Reading Response #1

In “The Art of Noises” by Luigi Russolo, He begins by saying that the noise was not born until the nineteenth century, and that volcanoes, earthquakes waterfalls ect, were the only noise with exception. I chose this reading, because there were more then just those noises. He is too opinionated and won’t acknowledge that everything is noise. Animals made noises. Wind made noises. People made noises. He also says, “To our ears…[certain chords produced by our orchestras] sound pleasant, since our hearing has already been educated by modern life, so teeming with variegated noises. But our ears are not satisfied merely with this, and demand an abundance of acoustic emotions.” I also believe this is very opinionated because we do hear the noises outside of music. The music of an orchestra is still noise.
Russolo brings up a few inflexible points about noise. Like I said he doesn’t believe noise was created until someone made the first machine to create this “noise”. He also says we are not satisfied with the music because we want more, or that we don’t get what we want. He says that music is boring and that we need to listen to our natural sounds around us. I believe listen to everything around us can broaden our horizon, but I don’t infuriate music because it’s a machine. It is just as natural as a car driving by on a bridge or the construction of a building. Noise is all around us, and music is no different.
As a media artist I think that we need to be open-minded to everything. Noise is noise, but there are all different kinds. I agree with his sentence, “…the art of noise must not limit itself to limited reproductions.”

Soundwalk Research

Were you able to find places and spaces where you could really listen?
Yes, when we were sitting next to the Mitchell building, we had time to take in all the noises around us.
Was it possible to move without making a sound?
No, there was always my pants swishing back and forth, and I could here myself breathing.
What happened when you plugged your ears, and then unplugged them?
At first all I could hear was the far away muffled sounds of buses driving by. Then when I unplugged them things became more clear and closer. Also the sharper pitch became more clear while pulling my fingers away from my ears.
In your sound log exercise, what types of sounds were you able to hear? List them.
Wind blowing threw leaves
Wind blowing paper
Wind blowing leaves across ground
Wind blowing pass my ear
Bike lock rattling from person unlocking
Bike gears clicking over from person
Bike tires on pavement
Bus brakes screeching
Bus engine staring up
Vehicle’s beeps from baking up
Car door slamming
Car’s zooming by
Car stereos and basses
Car engines revving up
People talking all around me in the Union
People laughing
People coughing behind me
People’s foot steps
Person crippling napkin
Kid’s yelling and playing to my left
Vent below me clinking every time someone walked on it
Chairs in Union making screechy noise when moved
Cell phone ringing
Cash register opening and closing
Echoes from clapping in parking structure
Hollow echo from footsteps in parking structure
Echo vibrations from Warren-Crow hitting a pole
Music from person’s headphones
Pen clicking
Pen writing
Dumpster slamming shut
Wheels rolling from cart
Buzzing in the background from electric poles
Kicked cap rolling on ground
Were you able to differentiate between sounds that had a recognizable source and those sounds you could not place?
Yes, but if there were any sounds I couldn’t place I think I zoned them out, because I really don’t remember any I couldn‘t place.
Human sounds? Mechanical sounds? Natural sounds?
Being on campus definitely gives off a lot of human sounds. People were laughing, talking, yelling ect. When we were walking pass the Art Center the most memorable mechanical noise was the air duct. It produced 2 different noises. One a muffled low buzz and the other a little bit of a high pitch buzz. There was also the computer keys from in the union and other machine like the hundreds of cars going by. The natural sound I think I enjoyed the most. The wind can make some great noises when hitting the right objects. For example the leaves scratching across the ground or whistle in the trees. Also the birds chirping and squirrels making their chatter noises.
Were you able to detect subtleties in the everpresent drone?
If I listened and blocked out most of the muffled noise I could pick up different pitches.
Extremely close sounds? Sounds coming from very far away?
The best time to hear differences between the close and far sounds was when we were sitting next to Mitchell. I could hear the wind blowing pass my ear, me gulping, people next to me writing and paper rustling. Then in the distance I could hear an ice cream man’s bells(but could distinguish what it was till I saw him minutes later). While we were walking it was a little more difficult for me to listen to the close up and far way noises because the far way ones were muffled and not as interesting.
What kinds of wind effects were you able to detect (for example, the leaves of trees don't make sounds until they are activated by the wind)?
The wind blowing pass my ear made a hollow fan like noise, the leaves scratched across pavement, it blew threw the leaves making a rustling sound and made our paper slap around.
Were you able to intervene in the urban landscape and create your own sounds by knocking on a resonant piece of metal, activating wind chimes, etc.?
Yes, Warren-Crow knocked on the hand railings causing an echo vibration sound. He also clapped in the parking structure causing about a 4 second echo.
Do you feel you have a new understanding or appreciation of the sounds of our contemporary landscape/cityscape?
After the walk threw campus I gained a little bit more of an appreciation. I’m from West Bend and have a place up north, where I love to take walks and listen to nature. So I do have an understanding of listening, but the city is a little different. I did learn to drown out the background noise such as busses and cars, but I still enjoy the rural sounds better.
How do you think your soundwalk experience will affect your practice as a media artist, if at all?
I think my sound walk experience will affect me by remembering to take in every little detail. I’m so used to blocking out noises when I’m in certain places that this walk made me realize there are great sounds everywhere. I don’t know exactly which direction I am going in film but I do know I will pay more attention to the sounds in my media.

My Intro

Hello,
just testing out the blogger. I guess I'll start out with my interests. My favorite films are Fight Club, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jurassic Park, Sweeney Todd, Ace Venture and Sleepers. I enjoys shows like Nip/Tuck, Dexter and Rescue Me. I also love most of the shows on the Discovery Channel and National Geographic. Oh yea and I LOVE Jeopardy! I also picked up reading about a year ago. Beforehand I only read because I had to for class, but now I always have a book arms length away and I love it. Right now I am currently reading The Dharma Bums. I enjoy drawing. The Joker is an example of my work. I drew this with just a mechanical pencil, and I also prefer using charcoal for my media.