In reading Cope & Kalantzis’ work on the pedagogy of multiliteracies and their argument that modern meaning-making (literacy) requires movement beyond traditional text and images, I thought a lot about how sounds influence our lives. They argue that literacy today, “is increasingly multimodal, with linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, and spatial modes of meaning becoming increasingly integrated in everyday media and cultural practices” (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009, p. 167). I thought a lot about how short-form media is such a vital part of our media ecosystem and where cultural power lives right now. That this media form is dependent on not only the visual aspect but on the soundscape – how ‘trending images’ – memes have moved to ‘trending sounds’.
In listening back to my audio, I realize how clearly I can identify my Airpods case opening and closing. That Apple in designing their Airpod, has been able to capitalize on creating a sound that is so essential to their experience. For my task I chose to record the ambient sounds of the objects from my bag being used in a ASMR style audio recording. In this way I hoped to transform the static form of the original post – a picture of my bag’s contents, into a engaging and immersive audio experience. This change in the semiotic mode helps to challenge assumptions that meaning has to be transferred through traditional visual literacy forms. In life, sounds help us infer so much information about our surroundings. By translating the visual form into auditory, I am hoping it will allow everyone to actively construct meaning.
Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2009). Multiliteracies: New literacies, new learning. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 4(3), 164-195.