Assignment 3 Video: Contrasting Paths

In my piece, I wanted to focus on capturing scenes that are mostly apart of my everyday life. Since I do not have a car, for much of my piece, I incorporated me walking to the grocery store as well as to the school. Many of my clips are from the nature I come across throughout my walks. On nice days when I walk to school I find the walk very nature filled, beautiful, and calming. However, when I walk to, as well as in Meijer, the scene is loud and busy. Throughout my piece I went back and forth between the loudness and busyness and the quietness and calmness of two paths. Both of these different paths are very near each other, however, the difference in them is drastic. I incorporated myself walking throughout the piece to signify the different paths I take on a weekly basis. My shadow walking is constant part of my piece whether I'm walking by the trees in the wind or cars passing by. While capturing these videos for my project, I tried to capture them in different points of view than what I see every day. For example with the shopping cart clip, I took the video from inside the cart's point of view rather than my own. Also in the moving cars scene, I wanted to emphasize how busy the road was by making it busier, therefore spinning the frame. However, with the simple nature scenes, I kept the scene like it was and let the wind become the simple motion. Also, while incorporating sounds, I made sure to make the busier scenes louder while turning the volume down on the quieter scenes to emphasize their difference. Every day people travel whether it is to the grocery store or on a walk through the park. However, most people do not realize how different two paths could be while being relatively close in distance.

Love Stories Response

              When walking into the art gallery my first impression of Nichola Kinch's piece Love Stories was very nature filled, romantic, and beautiful. The exhibition contains column like trees scattered throughout the gallery. Each tree is exactly the same and almost touches the ground, as well as the ceiling making it feel very real. The lights are off during the exhibit while the light from outside is the main source of light. In the background, outside the window, are many trees that make the fake ones almost blend in. in the front of this piece is an optical device that allows one to use and see the moon change in time.  The moods this exhibition reveals are romantic and also fairytale like. The fake trees make the scene look almost theatrical that also brings out the real life background. Nichola uses the moon optical device that I mentioned earlier to highlight the use of time. As you spin the device and look through the slits, you can see the different phases of the moon changing. This exhibition makes me think about the beauties of nature and time. The trees stay the same however, they look different as the light changes. The moon also shows that it may change in time while the trees are a constant background. During the talk Nichola described herself as a crafty individual. She explained that she loves to have a physical relationship with her art, oftentimes, making her pieces interactive whether it's incorporating an optical device or animation machines. She also said the trees reminded her of photoshop where you can copy and paste pictures. This was because every tree in her exhibition was the same scattered throughout the gallery. I thought it was beneficial to here Nichola talk however, I do not think it was absolutely needed with this piece. However, I did enjoy learning more about who she was and see how proud she was of her piece.

Video Observation

           For one day I mostly spent my time watching television, playing on my phone, and later watched Netflix at night. During the day I was watching Disney channel with my little sister Julia. All of the shows were about kids or teens with some sort of unordinary life whether they had a talent, superpowers, or a talking dog. All of the characters also wore very bright clothing that fit with the bright backgrounds and happy looking homes and schools. Many of the messages these shows were that family and friends are very important. Disney really tries to have a diverse cast, however, most of the characters are unrealistically bright and happy most of the time. Boys and Girls mostly contain their stereotypes, however, a lot of the time they have the same friends and even do the same things whether it is the same sport or music. Other than the voice of the characters, there are many sounds in these kids tv shows to enhance whatever is happening. There is also an audience that laughs throughout the show to get the audience more into it. During commercials ( very long commercials), I went on my phone and played some of my games. They also have video ads every once in awhile, however, after a set amount of seconds, you can skip the ad yourself. On the Kim Kardashian game you can also choose to watch ads to gain more money or stars. I have also seen some ads that you can actually interact with or have a taste of how the game they are advertising really works. The commercials on Disney channel, when I actually watched them seemed very long and boring. Most of the are the same repeated self advertising commercials every time. You can basically predict the order of each show advertisement and even eventually know what they are going to say. However, very little are there commercials about anything other than the next new Disney tv show or movie. This is probably why the ads are repeated so many times. The great thing about Netflix is that there are no annoying ads that interrupt you. There is a huge variety of all kinds of shows and movies.

