Adrianne Kraft
Sonic Studies 5/9/18 Summary/Synthesis Response #3 Summary: In chapter 1 of Sound Play, A Time at the End of the World, by William Cheng he states, “A preponderance of American songs, marches, and anthems on GNR and Enclave radio can give players the impression that the hyperviolence in the wasteland is somehow endemic to everyday American society—that the monsters and monstrosities of this world are not fundamental Others but rather an intrinsic (even mundane) part of what humanity has become” (Cheng 31). In this excerpt Cheng is referring to the idea of the familiarity of sounds helping listeners draw connections to everyday life. The theme of familiar sounds being used as a connection between speaker/sounds and the audience is found throughout the following readings. Synthesis: As stated, the above theme is also found in the introduction of Sound Play by William Cheng. In this chapter Cheng states “All in all, the sounds of play and the play of sounds can do much to expand conventional wisdom about aurality, performance, expression, creativity…” (Cheng 7). Cheng is strengthening the idea that the sounds of play affect more than just game play. He is suggesting that these sounds affect the way the person plays the game. These familiar sounds, i.e. common sound effects, change how the player interacts with the game in real life. Thus, solidifying the notion that familiar sounds create a stronger audience connection. This idea is also discussed in chapter one, Radio and the Modern Girl: Silvia Guerrico and Buenos Aires Broadcasting of Radio and the Gendered Soundscape by Christine Ehrick. Ehrick states, “Cartel Sonoro was a radio variety show featuring young journalists who read their own contributions and those of other writers of note, combined with lighter discussions of film, topics of “women’s interest,” and comedy.” (Ehrick 44). Ehrick then goes on to say how wildly popular the radio show became especially among the “modern girl.” This popularity is due in part to the show broadcasting topics of women’s interest. This familiarity with the topics among the women of Argentina catapulted this feminist radio show and strengthening the notion that familiar “sounds” create a connection between the audience and what the audience is interacting with. Feminism and Populism on the Airwaves: Paulina Luisi and Eva Duarte de Peron, chapter three of Radio and the Gendered Soundscape by Christine Ehrick also follows the theme of using familiar sounds to create a connection. Ehrick states, “[T]he female radio propogandist can evoke fear and fantasy simultaneously. With the capacity to evoke the comforting voice of the mother, the devoted voice of the loyal wife, or the enticing voice of the seductress” (Ehrick 103). These familiar qualities of the woman’s voice allows a connection between the audience and speaker. This connection is deadly, though, because it can lead to the strong influence of the propogandist media. Even so, they play on the inherent knowledge of the listeners to create, albeit, a toxic connection. This idea can also be seen in Chaplin in Skirts? Nini Marshall, chapter four of Radio and the Gendered Soundscape by Christine Ehrick. Ehrick states “Nini Marshall gave (female) voice to the nation. And not a singular female voice, but a plural voice, one that reverberated in different directions simultaneously. In this way, her radio comedy helped create and reflect new spaces for women’s voices in the gendered soundscape” (Ehrick, 139). Marshall used comedy, a universal (aka familiar) idea to carve out a space for women in the soundscape. She delved into areas familiar to the country, ideas and stereotypes that they could connect with, to create that space. These familiar ideas such as the stereotype of the servant and other grand caricatures allowed for her listeners to see the humor in everyday life. Lastly, this notion is seen in Nene Cascallar: Airing Clean and Dirty Longing, chapter five of Radio and the Gendered Soundscape by Christine Ehrick. Ehrick states, “Cascallar thus succeeded in injecting female desire and fantasy into the public soundscape, but in ways relatively compatible with existing patriarchal structures” (169 Ehrick). Cascallar chose to keep these dramatic radio programs “PG” to satiate the patriarchy. She kept these familiar female desires familiar enough to men so they were more easily digestible to the masses. She created a program that reached wider audiences because she chose to create a strong connection with all of her listeners not just women, although her female audience was very important. Questions:
0 Comments
Adrianne Kraft
Sonic Studies 4/16/18 Summary/Synthesis Response #2 Summary: In the introduction of Radio and the Gendered Soundscape: Woman and Broadcasting in Argentina and Uruguay, 1930-1950 by Christine Ehrick. She states, “As both a natural and built environment, the soundscape is also inherently historical, and over the years historians have adapted the concept of the soundscape and used it to inquire about the past through a sonic lens” (Ehrick, 6). In this excerpt Ehrick is referring to the study of radio as a tool that can be used to glimpse at the social weather of the past. The theme of studying soundscapes to assign meaning to an era is found throughout the following readings. Synthesis: As stated, the above theme is found throughout chapter two, A Station for Women in Montevideo: Radio Fememina of Radio and the Gendered Soundscape. In this chapter Ehrick states “Radio femenina was created for primarily commercial reasons, its owners being more interested in capturing women as consumers than in shaping them into political beings” (Ehrick, 71). This knowledge shows the political climate of the era and where women fit in. According to Ehrick women were not of high political value during the time WHER aired. Because of this, most of the programming was aimed to up the consumerism of