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WRI-101: Voice, Noise, Sound, Sense.

A section of Davidson College's Writing Program, exploring the intersections of sound-studies and writing instruction.

Archives for December 2018

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Writing Project 4

Noah Mikstay

Dr. Rippeon

Wri 101

5 December 2018

This Writing 101 course, Voice, noise, sense, and sound, has dramatically changed how I view the world as far as my auditory perception is concerned. From the beginning of the course until now I have seen myself begin to become more aware of the noises I encounter in day to day life and how they help define the areas I am present in.  I also have become more aware of how humans interact with sounds and different types of sounds in order to create an auditory environment that is not always completely accurate but is pleasing to the listener. Previous to my involvement in this course I never really thought of sound outside of the ideas of music or voice, for we as people are so accustomed to hearing noises and hearing the noises we want to hear, that ignoring the vast majority of sounds becomes second nature. In the first week of the class if I was asked to describe any environment around me I would most certainly use visual description and fail to mention the sounds present at all. Now however I would definitely consider sound at least equally important as the visual aspect of an environment if not more important.

In the single semester I have spent studying sound in this course my personal philosophy on sound has changed in ways i could not expect. I always understood that sound had purpose but I never took the time to realize that there are other sounds besides music and voice that can be just as important. I also never realized the steps that we as human beings attempt to follow in order to eliminate sounds that we find unpleasant or irritating in our daily lives. Previous to taking this course I never even considered the different idea that is connotated by the word sound as compared to noise. When looking at my first blog of the year I realize that although i was not completely oblivious to sounds around me, the only ones I considered important or mentioned were the ones in my daily life that annoyed me in some capacity. I never mentioned any sounds i appreciated however i did say how the beeping inside a car, harsh ringing of alarm, or the slow dripping of water from a faucet annoyed me. I think this is most likely because at the time I wrote the blog I only mentioned sounds that I found particularly noteworthy because they evoked a reaction from me. I failed to notice the plethora of sounds in my life that simply exist without affecting me in either a positive or negative manner and for that reason I now think of all the information I missed in my life that I could of obtained had I just listened carefully and did not ignore them.

The biggest influence throughout this entire course in the way that I as an individual view sound came from the idea of the soundscape which is essentially all the sounds that make up an environment. As soon as I read the theoretical text on the soundscape I immediately became more aware of all the sounds around me and how they work to construct a description of an environment. I also became aware that we as humans interrupt this soundscape on a daily basis and thus miss opportunities to learn about our environments. Once I became aware of the soundscape I reviewed all my previous thoughts on sound starting with noise. I realized when I called things noise i was inadvertently assigning them a negative connotation. I noticed that I was wearing headphones not only because I enjoyed music but also to avoid these “noises”. It was only after further thought that I came to the conclusion that by doing this or any other activity that limits what sounds I hear, I am effectively deciding to only be partially involved in my environment. I don’t choose to obstruct my vision on a daily basis in order to limit what i see, so why should I do things to limit what I hear unless necessary?

When I look at blog 13 compared to my first blog I can clearly see the growth in my ideas about sound. I started this course only paying attention to the sounds that bothered me and not even realizing sound had such a massive effect on our lives because I was so oblivious to what I heard everyday. By just being in this course I subconsciously began to listen to the world in a new way and not ignore sounds just because I had heard them so much, for example: chirping birds or cars in the distance. By the end of the semester, as made clear by blog 13, I was understanding sound as a way to define and describe areas and being aware sound is just as powerful a tool in the comprehension and construction of an environment as any visual aspect. We as people often seem to think of vision as the most powerful sense and the best way to describe an area but following this course I view sound as an equally powerful tool of description. Now whenever I am in a new environment and trying to form an opinion/way to describe the area I am equally likely to use the sounds of that place as adjectives than the visual look.