Assignment 2: Human Sounds Mashup

                 

         While building my sound composition, I came up with the idea to build onto each sound as I continued with this creation. I started out using the sound of starting a car, which would make a lot of sense to starting the piece. Then I wanted to incorporate a sound I could use to hold a steady beat, such as the clicking from turning a lamp on and off. Another sound you hear throughout the piece is the sound of opening a pop can in the left ear followed by running water in the right ear. I wanted each listener with headphones to have the opportunity to hear the sounds from different directions, which is very realistic. Also, not far into the beginning of the piece, I added another constant sound that appeared to be footsteps in the distance. Before manipulating the speed of the footsteps, the sound was actually someone running on a treadmill. Throughout this process, I decided that I wanted to have some sort of a big ending followed by sudden fade and disappearance of the many sounds I incorporated. One of my favorite sounds was the crunching of a water bottle. I put this bold sound at the end for a big resolution as well as the microwave beeps that finalized the piece. At this point I still had a few sounds left that I wanted to incorporate such as a sneeze, typing on a keyboard, and eating cereal. First I inserted a sneeze in the beginning where I though had almost an awkward silence, later building two more sneezes into the resolution. Then, I added the crunching of the cereal that made the listening feel like they were eating something crunchy throughout. With incorporating the typing, I decided to add it towards the end where all the sounds came together in a big resolution. These sounds such as working out in the gym, turning a lamp on and off, and my roommate sneezing are sounds that are apart of my everyday life in my apartment. They lead me to start creating something no one has ever heard before, even though these are everyday sounds most people hear. I thought that working sonically was going to be pretty difficult and even boring with little to look at. However, after creating my sound composition, I became very intrigued with what I was doing. Oftentimes, I had to close my eyes to see where I need to add sounds or move them around.In my piece, I did not want to manipulate the sounds too much that no one would know what they were. I want people to be able to pick out and have a pretty good guess to what each of my sounds is. Mashing these every day sounds together, making music, makes one think of these sounds in a very different way. When I hear my piece I think of someone getting ready to drive to work then flash forwarding to a busy day at a normal office job. With all of these every day sounds being amplified, it is almost annoying hearing all these sounds at once from all directions. The piece really makes the listener feel tiresome and relieved when the sound dies down after the big resolution.

Deep Listening

I decided to sit in in the Ovalwood Café just like I do every day for lunch. At first it was hard to concentrate on all the noises around me because of all the distractions and many different noises. The loudest noise were the big group of people talking across the room. Usually I would not understand them, but once I focused, I could hear mostly of what they were saying. They were talking about their weekend how they wanted to go to the movies sometime this week. Once they left, I could focus on some of the other smaller amplitudes of sounds around me. Next to me I could hear the muffled sound of my roommate's song on her headphones. Some parts were louder than others. I could also hear a guy eat some chips from a couple yards away. The crunch seemed louder than usually, but no one seemed to notice. Every once in awhile, in the café a very loud smoothie machine would turn on for a few seconds, blocking out most of the sounds around me. The longer I sat there, the less people there were. This made it a lot easier to focus on the smaller amplitudes of sounds around me. I heard a guy taping his foot a few tables from me. I could also hear the door on the other side of the room open and close as people would walk in, something I usually do not hear. The whole duration of the sound the background of this scene is a television above me barely loud enough to hear it and light chatter of people around me. As more and more people left I could hear even smaller sounds like someone typing on their laptop and eating an apple on the other side of the room. Throughout this experience, I heard sounds I would normally never hear or pay attention to when I sit in here every day for lunch. Usually I am focused on homework, eating my lunch or watching Netflix, which mostly cancels out the rest of the sounds in the café. I believe if I would have stayed until I was the only one in the café, I would have still heard sounds from other parts of this building because there is no such thing as silence.