Reading Response 3

The article I selected to read was that of Pauline Oliveros entitled "Deep Listening: Bridge to Collaboration." I opted to read this article because of my interest in music and creating things that are new. I began reading and my attention was grabbed by her explanation of her collaboration experiences and her views on them.

The essay talked about the importance of collaborating and the mutual listening that needs to be achieved in order for the collaboration to be successful. She then went on to talk about her meditation of Deep Listening where you listen to everything all the time and remind yourself when you are not listening. Listening is much more important to her than reading or writing notation. Phenomenal musicians are listening to each other and in turn learning of new techniques and sounds which is causing boundaries of genres to dissolve and give birth to new styles and sounds. She also went on to talk about Sonic Meditations. Sonic Meditations are ways of listening and scores are transmitted orally rather than with conventional musical notation.

I am very interested in these concepts that Pauline discussed as a musician and an artist. Her ideas of learning by listening seem way stronger than that of reading out of a book. Not that books are bad, it is just that actually learning by first hand experience seems way more interactive and effective to me. Plus, without notation or script, improvisation is pushed often creating more originality and understanding. I also feel a lot is being missed in day to day life by just filtering out noises rather than embracing each sound. I plan on utilizing these concepts much more frequently having read these articles.

Video Hardware/Software Response

1. Overall, I found my experiences with the Olympus digital camera to be quite enjoyable. My one criticism of the camera though is that it takes a really long time to take a picture. This didn't really bother me too much because I wasn't taking any action photographs so the criticism isn't that big of a deal. The quality of the video and photos the camera took were superb to my standards. It did everything it needed to for my image capturing strategies of finding colors and filming upside down. The only way to make the camera better I would say is to have the picture be taken right when you hit the button.

2. Initially I tried using Quicktime Pro for editing my video but was instantly frustrated. It was too hard to move clips around and edit them to fit my sounds so I quickly transferred to iMovie where all my dreams were made possible. All I really needed was a timeline and iMovie supplied that for me. I will for sure be using this program for future projects. Everything is pretty straight forward allowing you to easily and efficiently organize your sound and video as you please.

Reading Response 2

I read the article "The Future of Music: Credo" by John Cage. He was basically talking about exploring sound as instrumentation. Now, noise is always around and may even be considered mildly annoying at times, but when you are actually listening to the sound it becomes interesting. So why not take these interesting sounds and use them as sort of new instruments.

Also, composers would be faced with incredibly larger fields of sound and time. Any dreamable rhythm could be written. Any sounds can be used in percussive music. Once tools are designed to do things such as amplifying small sounds are available, the experimentation there will be explored in the organizing of sounds.

Audio Hardware/Software Response

1. The building of the microphones went way smoother than I was expecting it to go. I haven't done anything like that before, but it wasn't very difficult. They worked like a charm if the charm was a really well working set of microphones. I don't really know enough about sound recording to want anything more than my very own homemade set.

2. As for the MiniDisc recorder, I often had trouble figuring out how to start the recording. Although, once it got going it was easy to work with and did a very nice job. Ideally, I would hope for a recorder with only two buttons; stop and record.

3. For my audio-editing software I used Audacity. Again, this was a very user friendly application. I have never used an audio-editing software previous to this class and Audacity was easy to pick up right away. I will definately use this software in the future as it can do everything I would currently need to do with sound and it does it easily and efficiently.

Ten Questions

Some questions that need answers...

1. Are there any places other than churches where music might be frequently heard?
2. What difference would downtown bring from the University Housing area?
3. Are there any animals near?
4. Are there any small roads or paths near the park by my house that lead anywhere interesting?
5. Are there any places where sound echoes or has a lot of reverb?
6. Is there a certain place where stars are more visible?
7. What difference would the night have from day?
8. What secrets do the mysterious woods by my new home here in Milwaukee hold?
9. What kind of sounds does the crazy cat lady down the road make from within her abode?
10. Are there any interesting sculptures such as gargoyles in the area?

Drift Assessment

During Drift 1, I found myself frustrated with my soundwalk route. My algorithm took me in a loop only about 6 blocks in diameter. Unfortunately, I was so focused on the sounds around me that I didn’t catch on to this until my loop was about finished. Looking back, I should have adjusted my path at that point to extend my route, but I left it at that hour of walking. This path did not take me very far away from campus as I was practically in university housing the entire time. Thus, my sounds were not the most interesting or unusual. What else I found to my annoyance was that throughout my walk, I hardly ever stopped walking. You would think that would be ideal for a walk of sound, but it’s a real pain when you have footsteps in most of your interesting sounds. I think this also had part to do with my location in Milwaukee. Because everything was pretty normal, I wasn’t intrigued to stop often.