Voice, noise, sense, and sound has changed my opinion of the world as a whole. Learning about sound and exploring different theoretical texts on sound has made me more aware of what I hear around me but also human nature and our desire to control things as a whole. I’ve learned about the soundscape and how it is the auditory aspect of an environment and I’ve became further aware of the steps people take to remove themselves from the soundscape or remove sounds they consider unappealing. Things like this have made me pay more attention to how I approach the world. Before I take a step to remove myself from the soundscape by wearing headphones or something similar I consider why. Why am I considering this sound a noise and assigning it a negative connotation? Why am I attempting to hide from certain sounds? Will my life really be so negatively affected by a slight sound that I find annoying? How can I appreciate all the sounds around me and avoid become tired or irritated by a sound? These are also questions left by this course and questions i continue to think about today as I grow as a person.

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WP4

“the revolution will not be televised, but it will be streamed live in 1080p to your pea-brain-head-in-the-face-a** mobile device.”

(from 6 summers by Anderson .Paak, after Gil Scott heron)

 

Liner notes
-All images are original borrowed new old works of collage. The “Al Green” vinyl  and “Grow up” Talking heads CD are comprised of individual components that have never seen each other before.
-All words written and/or stolen by Jake Taylor in good faith. DJ Spooky would approve, I don’t know about Stoever.
-The artists are eager to engage in lengthy discussion and vocal debate about any and all pixels.

 

 

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Purpose

Entering the fall, the idea of sound to me was rather abstract and flowery in a meaning sense. Listening to “I am Sitting in a Room” by Lucier for our first assignment further added to this preconceived bias–I heard the work as meaningless, overly intentional in its abstract nature, and blatantly insane. I wondered why the constant drone of Lucier’s voice had any impact on my own listening routine, methodology, or attention. Unknowingly, however, listening to Lucier’s voice, its simplicities and intricacies, made me a better listener because it forced me to actually listen. I believe that studying different types of sound around us, whether it be music, natural sounds, or other composed sound made me a more aware person as a whole. I am more keen to the world because I listen for purpose in sound.  

My effort in listening heightened greatly because of the Lucier piece. Under normal circumstances, there is no way I would have sat and listened to the whole 45 minute piece consciously. Listening intently to Lucier opened my ears to the intent listening of music as a whole. While I would love to say that I walk around campus listening intently to the natural soundscape around me, analyzing each chirp of a bird and honk of a horn that I hear, this is frankly not the case. In reality, my realizations about the purpose of sound transferred to some of my favorite music, and the idea that those songs might have meaning past the goal of generating hits and money became apparent to me. This became most present for me with Kanye West and his sampling of other musicians, most noticeably with Blood on the Leaves. I focused my second writing project, entitled “Strange Fruit and the Racial Context of Rap,” entirely on the social significance of Kanye’s sample within Blood on the Leaves, and how the musical and lyrical aspects of the song contributed to that message. In that project, I wrote the following.

“At a basic level, the song describes the unfortunate situation the protagonist is put in when he is surrounded by other women, becomes disloyal, and suffers the consequences. He raps, “Now you sittin’ courtside, wifey on the other side, gotta keep them separated I call that apartheid.” Here, Kanye directly addresses the stereotype that successful African American men often cheat on their wives, using the metaphor of a very real racial separation, apartheid, to describe the stereotypical actions taken by such a man to keep his main and side women apart. This metaphor underscores the ironic tone of the problem faced in the song. The hypothetical or even imaginary “blood on the leaves” that Kanye describes compared to that of Holiday is laughable when looked at in context. Kanye lays out the consequences of a disloyal black man, whereas Holiday lays out the consequences faced by a black man solely by being black. One set of consequences is controllable, the other is not. Blood on the Leaves is initially attractive because of its sound. The build up from slow to fast pace and the intense beat make the song inspiring and appealing to the ear. The underlying meaning in the sound is not as accessible; the audience only understands the racial context if they listen closely. Kanye, outside of his ironic use of the Holiday sample in Blood on the Leaves, clearly raps about socially significant issues in Yeezus.”

