1.Bad Audio
2. Human World
3. Made World
4. Non-Human World
The hardest part about this project was actually deciding which sounds we wanted to record. We wanted to be creative but also record sounds that were pleasing to listen to. After sharing different ideas such as people talking in dining halls, fingers tapping on keyboards, or papers ruffling in the library, it became very evident that it was hard to separate human sounds from the “made-world” as there is a lot of overlap. Is typing on a keyboard a human sound or a made sound? We are at a point in society in which our brain has literally mapped our cell phones to our body in our proprioception input, yet they are still technically part of the “made-world” and no the “human world”. Ditching any idea that could have fit into multiple categories, my group headed towards Emily’s car and decided to play around with the many sounds it made to count as the “made-world”. This turned out to be our most successful audio as there was a lot we could do with the car, from turning the keys in the ignition, to the windshield wipers, to using the turn signals.
After that, we decided to take an adventure down behind the FAMS building near the Arts Trail to capture what we could easily distinguish–sounds from the living, non-human world. We recorded the water rushing down the dam, as well as the sound of large rocks being thrown in, however the water was so loud that even with a smaller input on the Zoom recorder, our audio has the sense of just being loud white noise. The living human-world was a bit harder, but we ultimately decided to record Kenzie running with heavy breathing overlayed on top since breathing and movement are two of the basic features of life that humans (and lots of other animals!) can do.
It was interesting to compare our good audio to the “bad quality” version taken on my phone while driving up the hill. The wind from the air was extremely loud and overpowering and it is clear to see the difference that using the audio recorders makes!
Overall, it was a really fun project and made us all really think about the importance of audio and all the types of sounds out there in the world.
Kenzie Corbin, Emily Ramirez, and Luke Madronal.