This has been by far the most challenging task to complete for me yet. I imagine this is because the two mediums I used for Task 1 (visual and written text) are in my comfort zone when it comes to communication. I had taken a photo of my work bag’s contents and incorporated numbered icons you could click on for more information on the items found in my bag. Below is a reminder of the picture I used.
It was challenging to decide this week how I would redesign the submission and it took me some time to develop an idea of what I wanted to do. One of my initial ideas to transform the task included recording the names of the items in my first language as voice notes and having my classmates assign the words to what they thought each item’s name was. I then reasoned that it wouldn’t be very obvious at all for them to do and so the next idea I explored was to find the internet slang (urban lingo) of the items I had in my bag in some way. Since I didn’t know some of the common slang words used for the items in my bag, I had to turn to the internet to search for them and it was during this process that I concluded that both my ideas thus far weren’t really matching the brief of the task.
The idea I most would have liked to explore would have been to create a mashup song of popular or known songs associated for me with the different items. Mashups (to me) are wonderfully creative pieces of work and I have fond memories of listening to some that combined either the year’s most popular songs or some of my most loved songs. Alas, when I looked into what the process would be like to deliver a mashup I got quite scared. I needed to find acoustic tracks of the songs to overlay with the originals and additionally would have to guess the bpm (beats per minute) of each song. As someone that likes to listen to music but has received no musical training, I just didn’t think I would be able to do this in the few days available this week.
I then started thinking about examples of mainstream media I’ve come across that used alternative ways of communication than what would normally be associated with that particular medium. Examples like Mr. Bean and old-school radio serials came to mind. This gave me the confidence to try my hand at creating my own version of such a media artifact. A small amount of written text is used as an intro in my amateur radio-serial type artifact with the idea being that you as a listener will be able to identify the objects by the sound effects created as the different items in my bag are being used (the aural component). Alternatively, listeners might infer meaning by that what you hear me say given the context that the item is being used in (a verbal component).
Below is the video of my sound project. Don’t worry it isn’t really much of a video as you’ll soon see that the two lines of text included in the clip really don’t give anything away. The story is painted solely through the items and the sounds associated with them along with the context my voice hopefully provides as clues to what they are (the natural habitat that they are used in). I haven’t included all the items from my original bag (I wondered throughout this task why I had picked such a boring bag) but you might want to tick off the items you can identify from the list given below the video. Once you submit your answers, you should be able to see how many you got right (totally optional).
The purpose of Task 1 was for us to get to know each other through the exploration of the items we hold in our bags. What do these items “say” about us? Now that you have identified the items I have in my bag through the radio-serial type artifact above, you should have also formed some opinions on me by now. You should have picked up that I am an educator that spends time balancing written texts (my notebooks and textbooks) with the digital (e.g. emails on a laptop and drawing pad) along with verbal communication either in person (greeting my colleagues) or digitally (my Skype meeting). At least, I hope some of that information could be picked up on as you listened to my artifact. 🙂 The New London Group’s description of how people create through hybridization seems applicable to me too as I constantly blend digital and analogue communications (written and verbal) in my work.
The second video included here are for those that have a burning desire to know exactly which items are responsible for which sounds. To be clear- this isn’t the intended artifact for the task submission and I only included it for those that might really want to link the sounds with the items.
Reference
The New London Group. (1999;1996;). A pedagogy of multiliteracies designing social futures. (pp. 19-46). Cambridge: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203979402-6
Hey Carla,
Very creative idea of using a google form! I was engaged in your sound scavenger hunt and with the few verbal cues you gave, was able to identify all the items. In response to your question, “What do these items “say” about us?” I think that the familiarity we share as teachers using all of these items, aside from the drawing tablet, allows us to easier recognize and place the sounds we are familiar with. It sounds like you are very busy with work, creating and preparing for your students!
Hi Emily, I’m so glad you enjoyed the little scavenger hunt. Congratulations on getting all the items! 😀 I was so annoyed at myself for picking such a boring bag in task 1 and that I was now stuck with it for task 7. Either way, I wanted to comment and let you know that the entire scene had to be made up… Sorry if you feel a little misled by that. We haven’t been allowed to return to work yet and so to give you an idea the intro sounds you heard was me walking in my garage. It’s a true representation though of how I would set up at work, it just happened at home.