the aspects of your Drift process you are most interested in pursuing further in Drift 2.

These questions must be related directly to your experiences walking the specific landscapes of your Drift 1, and should be specifically worded enough to generate possible strategies and solutions for executing Drift 2.

1. Can I find nature in the city?
2. Is there a place of cement surrounding you?
3. Are there different sounds on campus between day and night?
4. Different sounds between night and day in nature?
5. Does the sun affect how an environment's sound?
6. Are there any large mass transit places (besides the bus) around here?
7. Are there interesting sounds from or near interesting smells?
8. Is there high light contrast in the middle of the day?
9. Are there an overlooked object seen everyday that can produce a sound?
10. Does food make interesting sounds?

Drift Assessment

1. Describe two situations that aggravated, bothered, shocked or otherwise stressed you during Drift 1.

It was difficult cutting the exact increments of the sound clip that I wanted. Since I had to tape for such a long time to get a good sound, I ended up talking to someone or had other people's distractions during the sound in which I had to cut out. But I enjoyed the pain of editing the sounds. Editing is something that I really enjoy doing for some reason.
It shocked me, in a good way, on how well my microphones worked. They really picked up a lot of sounds which otherwise wouldn't have been heard. It was a little frustrating choosing sounds on a walk though, because even if there was a really good sound that I would have liked to record, but there was so much background noise I knew it wouldn't turn out clean which is the sort of sound that I like.

2. Describe, with details, two situations during Drift 1 in which you felt unusually peaceful, at ease, or contemplative.

I felt alone and that the world was still moving rapidly. It felt more like an isolation from the actual world and becoming absorbed in the world of sounds that are always overheard in everyday life. I felt this especially when I was recording in my dorm room. Even though I was physically isolated from down below, it was a completely different separation from before that on any other day I would completely ignore. It got me to think on how much sound we just choose to ignore on a daily basis.
I felt at ease when I was recording at in Aztalan where I was sitting by the river while I was recording. It was a beautiful day and it was peaceful to go out in the open and just get immersed within the scene. It was a really relaxing experience, watching the water and trees, as well as hearing sounds of fish and birds and insects. It was a very nice change from city noises where there's always mechanical noise and people.

3. Describe three surprises or unexpected situations you encountered on your Drift and in the days that followed. The surprise could stem from your expectations that conflicted with "on the ground" realities, cultural or social issues of which you were previously unaware, feelings and reactions that you did not expect to have, appearances and soundings of things you did not expect, good or bad outcomes of "on the spot" decisions you had to make, or the discovery of "deeper" realities in the materials you brought home.

I was surprised when hearing the recordings on the computer because it was such a big difference than hearing it through headphones while recording. When listening to them again, I heard things that I didn't hear while recording and it added so much more complexity than before.
I didn't expect the squeaking door sound to come out as good as it did becuase it was a random idea to record them. Once I heard it through the computer, I really started to like it.
I personally thought that the recording wouldn't be a lot of fun, but actually it turned out to be a great way to relax. Even though some of the recordings seemed to take forever to feel like I recorded enough sound, I just had to go into an environment where I was able to just sit and watch the world go by.

4. Describe your favorite experience, situation, place, or recollection from your Drift. Be specific about what happened, how you felt, how you reacted, and why you think this particular experience affected you so much.

My favorite place was definately in Aztalan State Park, probably because I wasn't surrounded by people and cars and mechanical noise. Also, it was close to my hometown, Lake Mills, and have many memories of going to Aztalan as a kid as well as escaping to Aztalan in high school. Recording brought time for me to think and truly relax, which I haven't been able to do since I moved to Milwaukee. I guess this proves that I'm not a city person for life.

Reading Response

1. Identify the article you have selected and why you chose it.
I chose the "What is 'Sense of Place'?" by Jennifer E. Cross article because I was really interested in the different points of view that it contained. Normally in an article or reading it is one person's opinion and gives a very biased point of view on the topic. In this article, there are many different voices that have different ideas in what the term 'place' means to them.

2. What are the main points of the essay?
The main points in this essay are what different scholars and regular citizens think what a 'Sense of Place' is. The article also goes into detail on different kinds of relationships to a place such as dependent relationships, spiritual relationships, and ideological relationships. With each different kind of relationship, Cross interviewed someone that has experienced or thought of a place, many times their home, that fit under the category. In the beginning of the article, Cross took quotes from different kinds of scholarly books in different categories like Anthropology, Geography, and Sociology. Each quote has a different definition of what place is or what a sense of place is.

3. How are the ideas or arguments in this article relevant to your own practice as a media artist?
This article is relevant to being a media artist because it is not a very permanent definition. As a media artist these ideals are relevant because I can experiment with different types of place to release the question of what really is home or what really is a place. A place can be a home or a place with happy memories or a personal sanctuary and every place has different meaning to every person.