Here I share the comments and critiques heard in class relating to the sound walk piece that we presented during last class (week_ 3 assignment).
One of the first things that Marina asked was if we have actually tested the sound walk ourselves, suing our phones as source of audio. It was a very relevant comment. The answer is that we didn’t perform beta testing of the audio piece to ensure the final work synchronized nicely with behavior of the intended listener.
A class mate commented on the quiet beginning of the piece and the strong accent at the end of it, and how to relate the two.
The piece ended with the flapping sound of wings as the cockroach ‘escaped’ into the outer world of the city through the window of the building. Since cockroaches only fly short distances, this end was confusing to the listener.
There was a common agreement on the lack of specific directions on the map we provided and on the lack of sound clues on how to navigate it and its correlation with the content on the audio piece.
A student sitting across the table from us commented that the audio piece changed her perception of cockroaches towards a more positive image, as she encountered one in the bathroom of the building the day before.
The point of view in the audio piece wasn’t clear: was the perspective from a human point of view on the cockroaches, or was it the piece from the perspective of the cockroaches on the environment habited by humans? If the last perspective is true, then (as our teacher suggested) we could have included non-human sounds that related to the main characters. Example of this suggestion would have been the inclusion of ‘vibrational’ sounds or any other sound that could be suggestive of insects such as ‘hissing sounds’.
Additional comments mentioned that the sound on the piece was ‘too roomy’ and not specific to the main character (cockroach).
My own take on the piece was that the idea wasn’t specific enough in its conception as well as in its implementation. This limited us in being deliberate about the approach to collecting sound and in combining those sounds into a single audio piece. As intended a sound walk was, we didn’t get to walk it and test it ourselves before submitting the homework.
Taking all this comments into account is an important part in getting better at creating sound art projects in the future and I will make an effort at incorporating them in my next audio projects.
List of links to sound projects from classmates
It is important to keep the links to the sound works created by my classmates as learning resources for any future sound work I may want to create.
The list was created by Prof. Marina Zurkow and I included here:
start location/instructions: Kitchen???
Makers: Michael, Ahmed, and Sandy
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start location/instructions: ITP 4th floor lobby
Makers: Kemi, Camilla, and Amitabh
Map: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5444741de4b0d342bffe360f/t/59c42e30017db245967e7919/1506029108840/ITPFLOORPLAN.jpg?format=2500w
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start location/instructions: Our soundwalk starts at the building lobby and separates into two paths - one in the elevator and one in the stairwell. Listeners can pick which path they like, but they will hear the audio from both environments.
Makers: Lin and Alexandra
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start location/instructions: 12th floor of Tisch, just outside of elevator bank A
Makers: Alden and Shreya
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start location/instructions: 10th floor, in front of elevators
Makers: Assel and Jillian