Observin some wattage

Observation 1:

Sitting upstairs in the library, I can see both natural and manmade light.  The light bulbs give off a florescent fake light that appears duller and more yellow than the natural light. The sun’s light, falling from the ceiling windows, is brighter and whiter. Diagonal shadows are cast from the beams holding up the windows. The shadows stretch across the windows darkening some of the rectangles lights that shine on the rows of books across from me.  The most interesting part of this area of the library is the way the windows reflect multiple versions of the perfectly spaced out lights.

Observation 2:

Outside the world is a lot brighter, especially at four in the afternoon on a sunny day. Pretty much everything is casting major shadows. The only dark spots other than the shadows are underneath the trees nearby.  The ground under them as well as their trunks and branches are dark; however, spots and trickles of light find their way onto the trunks from holes in the leaves here and there. There’s really not a lot of diversity in the light on a sunny day in the midafternoon. 

Observation 3:

In the coffee shop, there are a lot of different variations of light going on.  The dining and sitting areas have a lot dimmer light going on compared to the natural light coming in from the floor to ceiling windows and the bright fluorescent lights behind the coffee bar. There are really not many shadows at all behind the bar, and the light is slightly yellow and obviously fake.  But there are plenty of shadows in the dining area. The sun is coming in through the windows casting shadows on the tables from the lines in the windows. The chairs and people beside the windows are also casting shadows. It is a lot dimmer in the back of the coffee shop than the entrance and where the windows are.

Check Check Check out my sound design...

            Being the second time doing this project, I felt like it was a lot easier going into it. Jake and I sat down and talked about what we wanted our final project to sound and feel like. We decided on a cold and eerie soundscape. Our final project definitely exudes what we were going for.

            We started with a base sound effect that could keep our feel constant through out the soundscape’s entirety. We played around with a lot of different filters and speeds settling on echo, gain, and pitch. Distorting the original sound as well as slowing it down immensely provided the appropriate style in which we were able to work with. Every time we added a new sound, we would keep switching around the filters and speeds until we decided on one or more that would mesh well with the other sounds on our sequence. A lot of times, we even reversed the sound after all changes were made to create a seesaw yet balanced effect.

            I think the biggest thing that was learned during this project was the way in which you can strip and alter sound to create a feeling or emotion rather than staying a distinct recognizable sound.  Going into the project wanting to convey a feeling rather than a story was a great way to learn how to separate narrative sound and experimental sound. I love that we came up with a specific reaction we wanted from the audience and were able to convey that with common sound effects.

            Overall, the sound library was very diverse; however, regardless of whether it was or wasn’t, the point was that no matter what sounds we had to work with, the mission was to alter the sounds enough to be unrecognizable, in which I think that we succeeded. 

Present It Bro...

     Overall, I thought all four of the presentations were very well done and interesting.  However, the one that stuck out the most to me was the Channing’s presentation on Jonas Makes. The first film she showed us was amazingly beautiful to me. I really like the “diaristic” style. I’m more prone to appreciate and be inspired by more visually appealing works than anything else, and this film is the epitome of what I’d love to do…just a little more narrative. For example, the “365 Day Project” was a huge thing that stuck with me because that takes so much dedication and has the potential to show so much insight on one’s life.

      The second presentation that was super interesting was on Smith’s animation.  It was visually intriguing for the pure fact that he actually took one film played it, reversed it, and played it again. Do I think that’s a little overkill? Probably. But I like the concept. Also, the fact that he had famous jazz musicians play music not only along with that film but with his works shown in real life as well is fascinating.

     The last point that I actually intend on researching was said during Jake’s presentation on Brakhage. As much as I hate Window Water Baby Moving, I want to research “The Birth Film” to get a different perspective.

Cymatics and Synesthesia

The ideas of cymatics and synesthesia are both very intriguing to me. The ability to be able to show listeners shapes, colors, and other predominantly visual ideas through sound is an amazing talent and exciting concept. I think an interesting concept to explore would be to bridge the two ideas together to create a representative of certain shapes or colors.  I think I lean towards the idea of explaining colors through sound more than shapes; however, there’s definitely a cool idea here to use cymatics for a shape inspiration then bring in sounds of colors. Maybe even taking these two ideas, melting them together, and creating a sound portrait that provides enough detail for the audience to be able to visualize the original message.

Dealing more with synesthesia and being able to express colors through sound, it makes me wonder if there’s certain tones, speeds, pitches, or octanes in which people are more prone to think of certain colors. If there’s not a study on this already, we should definitely investigate that question. I understand that people interpret things in different manners, but I wonder if through cultural interactions, experiences, and just living, certain groups of people are more prone to lean towards and visualize specific colors during certain sounds. 

In regards to the recording experience...

We decided to record our sound effects in a vacant room in the library; however, our sound was still not the best quality it could have been.  This just goes to show how important it is to make sure there are no hums, outside noises, or anything else that could impose on the designated sound. Another thing that was interesting was the conversations we picked up without specifically meaning to.  The direction of the mic is definitely important even while recording ambient sound. In hindsight, I like the idea of playing around with the different depths of sound and would have liked to do more with that like other groups did. Overall, I think that as a class, we have a pretty impressive and diverse sound library to work with.

Response to Balazs and Sound Observations

I really enjoyed Balazs’ article about sound.  Usually I don’t read many articles on sound so it was a nice change.  However, the part that stuck out the most to me was when he started describing silence.  I thought it was really crazy to think about that the idea of the closest time we would be in complete silence is when you hear something that should not be able to be heard. For example, when he is talking about being able to hear a fly buzzing.  I thought that was an awesome concept and super interesting to sit down and think about for a minute.

-Sound Observations:

I sat down outside in my yard and listened for a while.  I heard someone’s phone conversation, footsteps up and down stairs, cars go by, and doors open and close.  I also heard the neighbor’s way too loud tv. After I started trying to listen past the main dynamic sounds, I started hearing the hum of an air conditioner, the sound of someone’s keys jingling while walking to their car, and the sound of someone peddling their bike.  I could also hear the sound of kids playing in the pool down the road. It was fun to sit back and try and listen to sounds beyond or quieter what you’re used to.

Later that day, I went to Café del Mar, a coffee shop on the beach.  Other than the smell of coffee, the first thing that hit me was the sound of espresso being ground and pulled.  Then I heard the sounds of orders being given and taken as well as the customers at the connecting restaurant having lunch.  All of a sudden, a blender was turned on, making the room even louder with its blending of a smoothie.  After sitting down, I heard the sounds of ice dropping into a glass, the phone ringing, and the door opening.  I heard people’s conversations about the waves and their holiday plans.