the listeners. During this social climate it is understood that women were not seen as valuable and we are able to know this because of the study of WHER. The theme of studying soundscape to understand the social climate is also found in chapter one, The word, the Sound, the Listening Ear of The Sonic Color Line by Jennifer Lynn Stoever, as well. Stoever states, “The culturally constructed sonic difference not only marked certain tones, grains, and cadences as “black” but also, by the comparison that ghosts these ads, suggests whites sensed their voices as normative and not easily categorizable” (Stoever, 30). By understanding the differences that were assigned to black voices it can be seen that the racial climate of the time was extremely hostile. The racial climate of the era of slavery was obviously riddled with racism and that allowed whites to assign the soundscapes of, and surrounding, black Americans as negative and lesser. This point is made in chapter two of the Sonic Color Line. In Performing the Sonic Color Line in the Antebellum North: The Swedish Nightingale and the Black Swan Stoever states, “Others remained terrified Greenfield produced “black” sounds in white performance spaces, therby “contaminating” the operatic tradition and valorizing “low” culture” (Stoever, 79). Just as in chapter one of The Sonic Color Line we are able to tell that racial tensions were still high and although slavery had ended, the Jim Crow Laws were at their height. This is seen due to the fact that “black” sound was categorized as “low culture.” Because of the study of the Swedish Nightingale, the Black Swan, and the soundscapes of their time, we are better equipped to understand the social divide between races during that era. This point can also be seen in chapter 5, Sounding Out the City: An Auditory Epistemology of Urban Experience of The Auditory Culture Reader by Michael Bull. In this chapter Bull states, “[W]ithout an understanding of the significance of forms of auditory experience…we are unable to adequately analyze the relational qualities attached to the daily experience of personal-stereo users” (Bull, 73). While he is specifically referring to the usage of personal-stereos discussed in the previous chapter he is still bringing to the readers attention that the study of sound gives deeper insight into everyday life. He wants the readers, and listeners, to understand that the landscape cannot be fully studied without simultaneously studying the soundscape. He is discussing the notion that the study of the soundscape will enhance our understanding of the time and place and a major aspect of knowledge would be missing had we ignored the sounds surrounding these landscapes. Lastly, this idea is discussed in chapter one, Radio and the Modern Girl: Silvia Guerrico and Buenos Aires Broadcasting of Radio and the Gendered Soundscape by Christine Ehrick. Ehrick states, “The length and diversity of her broadcasting career, which in turn mirrored larger changes going on in Buenos Aires radio, makes Silvia Guerrico an ideal way to begin this study” (Ehrick, 33). Ehrick is, of course, referring to the study of radio and Silvia Guerrico is the perfect opening subject because her feminist views and iconic backlash from her countrymen showed the social state of Buenos Aires at the time. Women were still seen as unfit for radio and the nations quick uproar over a minor statement of Guerricos showed that the weather of the times was predominantly patriarchal. Although Guerrico was trying to challenge that, studying this facet of the soundscape allowed the readers to understand the hardships women faced daily during that moment in history. Questions:
Script:
Script (Foundationa) Beginning (a)You either leaving your car or walking towards restaurant door Beginning (b)You meeting the host/hostess, telling how many people are accompanying you, being led to your table Beginning (c)You and others looking at menu and deciding. Ensure that you are also capturing restaurant noises (such as music, people talking, etc.) and basic conversation. You will also record ordering beverages or any special accommodations if needed. Middle (a)You and others will be ordering food and letting the server know. Make sure to record all or most exchanges with the server. Middle (b)Record more background noise and when you receive/eat your food. Conversations are good to record as well. End (a)You or someone else will ask for the check with the server. Make sure to record any post interactions. End (b)If there are any recordings with “thank you for dining with us” or anything like that, please do so on your way out of the restaurant. 1.) During concerts the vibrations through the speakers seem to pass through your whole body. You can feel, as well as hear these vibrations. The presence of these vibrations can hint to how large the concert venue is or what type of music is being played. This knowledge, brought forth by the vibrations, can expand our understanding of this particular soundscape.
2.) In high school a party I was attending was broken up by the cops. All of us ran to avoid getting in trouble and I became separated from the group. I ended up hopping a fence into a backyard. It was pitch black in the yard but as soon as my feet hit the ground I heard something running towards me. My sense of hearing and my ability to sense the presence of another creature heightened in that moment. I bolted across the backyard and could hear the jingle of a dog collar and the thud of paws following inches behind me. I hopped the other side of the fence into the front yard and escaped unharmed. I never saw the dog and never heard it bark but based on my heightened sense of hearing I am able to identify it as such. 1.) A strong cultural audio geography is offered by the automated voicemail system heard when a call isn't answered. Everyone knows this sounds and hears it perhaps multiple times a week.
