Digital media + soundwriting preview: training our attention

[benmiller314]

After completing the reading and listening portions of the homework after lesson 02, come here and record a few thoughts. What do you notice, i.e. what stands out while reading or listening? What does that suggest, or what does it make you wonder? You don't have to connect the audio narratives to the theory from Su, but you're certainly welcome to. :¬)

As always in forum posts, responding to each other is optional but encouraged: you can use the @ symbol to mention someone by username, and they'll receive a notification.

[kaitlynmchugh]

While reading about the 5 principles of new media, I thought a lot about humans having a smaller part of the creative process in forms of digital/new media, even before reading the section specifically on Automation. Things like numerical representations make it a lot easier for humans to be less involved and simply program something. This makes me wonder how media overall will change, like whether the quality, which is very subjective, could improve or worsen, or whether the diversity of content could decrease if similar programs are used to produce the same things, or programs open up paths to new types of media, increasing the diversity.

[glittaua]

While reading “Playing Lev Manovich” I noticed that each concept of new media has multiple layers and aspects to it. For instance: modularity is the concept of independent functions brought together in larger programs, automation involves the relationship of author and software, and variability says art cannot exist without the user. As our media has become more complex, our relationship to it as humans also has. We are able to manipulate media an infinite amount of times with an infinite amount of end products and possibilities. A perfect example was the audio that we listened to. You could tell at some points that the audios were from different locations or pulled from different sessions but when brought together they were able to weave a story. I really liked all of them and I was able to form images from the sounds.

[isabellebautista]

While reading, I noticed that Manovich's five principles of new media are easier to understand than we may think. It is implemented into our daily lives without thinking anything of it. I also noticed that each of the principles seem to have multiple elements. For the numerical representative, there were many little areas moving and changing and for the modularity, each circle continued to turn into smaller components. There are many elements that can make up a single element, to the eye. I also thought about how interactive the relationships is between man and media, how things cannot exist without the other, which goes back into the constant interactions we have. In the case of the audios, it is so easy to imagine where you are with the sounds surrounding you. Where a voice is coming from, what you could possibly be seeing in that moment, even though you are sitting in your room listening. There were multiple elements being thrown into those audios that, when put together, the listener is able to recognize where they might be without actually being there.

[jennakupferschmid]

While reading about Manovich's five principles of new media I realized that each principle allows humans to not only be less involved in the creation of new media, but also that humans cannot stop its continuous progression. This was especially apparent when reading about automation which determined that most programs are computer based and humans take advantage of those already preexisting programs in order to build more media. Numerical representation also dictated that these programs, even though humans originally create them, eventually are run without human participation. This reading made me rethink programming in general and how much control we have over our systems. Although we control the progression of new programs, once those programs are created computer systems take over. This may affect the change of media over time because its trajectory is not under total human jurisdiction. When listening to the recordings, I realized how sounds can independently immerse one into their surroundings. This was especially present when listening to the third audio when the girl talking increased the speed of her breathing and the music got increasingly suspenseful. This in turn also made me as a listener feel equally paranoid.

[mknuth5]

What stood out to me after going through the five principles and each recording was how immersive the use of sound is. The recording that emphasized this the most for me was "Come Over for Dinner.” Although nothing is being shown, I could still picture what the character in the recording was doing in precise detail just based on the sounds they were making while cooking their meal. This was pretty eye-opening for me so the suggestion I took away from this exercise is how important the use of sound is to digital media for immersing the user into the environment of the medium. i.e. for each recording, I could picture myself in a coffee shop, kitchen, or rocket without any visuals being shown.

[andres-trujillo7]

Reading "Five Principles of New Media: Or, Playing Lev Manovich" by Madeleine Sorapure made me think about media in a new way. I always only thought of media as simply pictures, videos, and audio (but not as much as the first two for some reason). I never thought about it under the surface level, so learning about modularity and how it makes up media objects was extremely interesting to me. Also, the "Ruin" photoshop assignment described in the Automation section seemed like a really fun and compelling one because It's really open-ended and you can see a student's perspective on the word, and also notice the different methods they use in portraying their perspective.

At least for me, my way of absorbing media is watching and/or reading. I don't necessarily just listen to audio unless it's music. The best way I can put this is I never listen to well, just things, with no video complementing it. For example, in the "Coffee Shops Conversations" audio, I'd think I'd want to watch a video to best understand and see what is happening. However, little did I know, all I had to do was close my eyes and listen and I could perfectly visualize everything I was hearing. I felt as though I was a part of the scene. I could see all the people sitting at tables talking, coffee machines brewing, and the customers in line. This was definitely a new experience for me. I underestimated the audio aspect of media before this. I thought it was just songs and podcasts and nothing more. I never really thought that audio was more than just those things and/or as powerful a form of media as videos, pictures, and books until now.

