Author: msf432

Our video project idea is to do a spoken word narration of environmental issues globally, with particular attention to China. We will be filming clips around Shanghai that evoke the current state of environmental pollution: namely smog, masks, litter, etc. We are still unsure of whether we will write our own poem to recite in the background or read from a pre-written piece. This will depend on what we are able to find and whether we feel it gets the point across effectively.

http://imanas.shanghai.nyu.edu/~msf432/commlab/week7/audioproject/index.html (project is best to be viewed at full screen)

Project Description

Our project challenges the traditional concept of music. We gathered familiar sounds from around the Academic Building and linked each sound to a key on our virtual piano. The purpose of presenting our sounds through a piano both serves as an effective way of allowing our users to make music of their own and a way of challenging the role of instruments in music. There is no particular relation of one sound to one key, but rather a random assortment of sounds that proves music can be made out of anything. The GIFs surrounding our piano represent a handful of the sounds we gathered and adds to the chaos of our page.

Process

Our first mission was to gather our sounds, and with that, finding and creating noise that has a distinct beginning and end. We repeated our recordings several times to make sure we gathered the sounds we wanted. While my partner worked on editing the sounds, I conducted research on how to code a piano on Javascript and CSS. I initially took code from “CodePen” to understand how to get the formatting correct for the keys (ideal length and width, border, etc.), and then I went on to coding the piano by myself. The hardest part of this was definitely figuring out how to link our sounds to the keys on our keyboard. After many attempts, it became clear that I had to construct my Javascript in a series of “if” and “else if” statements, connecting the key codes to our audio recordings. Once one key was figured out, the rest of the process was essentially just replicating the process and creating different ids for every key.

Post-Mortem

For the most part, the product fits pretty well with what I initially envisioned. I really wanted cartoon images of the sounds we gathered to appear and disappear when the respective key was clicked, but I could’t figure out how to go about doing that. I was able to make it so that images appear when a key is clicked, but because my code is organized based on one id and class for each key, adding an image meant swapping out a key or the image covering/being covered by the piano. I couldn’t find a way to move my images to a set part of the screen, and my attempts at doing so always resulted in a key being misplaced. Ideally, the images would’ve flown in as a key was clicked and disappear as a different key was clicked. It was disappointing to have to come to terms with my inability to figure this out, but I still left the linked images as notes in my Javascript to continue to work on at another time. I think figuring this part out may involve me reworking my HTML so I made the decision to stop while I was still ahead and add GIFs instead.

I have already seen this video of Chimamanda Adichie a few times, but her insights are equally insightful each time. Her talk mainly highlights our instinct to generalize when grouping people and the dangers in linking whole groups of people to a single profile. I think this quote best sums up the point she develops: “show a people as only one thing over and over again and that is what they become.” 

No matter how subconsciously, stereotyping and making assumptions about people at large is a part of human nature. Adichie even refers to a time when she fell prey to this norm, making the assumption that all Mexicans wanted to come to America, as she had frequently heard in the media. Recognizing that we all possess our own biases and stereotypes, it’s about taking that next step in understanding why we have those views that defines who we are as people. We all have the choice to either accept the things we hear or challenge them and Adichie would argue that we all have a duty to ourselves and each other to become more aware. Through communicating and giving an outlet to those people whose stories need to be shared, we can all do our part to challenge our perceptions and become more knowledgable, open people. 

“On the Rights of Molotov Man: Appropriation and the art of context” offers two sides to a famous dispute over the rights of an image. In 2003, Joy Garnett painted her version of an image by photographer Susan Meiselas, depicting a man throwing a bomb at a “Somoza national guard garrison, one of the last such garrisons remaining in Somoza’s hands” (57).  When word spread that Meiselas and her lawyer were coming after Garnett for her unlicensed reproduction of the image, “Molotov Man” soon became a wide-spread symbol of the long-standing dispute over artists’ rights to images. 

Through time, the significance behind Molotov Man began to take many different forms. As Meiselas’ image became more widely known, the context of the image was lost. Soon, the image became symbolic of both sides of the Nicaraguan power struggle: both the Sandinistas and Contras were using Molotov Man to promote their initiatives. 

I understand why Meiselas was initially opposed to the widespread reproduction of her photograph and the decontextualization that followed. What I don’t quite agree with is her claiming of the image as her own. I more closely align with Garnett’s claim that the only one who has rights over the image is the Molotov Man himself; Meiselas was just the one who captured it. While the meaning may be lost in replication, the remaking of her photograph by various artists has certainly brought more attention to the photograph and aroused appreciation far beyond what Meiselas could have accomplished herself.