2.) People who live in the country who hear a gun shot would most likely think it is a shot due to hunting while a person who lives in Baltimore or another city soundscape would most likely think the shot was from a robbery or an officer. 3.) The issue of young girls being sold into sex trafficking could be approached through sound. An audio of a playground can be recorded with all children, boys and girls, laughing and playing. The next audio could be the same playground but without girls playing on it to show the ramifications of the large sum of girls being trafficked each year. Link:https://soundcloud.com/search?q=Restaurant%20Sound%20Design My heritage: I am 35% Italian so I decided to visit predominantly Italian restaurants. I chose restaurants in Little Italy because they seem to be the most true to my heritage. Restaurants: Dalesio’s of Little Italy - http://dalesios.com/menu/index.php Slainte Irish Pub and Restaurant - http://www.slaintepub.com/menu.html Maketto - http://maketto1351.com (Cambodian & Taiwanese) VietThai Paradise Restaurant - http://www.vietthaiparadise.com (Vietnamese/Thai) Little Spice Restaurant - https://www.littlespicethaicuisine.com (Thai) Iron Age - http://www.ironagekoreansteakhouse.com/ (Korean) Woo Ri Jib - http://woo-ri-jib.business.site/ (Korean) Hummus Corner - http://www.hummuscorner.com/ (Middle Eastern) Group Project Duties Chandra, Daniel, Adrianne, Chris Recording: All Storyboarding/narration: All Equipment Gathering: None (all using own phones/computers) Editing: Daniel *We’ll all be visiting our own restaurants that coincide with our culture. We are then going to narrate over our specific clips and send them all to Daniel so that he can edit them all at once so they sound uniform and cohesive. Group Project Proposal (Group 2)
For this project we will be visiting 5 restaurants separately. These restaurants will coincide with our unique heritage/cultures. In these restaurants we will record our visit paying close attention to how we are greeted, how our order is taken/what there is to order, and the background music/noise/conversations of others in the restaurant. We will then compare and analyze how the sounds of these restaurants differ from each other and why that might be (i.e. is there different languages or music?) We will use the knowledge of our cultures to make sense of the sounds and find a correlation as to why they may differ or sound the same (i.e. have they been too Americanized?) The Restaurants we plan to visit and why… Adrianne Restaurants: Dalesio’s of Little Italy - http://dalesios.com/menu/index.php Slainte Irish Pub and Restaurant - http://www.slaintepub.com/menu.html Reason: I am around 50% Irish and 30% Italian so I have decided to visit the restaurants listed above. I am hoping they are authentic enough to really get a sense of their differences. If they do not differ as much as I had hoped, then we can use that to analyze the Americanization of authentic cuisines. Chandra Restaurants: Maketto - http://maketto1351.com (Cambodian & Taiwanese) (Maybe, this is too far!) VietThai Paradise Restaurant - http://www.vietthaiparadise.com (Vietnamese/Thai) Little Spice Restaurant (If I can’t go to Maketto) - https://www.littlespicethaicuisine.com (Thai) Reason: I am mainly Cambodian and a mix of other unknown ethnicities (LOL). So, I will be covering SouthEast Asian dishes (Including Vietnamese, Thai, and hopefully Cambodian dishes). My focus will be recording the atmosphere and analyzing how different fine dining and ‘normal’ dining is with various Asian restaurants. From previous experience, i’ve been to many Asian restaurants that have a lax dining experience with waiters who speak broken English and interact little with customers. Many Asian restaurants are ‘communal’ meaning that the food is meant to be shared with all participating diners. I think this affects the atmosphere and mannerisms of the dining experience. I hope (for the sake of this project), that there will be a difference compared to the American/European dining atmosphere. Christopher Restaurants: Iron Age - http://www.ironagekoreansteakhouse.com/ (Korean) Woo Ri Jib - http://woo-ri-jib.business.site/ (Korean) Reason: Being that I am of Korean descent, there are a multitude of Korean restaurants to visit within the Catonsville/Ellicott City area (note: Route 40 in Ellicott City has been dubbed “Korean Way” by the governor due to the large amounts of economic growth seen from all of the Korean businesses in the area). Korean speaking manners are very direct and polite. Often includes short exchange of words here and there as well as polite mannerisms when addressing certain individuals. I’d like to display just how different my dining experiences have been compared to the traditional American restaurant atmosphere and hope to show off how unique yet respectable the Korean language can be in dining environments. Daniel Restaurants: Hummus Corner - http://www.hummuscorner.com/ (Middle Eastern) Reason: I am from Israel where there is a mix between Jewish and Arab cultures. Although the way in which the food is delivered is fairly similar to American fast food places, the environment is much different.
Full Recordings:
|
Individual Project Proposal-Listening Exercise Update
|