Although Ceraso and Alexander had many similarities in their articles, Ceraso's main point emphasized sound through other methods than literal hearing while Alexander focuses on sound in a more traditional sense. Alexander also references Glenn Gould in his article stating that "Gould was amongst the most forward thinking and experimental classically trained musicians to take advantage of a wide range of possibilities of recording technologies. Gould recognized that recording would not only make available a wide repertoire of music, but would also challenge and change how people experienced music." A large part of Alexander's article talks about how technology changed the way that sound was received and created. Ceraso states that " the multiple sensory modes through which sound is experienced in and with the body. I offer the concept of multimodal listening to expand how we think about and practice listening as a situated, full-bodied act." While this can include the role of technology and modern advances in relation to the experience of sound, this point is focused primarily on the way that sound is received and not created. Many great examples of this were given like the visual of water moving in ripples because of sound or the rumbling of trucks passing by but these are two of many examples. One great example that this reminded me of was a play that I watched in high school at the steppenwolf theater in Chicago. The main actor of the play was deaf and throughout the entire show, he knew what the cues were for his lines and movement through the vibrations he felt in his earpiece and the floor from the other actors words. Ceraso also states that multi-modality has primarily been used when referenced in a digital aspect but that is slowly changing so "equating multi-modality with the digital gives our students a falsely narrow sense of the complexity of multi-modal experience". I feel like this contradicts with Alexanders point that technology is one of the most important aspects of the development of sound. One functionality of technology that Alexander mentions is the ability to close the gap between performer and listener. Although I think that this point is true because creating multi-modal content has become more accessible because of technology, technology isn't the only main way to remix and create more media. Ceraso makes a wonderful point that our senses need to be reintroduced to sensations in our immediate environment instead of through different devices and screens that we are always focused on. While both articles have many valid points, I agree more with Ceraso on the fact that technology can be helpful but we have become so dependent on it for content, that we have learned to ignore the media that is literally around us so it has become necessary to regress back to being more aware in order to advance forward with our means of communication and understanding through media.
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https://soundcloud.com/jennajulienpodcast/podcast-84-asmr-podcast
The podcast that I have chosen is called the Jenna and Julien Podcast which I regularly listen to. Because this assignment is about the use of sound, I decided to use their asmr podcast as an example. Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is a euphoric experience characterized by a static-like or tingling sensation on the skin that typically begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine, precipitating relaxation. It has been compared with auditory-tactile synesthesia. The use of their beginning theme song and singing along, although off-beat, serves as a cue reference, as stated in McKee's article, that the show is beginning. I feel like we are listening to the theme song "sheerly on a musical plane" because we focus on just the pitch, and the movement and structure of the piece since it is such a simple tune. The rest of the podcast focuses on the duo making specific noises to induce ASMR such as whispering, matches, drinking, and other day to day noises. Another element from McKee's article that comes into play is silence. The sounds wouldn't be significant unless they were surrounded by absolute silence which makes each specific sound more intense, creating the relaxing effect of the noise. While the intro theme song of the podcast was being listened to on a sheerly musical plane, the sound effects and noises made for the purpose of ASMR were being listened to on a sensuous plane. This means we can focus on the medium, the quality of the sound produced, and the dynamics or intensity of the sound. Most ASMR is made through visual videos, so when put onto a strictly audio based platform, it is interesting to see how the quality of sound makes up for the loss of a visual element. |
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November 2016
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