Task 8: Golden Record Curation
By: Angela Beckett
My comment + reflection:
Hello Angela! I believe you were part of my “community” in the Paladio visualization. Prior to writing my reflection for Task 9, I looked into what the other members in our community wrote for their curation process. I figured that we would have some criteria features in common, which was why we were grouped together. But after some analysis, I realized that was not the case, as the visualization did not provide any information on our parameters, and only grouped us based on the similarity of our selections. In fact, our parameters and rationales were really not that similar. We were all very different, which could not be accurately represented by the visualization.
I was really fascinated by your perspective for selecting each song, maybe because emotions and memories also played an integral part in my own curation process. I loved the personal stories that you attached to each song you chose, especially the ones that provoked specific childhood or family memories for you. Your expressiveness when describing each piece was enjoyable to read, and I like that you mentioned you were “transported somewhere” upon listening to the piece. That is what music is all about! You have a wide palette and insightful taste.
Similar to you, I took the task more personally. I actually already loved several of the tracks, but they were all of a similar style. To cater to a more “objective” set of criteria, I opted for more diversity, but I did not want to keep my parameters solely on location or culture. It’s nice to see from your selection that curation can be a very personalized and intimate experience, which is not purely subjective, but rather reflects your own expression of being human. Sometimes, there just is no explanation as to why a piece speaks to us.
I also can’t help but think that we may have been conditioned to align some of our values and parameters with the actual Golden Record, since this task is a spinoff of the actual project. In a way, these tracks supposedly communicate what it means to be human on this diverse planet. As such, I have observed that many of us tried to cover the broadest range possible, may it be by geographic location, culture, time, or musical diversity. Since there are no strict parameters for this task, there really is nothing holding us back from taking a personal perspective of curation.
I really appreciate the heart and soul that you added to your list. This especially holds true with your reasoning behind El Cascabel and Tchakrulo, which makes your list so magical. Thank you again, Angela, for sharing your truly wonderful stories!