Category: Leon Eckert

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Audio-project(Madi&Clover)

http://imanas.shanghai.nyu.edu/~cl4690/AudioProject/index.html

We tried to record the sound in our lives which is closely related to our daily lives. We can hear these sound quite often in our lives and it is impressive. We two both have the same idea which is to record some sound around.Each of us choose two place to record the sound which is representative of our lives in NYU Shanghai. We discussed the places and all agreed on these places. Madi recorded the park and the bar, I recorded the cafe and music used by the dancing ladies. I also recorded the introduction part to let the listeners have a clearer understanding of our project. Madi worked on the css part, and I mainly do the js part. You can click on the introduction button and the listen button to hear the introduction part, we record the sound of ourselves. You can click on the four button bellow the map to see and hear each scenarios. We want our audience to have a clear understanding of why we choose these place so we added the subtitles. We also lay some sound together to let it have a good effect. I think what we can do better is to better organize the elements and let the users don’t need to slip to see all the elements.

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Week 7: Audio Project Documentation – Madi Eberhardt

Audio Project – A Map of Shanghai Sounds (Madi & Clover)

Link: http://imanas.shanghai.nyu.edu/~mne234/AudioProject/(please open on chrome not safari)

For our audio project, we decided to do a map that takes you through different sounds in Shanghai. The sounds we chose to record and edit were from our school’s cafe, a KTV bar, a park, and the music from the ladies who dance to traditional Chinese music (near the Century Ave subway). Through this experience, we hope the user can get a sense of the city and further get to know it. We discuss what the school and places mean to us, so that the user gets an idea of how much Shanghai is so important to our lives.

Process

The first thing we did was create the HTML page so that we had a base to work off from. Then we recorded the audios and collected them into one folder. This kept us organized so that we could put everything together as one. For the park, I remixed 3 different sounds. I recorded the sound of a water fall, some birds, and the street outside to combine it all into this park audio. The KTV bar I did in a similar way and just blended and edited the audio from a KTV bar near our dorms. The other sounds were recorded to their original sound without adding anything. When you first open the home page, music immediately starts playing. I edited this by finding some Chill Hop music and an audio of a rainy city background. I mixed these two together for the background music of the page. The photos used were also taken by us.

Through buttons, you can navigate to different places to hear the sounds. We used ‘let’ to define them, then ‘addEventListener’ to give an action to these buttons. For the audios, we made 3 buttons to either play, pause, or return home. The specific audio will play once you click on it. We also added two introduction audios to the beginning that will play if you click on the button. These are voice recorded by Clover, and we had another NYU student (Jamie) to give an introduction audio as well. 

Lots of coding was needed for all the buttons and linking them to the correct audios, so this was a bit confusing and difficult to navigate through. Although, once I was able to fully understand how the ‘let’ functions worked, I was able to replicate and rename everything so that it could work properly. 

Post Mortem

Overall, I think the project definitely met our goals. As we progressed through it, more and more ideas came to us so that we could further expand from our original idea. I was very happy with the look and style of it, as I wanted it to look interesting and aesthetically pleasing. I think we accomplished this. If we had more time, I would’ve wanted to record a lot more places all throughout Shanghai so that we could have an extensive map (also maybe a more interactive one) of sounds for people to hear the city through. This would include finding more significant popular locations in Shanghai and adding them to a more extensive map. 

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Audio Project – Taylah Bland

Project Link: http://imanas.shanghai.nyu.edu/~tlb394/audio/index.html

Preface and context

This project was a lot of fun to complete! I really, really enjoyed working on the audio. My background is in dancing so audio really is important to me in creating meaning. Every single beat, rhythm and melody can convey so many feelings and emotions depending on the interpretation and I really wanted to use this aspect in this task.

After class, we came up with the idea to compose a piece that provided insight onto the dorm life on NYU Shanghai. However, I didn’t want the idea to form a cliche that involved the collection of random sounds and depositing them onto a webpage. Instead,I came up with a slightly different angle and asked my group members if they thought we could incorporate it to elevate the meaning within our piece. 

Project Description 

Essentially the project revolves around the connection of two old friends, in this instance played by myself and Jamie. I am a student at NYU Shanghai in Shanghai, China whilst Jamie is a student in Beijing, China. 

The piece begins with an audio recording of the two of us talking and reminiscing on when we used to watch the stars together when we were in the same place. 

In order to record this piece of audio, I used my phone to record it and then also used my phone to take a recording of the recording of Jamie’s voice on her phone in order to create a distance sound effect. I also tried to do this on Audacity but felt that the sound distortion sounded a little too perfect, when the intention for this was to show that in reality not all phone call connections are seamless. 

After this conversation, Jamie really wants to experience the NYU Shanghai dorm experience, however she lives in Beijing. This is when we use the next page to immerse Jamie in this experience by being able to experience what typical day of dorm life is like at NYU Shanghai. 

The next page leads to a floor plan with five doors, a washing machine/dryer, kitchen, common space and a cat. The objects are positioned on the floors trying to resemble a dormitory floor plan. Jamie was really talented in doing the majority of the coding to get the website exactly where it needed to be. Jamie actually originally used the Vincent Van Gough (Starry Starry Night) background as a joke but as soon as I saw it before recitation on Thursday, I knew that we could actually incorporate it into our meaning. The backgrounds relevance is that irrespective of the fact the two protagonists (friends) are in different cities, they still look at the same sky. This provides them a sense of connection that no matter the city, they are united by the stars in the sky. 

