I did a bunch of daily creates!
I wrote a response for The Zen of Listening here.
All of my audio clips can be found on my soundcloud. I interviewed people about Aja’s question: What’s the worst thing you ever did as a kid?
In Shafir’s The Zen of Listening, one quote really stood out to me: “Listening.. is centripetal; it it pulls you into the world. Looking is centrifugal; it separates you from the world.”
When I first read this line I was quick to disagree. But as I thought about it more, and read Shafir’s reflection upon it, I thought more about what that means. “We can close our eyes, but not our ears,” Shafir says.
The author discusses how sounds envelop you and can integrate us into our environments. She romanticizes the nostalgia for radio and how it has connected communities and nationalities, even so far as to reference Benedict Anderson’s imaginary communities.
But I think there’s something to be said about how auditory forms of media can also create a disconnect - people walking around listening to podcasts and music and totally tuned out to to what’s happening around them. And as Shafir notes, after its conception, localized radio shows often created a disconnect culturally or politically based on what the shows were about.
Obviously there’s a lot of proof for how radio has united us, but I’d be interested in going deeper into how it’s potentially created discord as well.
Daily create video
Daily create bumper sticker
Blog post listening is zen
I don’t think I’ll like this audio unit very much.
1. I am partially tone deaf
2. I am completely unfamiliar with a lot of the elements of audio by itself. I know how to layer audio on movies, but I don’t know how to make just audio files.
3 I hate the sound of my own voice
So let’s see how this goes. I can only improve from here.
I thought the Zen of Listening was very interesting. There is a certain amount of attention we pay to hearing and listening but it is one of the few things we can do while doing something else. If we are watching something we are both watching and listening to it keeping us somewhat immobile but we can listen to something and do something, without losing part of what is happening.
I sometimes use listening to music or something else to help me focus when I’m reading or driving. Silence can be oppressive when I drive and can make me sleepy.
The idea that shared media is what helps decide a cultural idea is also interesting. I think it could be related in a smaller way to classes. Despite not meeting everyone who will take Digital Storytelling we have a shared media of readings and experiences that create a community of people who can identify as being part of this “culture.”
Music is a large portion of culture and can help connect people through popularity. There are certain thing people are “culturally compelled” to know about. They don’t have to like it, but they will know about it.
Overall I think radio and listening to things won’t die out because it is a very strong medium. It has just changed a lot from it’s origins, but people won’t abandon it.