In his book entitled Rhythm Science, Paul D. Miller AKA DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid examines the idea of tradition in music from a cultural standpoint while telling his own story. He cites different musicians, thinkers and essayists throughout the piece, and his discussion of Ralph Waldo Emerson challenged my idea of sound studies. Spooky summarizes Emerson’s writing in “Quotation and Originality” in the following way: “the central premise of his essay was that people’s minds were so burdened with the weight of previous creative work that they were too often forced to simply take elements from the past and reconfigure them to their own, contemporary” (Miller, 68).  He even quotes Emerson saying that there is “no pure originality” in this type of work (Miller, 68). I would argue that this idea is flawed in that it disregards the possibility of being original while using old creative works. Kanye addresses a longstanding baseline social issue in Blood on the Leaves. This issue, racial division and bias against African Americans in the United States, was the very basis of Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit when it was originally written in 1939. The issue has evolved over time, but its base is the same as it was 80 years ago. Kanye’s music is creative here in that it is musically contemporary as well as socially significant for people of a wide range of ages and backgrounds. The process of reaching a wide audience, one that understands the premise of the message being sent by the artist as well as appreciates the musical qualities of the art itself.

I have never been a “musical” person: the only instrument I ever played was the recorder in third grade, I do not know how to read music, and I would not exactly call myself a savant of songs, especially compared to some of my peers. Yet, I am now able to understand that composed sound always has purpose. A bird chirping is composed sound, and its purpose is communication. A speech is composed sound with a purpose of conveying an argument or educating an audience. Most notably to me, a song is composed with the purpose of artistically enlightening the audience. I would say that most people listen to music not with the intent of understanding the underlying message that the artist is sending, but with the purpose of being entertained. I argue that listening for meaning within music is an entertaining process itself. The more we open ourselves up to different genres of music with a purpose of understanding the meaning within that music, the more we will begin to understand the world in which we live. Imagine if a “country bumpkin” from West Virginia took an hour to listen closely to Kanye West, while someone from the Bronx took the same time to listen to a bluegrass or country album. It is extremely idealistic to say that everyone should go out, listen to different music, and the world’s social problems will be solved. But, being exposed to the benefits of listening to music intently allowed me to first and foremost gain a new appreciation for one of my favorite songs, and I believe I now have the tools and ideology to understand society as a whole a little bit better because of it.

Miller, Paul. Rhythm Science. MIT Press.

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Writing Project 4

Trevor Candelaria
Andrew Rippeon
Voice Noise and Sound
November 29, 2018
Understanding Sound
There is no one way to look at or comprehend sound. It is multifaceted, multi-dimensional, and full of nuances. There is no concrete definition of what sound is. We must accept that sound is subjective and that its meaning and value is determined both by the producer and by each individual perceiver. My understanding of sound over the course of this semester has been similar to sound itself; fluid and ever-evolving. The variety of sound that I have encountered through this course has both affirmed and contradicted my ideas, forcing me to constantly reflect and reevaluate. This journey of reflection through sound is marked by my desire to conceptualize what sound is, but just as importantly, what sound is not. My reflection and growing understanding of sound can be witnessed explicitly through my writing assignments throughout this course. To demonstrate this continual growth, we will examine my writings in a chronological order, analyzing how and why my definition of sound has changed. As a method of comparison, we will also consider the work of DJ Spooky, a turntablist, record producer, philosopher, and author. Ultimately, we will arrive at how I interpret sound in the present and its application to this paper.
The first time I truly grappled with the conceptual entity of sound was while listening to Alvin Lucier’s, “I Am Sitting in a Room.” I was incredibly naïve and not fully capable of appreciating what Lucier was doing in this work. However, this is where my foundation for understanding sound started. Although I did not explicitly provide a definition, my takeaway from the piece was that sound can be understood concretely, in words, and abstractly, in symbolism. I argued that the noises being transmitted at the tail end of Lucier’s recording were,

“essentially the intended message being condensed into its purest symbolic form.”