The cat in the middle of the piece plays the song “Vincent” which is an audio rendition of Starry Starry Night. I used iMovie to change the volume of the song to keep it playing at 3% so it didn’t interfere with the audio sounds but could keep a constant sound in the background. 

I came up with the audio sounds and each group member collected a couple each and I did all the audio editing. 

Behind the first door is the Eleme phone call that Demi collected. 

Behind the second door is the phone call back home that I asked one of my friends to record. 

Behind the third door is the sound that Demi collected of the entrance barriers to the dorms 

Behind the fourth door is a conversation between Demi and myself that happens quite a lot at the dorms, where people want to sleep yet are continually interrupted by questions 

Behind the fifth door is a panicked me who forgot to do their Chinese homework and rings my roommate. 

I wrote a small dialogue for the conversation: 

等一下我会给我的室友打电话。室友！室友！我忘了做我的中文功课！你可以帮我吗？我得问你三个问题。第一个问题是，在中国你觉得男女平等的吗？第二个问题是你觉得身体健康非常重要吗？第三个问题是你最喜欢什么运动？

The translation equates to: Hold on a second, I will call my roommate. Roommate, Roommate, I forgot to do my Chinese homework, can you help me? I need to ask you three questions. The first is whether you think that in China men and women are equal. The second is if you think the health of your body is important and the third is which sport do you like the most. 

I thought it would be nice to incorporate both English and Chinese into the piece to show the international diversity of NYU Shanghai. 

I edited all the audio sounds either in Audacity or iMovie. I found these two applications the easiest to use and convert them into MP3 or WAV formats so I was able to code them onto the website that Jamie had established. Audio was recorded on the 8th floor piano rooms when no one was using them so we could achieve optimal sound. For the sounds where they needed to be more muffled, they were recorded onsite (kitchen, common room, washer/dryer, entrance barrier) as we wanted them to sound as realistic as possible. 

How the Project Works

The project follows an index page and then an audio page that is linked via the use of a onclick-button. Essentially each image is connected to a piece of audio and you can click the image the play and click the same image the pause it. The only image the will continuously play is the cat because it forms the background music that provides continuity to the motif of the “Starry Starry Night”. 

We decided against having each door link to a new HTML Page as we wanted to focus on the interconnectedness of the dorms and that everything is in close proximity to each other. The piece is almost voyeuristic in the sense that it really does provide an insight into the dorm life of NYU Shanghai without clear introduction or establishment of context. That is why the audio is so important in conveying what the context of the sound is. 

Post-Mortem 

I really do think the project met the goals of the group. I know at least personally I was really really proud. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Jamie and Demi to create this assignment. I have a new found appreciation for audio and especially audio editing considering I spent so long just listening to the same sounds over and over again. 

The project met the brief of being centered around audio and I think we collectively added some deeper meaning than just a random collection of sounds being deposited onto a HTML page. The story is central to communications lab and audio is one form in which we are able to experience contexts and situations that we may not be personally involved in. Its a way to stay connected and included and I think this project is a powerful representation of just how much of an impact audio has in our lives. 

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Week 7 – Response to the Danger of a Single Story – Taylah Bland

The Danger of a Single Story is an incredibly powerful TedTalk. This was actually the fourth time I had viewed it. I had seen it during my Orientation week and also when I was an Orientation Leader for the Class of 2022. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a very powerful lady and she provides such deep insight onto an issue that so many people often ignore. To me it really reinforced that you should not just listen to one persons opinion on a topic and treat that as a representation for an entire country or culture. 

For example, if you’re traveling in Australia and encounter someone who is racist, that one person shouldn’t be taken as a representation for the entirety of Australia’s attitude to race. If people generalize, then, this is when we begin to see the danger of a single story. This is how tensions and divisions are incited in society and without dialogue to air these misconceptions they only perpetuate a sense of unease in the world. 

I often rewatch Chimamanda’s Ted Talk to remind myself to avoid making generalizations and to clarify any misconceptions because especially in being a part of an international community at NYU Shanghai they can be detrimental to the inclusive atmosphere we advocate for and strive to achieve. 

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Response to Theft and Artistry – Demi Mishiev

After reading this article I can say for certain that I no longer believe that human society can ever be a functional mechanism. 

Topic of cultural appropriation has been on the table for so long, I don’t even understand why we are still talking about it. 

In my opinion, one can not own a culture, cultures are somewhat tied to the existing places and societies inhabiting them. However,  we have to understand that ever since the traveling was made accessible to mass consumer, there are going to be interpretation of given culture in some or other way. 

There is a movement to PRESERVE culture, not allowing them to be forgotten, and passing the tradition and values to next generation. What I don’t understand is why can we share.  What is so bad about white man with dreads, or someone using musical tones and genres to create something new. 

St. Patric’s day is not an international holiday, however you don’t see Irishmen screaming that we are stealing their culture, instead, we see them sharing a beer with us. Due to this, the original meaning of the holiday might have been lost, however, a tight community created. Yes, community of alcoholics, however community of alcoholics that like and support each other, that have the same goal,  at least once a year, to get wasted. 

If we were stop to adopt other peoples cultures, we would never enjoy quality italian pasta in Shanghai or gelato in Emirates. By stopping people from exploring and discovering something new, something they might like and come to appreciate, we are pushing racism forward, by attributing certain behaviours, sounds and looks to particular race. 

And I don’t think that in 2019 we stand for that