I am linking my Task 7 ‘Mode Bending’ to Amy Trainor’s. I was attracted to Amy’s post as it seems to me a bold reimagining of the first task. It is audio without words; something I could not have imagined doing. I was also impressed that she took the opportunity to weave in teachings from the ‘First People’s Principles of Learning’.

Amy used a soundscape to communicate information about the items in her bag. In her reflection she described “…“whole-body” listening as multiliteracy and culturally diverse way of knowing…” Connecting multilieracies to cultural diverse ways of knowing seems entirely appropriate to me and very much in keeping with the ideas being presented by the New London Group. Amy’s approach recognizes that communication is both about how it is transmitted (sound) and also how it is received (whole-body).

Her soundscape brought the items in her basket (bag) to life in a visceral way and yet it was simply done. There was no showiness or trickery, no attempt to dazzle. She let the items speak for themselves and it drew me in. It was for me a whole-body listening experience. Hearing a marker rub against paper I felt the sensation in my chest in addition to processing the sound aurally. Listening to this I was reminded how my youngest daughter enjoys watching and listening to Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) videos on YouTube. These videos communicate a sense of calm or well being to my daughter and I think I got some of that from Amy’s video too. Amy’s soundscape communicated clearly how she uses some of the objects in her bag, like for example the sound of her camera taking a picture (although interestingly having the camera on our phones make a sound when taking a picture is a choice these days), but for some objects it was harder for me to connect the sound with the object. Perhaps the difficulty in attaching the sound to a particular object encourages better listening, which would in itself be a pretty useful outcome from this activity.

In contrast, for my version of Task 7, I think I had an interesting idea and story to tell, but I did not feel confident enough to do that without also dressing it up with a hodge-podge of visual elements. In contrast to Amy’s approach mine is cluttered, with some of the images I chose perhaps distracting from the story rather than working in support of it. With her soundscape Amy created an immersive experience, whereas my approach keeps the receiver at a distance.