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Sound, Space, Generative Writing

Texts to have read / listened to: Stuart Fowkes on field recording; Alison MacAdam on breathing life into audio scenes

Work to have achieved: a few recordings of your local soundscape

Plan for the day

  1. Readings: key concepts and practical takeaways (10-15 min)
  2. Reflections: walking through the soundscape (10-15 min)
  3. Homework preview (5 min)
  4. Generative writing / offline sketching (10 min)
  5. Studio time (25 min)

1. Readings: Key Concepts and Practical Takeaways (10-15 min)

In breakout groups, work through the following questions about the reading, and be ready to discuss with the whole class if time allows. Some you should be able to go through rather quickly, others may require more discussion.

Ask if you can’t come to a resolution!

Recording advice

  • What’s one way to make sure you’re recording the sound you want to (and not, say, the loud bus passing by your conversation)?
  • What do both Fowkes and MacAdam consider tempting cliches, and how do they get past them?
  • Would you want to incorporate human voices in your sound projects for this course? Why or why not?
  • When might you want to work from a written script, and why (or why not)? (Note that, prepared script or no, a written transcript alongside audio is considered a best practice for accessibility.)

EXT: Already discussed those questions? While you’re waiting for other groups, move on to the questions in the next section.

2. Reflections: walking through the soundscape (10-15 min)

So I’m really curious: how are you finding all this sound stuff so far? What was it like to turn your attention to background sounds in your everyday environments? Did the recordings work in the same way your initial listening did? Did the advice from the readings change your approach at all?

Or: What was it like to manipulate the sound clips in class last time? (Does anyone want to try to share a manipulated CSPAN clip, now that we’ve had a little more prep time?)

But first: what questions do you still have, coming out of the breakout groups?

3. Homework preview (5 min)

4. Generative writing / offline sketching (10 min)

I’d like to spend some in-class time using writing – some listing and looping – as a way to get your ideas flowing. As I ask these questions, pause and reach out with your feelings until you sense an answer, or more than one – and then write down whatever comes. I won’t collect these, but I hope you’ll find them useful, moving forward.

  • In what places (physical, virtual, or imaginary) could you anchor your soundscape? Make a list. Anything you’re forgetting?

  • Choosing one item from your list you could work with for now, ask yourself: What kinds of stories happen there, and which of them could you reasonably tell within a few minutes?

  • How can you represent that environment sonically?

  • What sounds are relatively stable, or sustained, and what is incidental?

  • What structures or sequences could help a listening audience follow the story?

Studio time (25 min)

If we have more time left in class, get started writing up your proposal – or testing the feasibility of what you want to propose, e.g. by searching for sounds you think you’ll need, or starting Audacity tutorials.

Call me if you need me!

Homework for next time:

  • The main writing assignment for Tuesday is to post a proposal for your soundscape narrative, including a preliminary chart of sound assets you might want to include and a link to your repo. You can turn this in on the issue queue, under “soundscape proposal.”

As promised last time, there’s also a little reading related to assets and permissions, if you haven’t read it yet:

  • The term “asset” comes from a reading assignment from the book Writer/Designer (Ball, Sheppard, and Arola, eds). A scan of the relevant chapter is posted to Box; please read it before writing your proposal.
    • Optionally, you can read through a short four-page webcomic explaining how Creative Commons (CC) licenses get attached to copyrightable materials, and how easily CC materials can be included and/or remixed in further creations… with, at a minimum, attribution. The subject is covered in Writer/Designer, but the comic is cute.
    • Optionally, you can also read the Stanford Overview of Fair Use, which you can find in a series of four webpages beginning at fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/. This text, despite being called an overview, will give you a more in-depth understanding of fair use than the brief introduction in Writer/Designer.
  • PS: Have you seen our plentiful Resources page? Be sure to check out both the free/licensed sounds and music section and the audio-unit-specific advice and examples.