[paullewis2013]

I enjoyed the ideas presented in "Five Principles of New Media", especially the interactive examples of the principles. I've never worked with Processing, but many of the examples reminded me of web projects I'd experimented with in the past. I think one exciting aspect of new media is the ability for creators to quickly instantiate potentially infinite numbers of variations on a theme. This opens up the door to vast amounts of content that one artist could not reasonably create on their own. However, there is a downside to this as well. Without human input in the creation process it's very easy to create large quantities of incredibly unappealing art such as many of the procedurally generated NFTs. This type of media is still relatively new and with technology changing every day it will be interesting to see whether it will be used to create mountains of beautiful new art or mountains of garbage.

The soundscape listenings felt a little surreal to me. The coffeeshop veered a bit into the uncanny valley where the setting seemed dreamlike and unnatural. I appreciated the next piece more for the ability to focus on and appreciate individual sounds like the knife on the cutting board. These listenings reminded me of some of the soundscape listening exercises from some of my music department classes and the way they encouraged us to focus on the individual elements that make up the soundscape around us. I think I prefer the pieces with minimal dialogue and the sense of an auditory version of a still life. Overall the pieces ranged from calming to anxiety inducing and I'm not entirely sure what to make of this form of media.

[evankozierok]

I want to start with a comment on something I think Manovich actually doesn't mention. I think largely the 5 principles he outlines encapsulate a lot of the key affordances of digital media, but one thing that isn't especially touched on is the ability to edit and perfect a piece of art more easily. I think the closest principle here is modularity. Decades ago, "mistakes" in art necessarily became a part of the artwork because there was often no way to undo them. Computers make it possible to undo brush strokes, eliminate odd sounds in a recording, and edit photography, allowing artists to choose exactly what goes into their art. I think this is largely a good thing, although it does leave the possibility that some amazing work that would be discovered by accident remains unknown.

For the soundscapes, I'll reiterate an idea some others have mentioned that an audio-only format still lets you imagine what is happening in your head. I thought that was really interesting, especially since I know that everyone will probably imagine something slightly different. For the coffee shop soundscape, probably everyone will envision... a coffee shop. But I'm probably the only one who imagined the specific coffee shop in my hometown that my friends and I would go to. The ambiguity from not having fixed visuals allowed me as a listener more input (and forced from me more attention) into the overall experience, even if I didn't actually "do" anything.

I was also interested that all of them were more like a scene or short story than ambiance - for whatever reason, I was expecting them to be the latter. Certainly, there was ambiance in most of them like music or generic background noise, but they were layered over more significant sound effects and dialogues to create something more substantial.

[elisewebb6]

While listening to each of the sounds it felt like I was actually watching a movie or a tv show. Each project was able to make a story come to life by combining a bunch of smaller pieces together. It think it is pretty cool how as humans we can listen to a a series of frequencies/vibrations and instantly associate them to a certain meaning. I find that its our ability to recognize the significance of a certain sound that allows us to create these interesting and meaningful auditory stories. Even if a person could not understand the dialogue in each of the stories we still automatically associate the music or noises layered into the story to a feeling. For example from the eery sounds and screams in the haunted house project one would be able to recognize that something scary is happening and that the girl is frightened.

[Mapatterson379]

When I think of digital media, immediately my thoughts are flooded with social media platforms such as Youtube, Instagram, etc. as well as photographs and the different ways in which they can be edited to create something new. Reading Manovich's five principles challenged me to think outside of what I understand new media to be. Each principle seemed to be specific to the creation of art, but also vague and rather more related to the essence of the human experience. One principle that connected this idea for me was "Variability". It reads, 'new media objects assure users that their choice-- and therefore, their underlying thoughts and desires-- are unique, rather than preprogrammed and shared with others. It's a basic concept, but also complex in the way that it speaks to our experiences as individuals being so identical yet different. When playing with this principle each line drawn created an equal opposite of itself. This made me think of the decisions we make every day and the results they yield that we may or may not see. As well as how in digital media we are afforded the ability to track our cause and effect-- to draw comparisons and create products that display our preferred reality.

[jsw64]

What stood out to me the most from reading about the five principles of new media was the principle of Automation. Manovich iterates that "human intentionality can be removed from the creative process, at least in part" when describing automation, which lead me to wonder if it were possible for computers nowadays to generate media completely independently from human intervention and creativity. Sure enough, after some google searching, Artificial Intelligence can now be used to generate artworks that look like they were designed by people. After listening to the recordings, the ones that stuck out to me the most were "Coffee Shop Conversations" and "Come Over for Dinner". This fact was intriguing to me, because they seemed like the most mundane recordings out of the bunch. After all, they were replicating normal, everyday scenes. But it made me realize that in my daily life, I usually just tune out these normal, everyday sounds without a second thought. I am usually distracted by my own thoughts in my head, the sounds of music playing, or just tunnel visioning on the objects in front of me to appreciate the sounds around me.