But wait, don’t think that the whole experience was a downer. There were actually some moments during Drift 1 where I felt at peace. So get this, there I was walking to the sound of traffic as I was throughout most of my adventure when the sound of angels came in through one of my headphone speakers. What made this sound even more mysterious was that I could not locate it right away due to my left and right microphones being switched. The sound turned out to be from a church choir, but was soothing nonetheless. Also, I stumbled upon a bumble bee. I would declare it impossible to hide a smile in the presence of a bumble bee.

Other than those peaceful surprises, I came across a few others worthy of mention. Probably the most shocking encounter was that of a police car turning on its siren right as it passed me. Clearly, he was either being a jerk and trying to scare me or being a jerk and running a red light. Regardless, I nearly peed myself. Another little surprise was that of the warped sound of a car blasting Guns N’ Roses from its window as it drove by. All my attention was on the can that I was kicking when the circus sounds of “Sweet Child Of Mine” went by. A third more simple surprise was the clarity and magnification my microphones provided. Expecting mediocrity at best, I will not forget the first time I recorded with those microphones.

Between all the wonderful events that took place, I would have to say my favorite recollection of Drift 1 is walking past the church to the sound of their choir. Now, I’m not the biggest believer in religion, but those voices were almost enough for me to consider believing. I didn’t even know I was near a church until I heard their unexpected angel-like voices. Right then, I knew I had gold (as far as recorded sound in my walking area goes).

I recently read the article "A New Way of Walking" by Joseph Hart. I opted to write about this particular article because even the title itself intrigued me from the get go. Why not take the monotonous task of walking and spice it up by doing it a new way. Not only would it be refreshingly different but it gives you the opportunity to learn and discover so many new things about the area around you.

The essay describes the writers experience with psychogeography as they developed their own algorithmic walking pattern and explored an unfamiliar city with it. He discusses his excitement in being taken off his normal path and being thrown into a new awareness of the city around him. He also describes the odd sensation of being in a gray area between randomness and order as he has no true goal or destination but as he wanders through the unfamiliar streets and alleys he is still following the organized pattern of his algorithm.

Joseph's new way of walking has everything to do with my current project of recording sound. By creating a pattern of walking that takes me out of my normal path I can encounter sounds that I may never hear anywhere else, greatly expanding my own personal library of sound.

Soundwalk

Q: Were you able to find places and spaces where you could really listen?
A: Yes, downer woods was a good spot with a diverse range of sounds.
Q: Was it possible to move without making a sound?
A: Not so much.
Q: What happened when you plugged your ears, and then unplugged them?
A: When I plugged my ears I heard the louder sounds like planes flying overhead and then also a high pitched noise from holding my ears and what I think may have been my pulse. Then, when I unplugged them it seemed like my ears became extra sensitive to the noises closer to me.
Q: In your sound log exercise, what types of sounds were you able to hear? List them.
A: -Loud, pulsating motored tool (chainsaw or weedwacker perhaps?). Far off left.
-Wind through the leaves of the trees above. From the right to left.
-Periodic short chirps from high to the right of a bird.
-A pop can crunch from somewhat far off behind me.
-Some basketball squeaks from behind.
-Loud airplane from front to right.
-Constant low roar of traffic to the right.
-Loud motorcycle on left. Rev, coast, Rev.
Q: Were you able to differentiate between sounds that had a recognizable source and those sounds you could not place?
A: Yes, although most of the sounds I heard seemed recognizable to at least make a good guess of what it was.
Q: Human sounds? Mechanical sounds? Natural sounds?
A: All three, for example there were people playing sports, motor vehicles on the road, and birds chirping.
Q: Were you able to detect subtleties in the everpresent drone?
A: They were easier to detect after covering my ears for 5 minutes.
Q: Extremely close sounds? Sounds coming from very far away?
A: You bet! There were sounds everywhere!
Q: What kinds of wind effects were you able to detect (for example, the leaves of trees don't make sounds until they are activated by the wind)?
A: The leaves of trees made sounds when they were activated by the wind.
Q: Were you able to intervene in the urban landscape and create your own sounds by knocking on a resonant piece of metal, activating wind chimes, etc.?
A: I was able to by walking on the gravel path, through leaves, and on sticks.
Q: Do you feel you have a new understanding or appreciation of the sounds of our contemporary landscape/cityscape?
A: Yes, a lot of the sounds that were closer to me and more subtle I never really noticed before because they were always there.
Q: How do you think your soundwalk experience will affect your practice as a media artist, if at all?
A: You have a better understanding of things when you take the time to stop and really experience them.