This week really emphasized the important role that sound has in contributing to storytelling. A lot of this week’s assignments were practical, either encouraging us to engage with and discuss media or directly interact with it. We were also exposed to ds106 radio, which was a fun resource that I wasn’t particularly familiar with before this week. Live-tweeting was also a great way to engage with the larger ds106 community. Getting exposure to the types of shows that are broadcast also helped me with the development of radio show ideas for the upcoming project. I also really enjoyed getting to create a radio bumper for the station, which was a fun way to practically mess around with narration and music in a quick mix. All of my thoughts on this week’s resources can be seen in my audio reflection post.
The assignments really encouraged us to mess around with pieces of sound in order to understand how its structure contributes to a certain atmosphere/tone. This was especially apparent in the dramatic reading assignment (which essentially focused on how emphasis and tone can change the meaning of a piece) and the slow-mo song assignment. This last assignment in particular was somewhat challenging, mostly from simply attempting to gather the media to edit in the first place. MPEG streamclip wasn’t working, so I eventually had to resort to a direct download from YouTube. Luckily I’m somewhat familiar with Audacity, which made the majority of this week’s work much easier. The Familiar Sounds assignment also reinforced the importance of maintaining a sense skepticism when evaluating any sort of information, while also allowing us to see how a story can be constructed from ordinary objects. Finally, the must-do Sound Effects assignment was a fun way to gain exposure to freesound.org as a means of finding sound effects. It also reiterated the basics of storytelling while also providing us with an opportunity to practice sound layering with multiple tracks in Audacity.
The daily creates were fun this week, even including some interactions with other daily creates. I think I especially liked creating an explanation for the phone app icon (as honestly phones look nothing like that image anymore).
@ds106dc This is a bone icon that represents a medical information app! #tdc1716 #ds106
— Anna Rinko (@rinko_anna) September 19, 2016
@ds106dc Student has the audacity to download Audacity. What happens next will blow your mind! https://t.co/GaB5GCxHHP #ds106 #tdc1718
— Anna Rinko (@rinko_anna) September 21, 2016
@amberrlynn0810 @ds106dc Behind this door lies a room with beautiful icons, stained glass windows, and a balding priest. #ds106 #tdc1720
— Anna Rinko (@rinko_anna) September 23, 2016
Overall this week was a fun way to directly engage and alter media to get a better understanding of audio structure and the properties that come with changing it, while also allowing us to build some practical skills with software such as Audacity.