[19jinjinwu]

I enjoyed how Manovich gave us visual representations of the five principles of new media, and created an analogy to common software like Photoshop. These examples were much easier to draw on and think about when analyzing the audio narrations.

In "Coffee Shop Conversations," you can hear the audio overlaying each other; from the indistinguishable chatting happening in the background, to pouring of coffee, and forth most, the conversation between the cashier and the customer. These sounds reminded me of modularity; the audio clips are not separate from each other, but rather, they overlap and work together to create something uniform. The voices of the cashier and customer vary, as well as their tone of voice and order. For example, the first customer sounds like she frequently orders coffee because she customizes it. The second customer appears to be much less enthusiastic--perhaps he was dragged here by his sister or girlfriend. When Jade/Jadon (can't hear the name clearly) ponders over going to a quiet hotel, the background audio diminishes and the listener only hears the echo of the cashier's voice. Overall, this is a very mundane conversation between two coworkers.

In comparison, "A Haunted Halt" sounds more creepy and straight out of a horror/thriller film. The eerie music in the background gives tension and suspense, and you hear chilling audio effects such as the creaking of a door, the ringing of a toll bell, maniacal laughing, heavy panting, whispering, intense drumming, footsteps, and screaming. The distortion in audio, specifically at the end of the clip, was reminiscent of automation. I'm assuming an Audacity effect was used, including increase/decrease frequency, reverb, and literally the "distortion" effect. Nevertheless, this audio narration sent shivers down my spine, and I had to lower the volume to make me feel a little safer in my studio apartment.

[emilymears]

Reading Manovich's five principles of new media made me think of what I appreciate versus what I neglect to think about in terms of digital media. A principle that Manovich identified and that I am conscious of when I consume digital media is modularity. When I am watching movies, viewing images, or listening to audios like the ones assigned for this week, I love when the creator is able to draw attention to each individual element while bringing them together to form a cohesive piece of art at the same time. I thought that "Coffee Shop Conversations" did a great job of this -- it sounded like your typical coffee shop, but made me conscious of different sounds and conversations that I wouldn't usually notice. On the other hand, many of Manovich's principles drew attention to what I would call the more "computer programming" side of digital media, which I don't often think about, which is probably why programs like GitHub and Atom are pretty overwhelming for me! I consume and create so much digital media every single day, but never think about the numbers, code, pixels, etc. that make it all possible.

I was extremely impressed listening to the recordings, especially with the fact that they came from fellow students. I consider myself a visual learner/consumer (not a podcast person), and would not have imagined that someone could tell a story so effectively from start to finish using just audio. All of them made me feel like I was actually there in the scene, especially with the layering of audio, different sound effects, etc. I had not thought much of pure audio storytelling before, but now I am excited to get started!

[aej37]

I had conflicting thoughts about the Manovich piece. I enjoyed it, but at the same time I didn't. As the author showed and discussed the five principles of new media. it just seemed to me that the authenticity from old media was removed. For example, in Numeric Representation, pieces of art that were created by the strokes of a human hand has now been turned in pixels with positional coordinates. It suggests to me that while new media is extremely creative and different it does not have the humanity that Old Media does. I found this to be apparent in the Automation section as well because Manovich notes that in new media, "human intentionality can be removed from the creative process, at least in part". By removing some of human intentionality it removes some of the humanity. I feel that this is seen in the Automation piece because while it's very interesting to interact with, it doesn't provoke the same feelings out of me as a painting or sculpture by a human would. As the title says it just feels automated.

I found the audio narratives much more interesting as it allows the listener to visualize the story that they are hearing. I found this to be extremely effective in "Coffee Shop Conversations" where the listener can hear the sound of coffee pouring, the background music and the shuffling of people in the shop. You could even tell when the narrator was zoning out because the background noise started to fade out and it was only their voice. You can also tell when the narrator was being drawn back into reality because there was an outside voice saying, "Excuse me" and as that "Excuse me" got louder and louder the closer the narrator came back to their surroundings. These audio narratives made me realize how important sound is in new media because as I mentioned earlier, new media seems to have lost some of its humanity. However, I think that by adding sounds and music it can make it more authentic and human again.

