Reading Response

1. Identify the article you have selected and why you chose it.

2. What are the main points of the essay?

3. How are the ideas or arguments in this article relevant to your own practice as a media artist?

I choose the article, "Theory of the Derive" by Guy Debord. This article touch an area of my mind that I had never thought about really. In the opening it talks about how a girl followed the same routine. She traveled to about 3 areas that formed a triangle during the day. This made me think about the habits we develop during our lives to keep ourself in line. It made me think to put it plainly.
The essay is talking about the possiblities of being free. The fact that tadpoles were subject to being freer actions when they were stripped of all awareness. They were independent. This is what I understood from this article. The idea of how we are to be freer and/or creation of new ideas through free thinking.
I suppose this article could be used in relations to my work as a media artist in the fact that new and interesting ideas spawn from a free mind. One that doesn't follow the rules set for it by the world and social ideals. Good ideas are ones that people like. Great ideas are those taht make you think.

Drift Strategy

For drift number 1, I plan on following blocks as follows. First left, second left, first right, second right, first left. This will create a snake like zig zag throughout the streets of Milwaukee.

Updated information.

• Were you able to find places and spaces where you could really listen?

We stopped a few times and just listened to everything around us without the sound of our bodies interfering.

• Was it possible to move without making a sound?

When we were in the big group, I was unable to hear myself move, but later in the day I tried doing it with no other sounds around and I could hear my self, and it sounded like I was wired with microphones because it was so loud and clear.

• What happened when you plugged your ears, and then unplugged them?

When I plugged my ears, it almost seemed as if I was trying to hear more. My body was focusing on the sounds that were extremely muffled.

• In your sound log exercise, what types of sounds were you able to hear? List them.

-Water fountain
-Bus in the distance
-Skateboard smacking the concrete
-Mumbled words fading
-Click of a bike chain
-Feet dragging on the ground
-Sounds outside the union (excluding the conversations) like a forest.
-Hum of the wind kissing my ears
-Distant giggles
-Keys playing tag
-Door rattling
-Mayhem of civilization
-"Ding fries are done" beep signifying a deep fryer ending
-Machines humming
-Piano playing
-Pages flipping in the wind
-Thud of a rubber ball
-Click of a pen
-Loose wheel on a car
-Plastic bag flying in the wind
-Distant shout of joy
-Dead leaf crushed
-Bus hydrolics lowering
-Frisbree grabbed mid flight
-Trees giving each other high fives
-Water splashing in a bottle
-Twig snapping
-Instant sound of 30+ feet taking off
-Backpack scratching at a screen
-Doppler effect of music in a passing car
(Note: I couldn't get my notes scanned, hopefully have them up in the next day or so)

• Were you able to differentiate between sounds that had a recognizable source and those sounds you could not place?

Yes

• Human sounds? Mechanical sounds? Natural sounds?

There we conversations that I heard, but none that I was able to copy down. Lots of machines hard at work including buses, generators, and A/C. Natural: leaves, birds, trees. They are all over.

• Extremely close sounds? Sounds coming from very far away?

You notices lots of sounds that are in many different places, and these can change depending on your position do the objects. A bus could be an extremely close sound to one person, and a distant sound to other people.

• What kinds of wind effects were you able to detect (for example, the leaves of trees don't make sounds until they are activated by the wind)?

The trees, and a few moving leaves were effected by the wind. My notebook paper was at a constant battle with the wind. There was also a low hum you could hear when the wind blew against your ears.