While my claim is not unreasonable, it is incomplete as it fails to quantify exactly what the “purest symbolic form” of sound is. Further, the work of DJ Spooky contradicts the idea that there is a singular “purest symbolic form” of sound. Rather, he explains that sound isn’t one particular thing or shape, nor can it be understood in isolation. Sound is indeed fluid as my original claim suggests, but there is not one purest form of sound because sound possesses purity in all of its forms.
Naturally, as I began to gain exposure to different sounds my understanding of sound grew. In the first writing project I was asked to situate and discuss a vocal text in a theoretical context. While this project was geared towards the voice, it was still relevant to sound as voice is merely a subgenre of sound. My focus for this project was based on how,

“True meaning and voice can only be deciphered when the sounds made by an individual are understood in their original context”

At the time of its creation, this description seemed undeniable. It felt unauthentic to consider a voiceover such as “Bad Lip Reading” to be synonymous in value to its original recording. I recognize now how that thought process was flawed. DJ Spooky shows us the value of a remix as he relishes in the ability to create new meaning from meshing different sounds and voices. The residual meaning from the remix is in no way inferior or less authentic compared to the original. It is in every way equal, as it provides a fresh perspective often untouched or unattained by the original. Essentially, sound carries purpose and meaning regardless if it is “original” and regardless of the context.
The second writing project took an even more in depth look at the art of remixing as it required me to examine how sampling, the process of capturing an aspect of one song and applying it to a new song, is utilized by artists to create sound. After studying the topic, I concluded that,

“[Sampling] affords artists the ability to re-contextualize sounds in a way that provides new perspective or meaning.”

I began to realize at this point of my journey that sound is never stagnate or frozen in form. Sound is infinite. Much like a loop, there is no beginning or end, just a constant stream capable of being contoured. The remixing of a song is merely a nuanced way of understanding the original sound. DJ Spooky echoes this sentiment in his life’s work, exemplifying how the manipulation of sound is a marvelous tool in reaching new audiences and applying new meaning. After considering how remixing affected sound, I recognized that my definition of sound must also be “remixable” as it is impossible to define an ever-changing construct with an inflexible description,
In my third writing project I was asked to engage with the acoustic environment around me. I was charged with the responsibility of carefully listening to and defining the “soundscapes” that exist within the Davidson Campus. This activity forced me to contemplate sound in a way that I was previously unaware of: sound as an indication of time and location. I learned the significance of keynotes/ soundmarks and their role in my personal understanding where I was at a particular time and place. But perhaps most importantly, I became cognizant of my negligence to observe the sounds around me:

“Unfortunately, we often fail to recognize and appreciate [soundscapes] for what they are, and thus deprive ourselves of the qualities they possess.”

I found that I subconsciously ignored many of the sounds around me and subsequently prevented myself from fully understanding sound’s importance in my life. After this project I came to the realization that sound is just as critical to the identity of an environment as its physical properties are, and that it is possible to recall an environment based solely off of the sounds it emits. DJ Spooky touches on this idea by explaining that the meaning of a sound can be dependent on the place it comes from. For example, the sound of running water can derive its meaning from the existence of a stream in a soundscape. Sound plays a critical role in how we interpret the places around us, and the better we acknowledge that fact, the better we understand sound’s value as a whole.
At last we arrive at the present, where my understanding of sound is nowhere near its limit, but nonetheless greater than where it was before I started this course. DJ Spooky has provided a guideline to my awareness of sound and facilitated my understanding in many ways. Not to say that his opinions are the be-all and end-all, but they have certainly assisted in my reflection. I recognize that sounds are fluid and capable of being altered to form something new. I appreciate the role sound plays in my comprehension of the places around me, and perhaps most importantly, I now know my definition of sound is limitless and subject to continual expansion. To expand in one last way, I leave you with my final observation of the course: Writing and sound are in many ways synonymous. In essence, writing is the tangible encapsulation of sound. Just as a DJ would mix and sample sounds from various artists, an author utilizes the sources and ideas from previous writers to create a nuanced collection of words and thoughts. Further, the words you are reading off this screen are the embodiment of my voice- a voice comprised of sound that is both unique and ever-evolving.

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