[ellsimm]

(not sure if the following titles need be italicized or quoted, but I'll ask in class)

"Playing Manovich," was very informative to me as far as the basic differences between new and "old" media. The intersection between art and the mode of creation is not something I had thought about in detail before (except when using photoshop and forgetting to separate layers, something I thought about when reading the Modularity section). For some reason, I felt that the tone of the piece leaned towards pro-old media. As if the use of new media was inauthentic because of the digital components like translation to be able to be "described mathematically" and "manipulated by algorithms." Random thought, but for being a piece on new media, the format didn't adjust well when shrunk to be side-by-side on my laptop.

In the first, "Coffee Shop Conversations," it was never explicitly mentioned the location, but for some reason it stuck out to me that it wasn't a Starbucks as the voices were using the sizes "medium" and "large." It was an interesting take on longing for individuality and meaning in seemingly monotonous work. It is an extremely common human experience to be searching for what makes us unique when we're forced to conform, especially in the professional world. "Come Over for Dinner," was full of very familiar and soothing sounds, many I recognized but a few of which I didn't. I thought the audio built tension up to the moment of the fire alarm going off. I almost became I bit anxious as those sounds are all too familiar. As soon as "A Haunted Hault," began, my mind went straight to my one of my favorite tv shows, Criminal Minds. However, it took a more paranormal turn once the door opened on its own. I thought the creator did a great job creating the ambiance of haunting. The music and timing seeming very well thought out and purposeful. The final scream made it feel like the main character was being taken by the spirits haunting the house. At first I thought, "Soundscape - Expedition to Planets Unknown," was an airplane taking off, but I soon realized I was wrong. The vibe was very Matthew McConaughey in interstellar, especially with the subtle twang of the pilots voice. The essence of the story mimicked of many space exploration stories, where a subordinate disobeys a commander in order to further a greater mission, and it gets them in trouble. I thought the sounds of the alien made me picture some sort of vicious alien bird.

[amo104]

I feel as though the ideas discussed in "Playing Lev Manovich" are more poignant than ever during the current discourse surrounding NFTs. I don't know enough about them to make particularly interesting commentary, but I found the five principles to touch on some of the more cultural and artistic concerns people have with them. For example, the principles of Automation and Variability reminds me of the debate whether randomly generated icons (like monkeys and lions) have artistic value when their designs are so separate from any human's agency, rather than just having a valuable Numerical Representation (i.e. the value of an icon having a statistically rare component). It's certainly media, but does art need to be individually inspired to be art? I'm not sure, but it's interesting to consider how different forms of new media interact with these principles.

To connect "Playing Lev Manovich" and the soundscapes, the description of Automation touched on the aid of computers in authorship through things like filters. I found it interesting that "Come Over for Dinner" and "Soundscape - Expedition to Planets Unknown" both used a sound filter to make speech sound like it was coming through a device, but through the qualities of the filters I could sense a distinction in the kind of device. A phone sounds a little tinny-er than an astronaut's communication device, which has more fuzz & noise in general. This kind of distinction helps a lot in quickly establishing an environment. Lastly, I think "Come Over for Dinner" was my favorite out of the batch because it tells such a kind theme through small things dispersed in the audio. There's the framing context of the phone call inviting a friend over. As the soundscape clearly takes us through steps of cooking (washing, cutting, boiling, etc.) we hear the main character humming peacefully. There is a conflict of the fire alarm going off, but ultimately when the friend comes it's a nonissue ("a little smoky, oh well"). I found this piece to be loving in a very Studio Ghibli kind of way, where we can just hear the intentionality and enjoyment in simple acts. The motion to spend time for and with someone matters more than the results. I think that added layer of tone on top of the plot of the soundscape really engaged me with the environment.

[ellagrant]

The ideas Su raises in "Playing Lev Manovich" really made me reflect on how we engage with new media and how it impacts us in ways we may not be aware of. Although I engage with new media every day (digital objects), I had not actively considered how these five principles impact engagement. Numerical representation and automation raise the idea that the author/artist of a piece of work is not the sole creator but rather in collaboration with algorithms and logics. While the specific quality of being digitized is unique to new media, I feel like the idea of an author being in collaboration with their medium is not new. However, automation exacerbates this collaboration in the current day. In fact, a lot of the principles seem to refer more to media that is new at the time, not exactly what is new right now. The specifics change- numerical representation, algorithms, coding, but I feel like there's an argument to be made that these principles are new only in the specific things they refer to and not in the underlying theories.

What was most interesting to me was the principle of transcoding. Again, using the current media and current modes to understand the world is not unique to our present moment, but thinking of the world, for example, in terms of bits and binary is. It reminded me a lot of a YouTube video I watched a while ago where a neurologist explains the possibility of AI replicating human biology as much of the activity in the brain is determined by a neuron firing or not firing, like binary (here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opqIa5Jiwuw). In this case, biology hasn't changed, but the advent of new media has changed our ability to make sense of it.