Writing Under the Pressure of Technology

 

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Style:  Confessional

Piece:  This podcast explains the reasons why I feel I can’t be myself, and the place where I can be myself.

3 Sounds:  The three sounds I chose to make were a pre-recorded voicemail message from my cell phone, the sound of someone running, and someone shouting Hallelujah.

Running Time: 2:32

            The Oulipo podcast was in interesting project.  The Oulipian motto of creating literature acknowledges the experimental nature of ones endeavor.  This is exactly what this project was.  It was an opportunity for me to think creatively about my story.  This project was unique in the sense that we were given several restraints, so these could influence the direction of my podcast.  Although it may have been easier to find my sounds first, I chose to create my story first, and then search for songs.

            The direction that I wanted to go in for my podcast was a confession.  I have know for a while the story that I wanted to tell.  I feel trapped at Valpo and at home.  I have felt this way for some time now, and I feel like I can no longer be myself in these places, so it made sense for me to finally get it off my chest.  I thought that it would be a good idea to podcast.

            The effect that I hoped to convey was for people to understand what I am going through and see where I am coming from and why.  I was successful in doing this.  I had actually made up my whole story, and did not remember that the beginning of the cast had to begin with “To begin with, they never got along.”  Then after I finished writing my podcast I recorded myself saying that, and realized that it actually fit, and made sense with my cast.  From the beginning, my two egos never got along.  It has been my alter ego that I have been living by at school and at home, when it really should be the real me; the me that thrives at the Island school.

            The technology aspect of making a podcast is, unfortunately, something I will never appreciate or like.  I do not know whether I am just unlucky when it comes to making podcast or it actually is a technological malfunction, but for some reason they just do not seem to work for me.  The sound constraints of the podcast did not inhibit me from making the podcast I wanted, it was the exporting process that was difficult for me.  No matter how many different ways and different times I tried to export the file as an mp3, it never worked.  It would only play the first maybe five seconds of the clip, when it was originally two minutes and thirty-two seconds.  It was very frustrating.

            I did enjoy making and creating the podcast despite the technological setbacks however.  I thought that the sound constraints made the cast all that much more interesting.  It was fun to think of ways to incorporate the different sounds into the cast and figure out were to place them. I wish that the exporting process had worked more easily for me, because then I think I would be more willing and excited to make another podcast.  One thing that I have learned from the podcast yet again is that you cannot always trust and rely on technology.

Up, Up, and Away

Life Story

A biography with an identity crisis.

Recorded voice: Train platform operator warning people not to leave their luggage on the platform www.freesound.iua.upf.edu  by user the_bloke33

Rhythmic noise: footsteps on concrete www.freesound.iua.upf.edu  by user swuing

Exclamation: Train whistle www.freesound.iua.upf.edu  by user Dalibor

Background: Background train station noise www.freesound.iua.upf.edu by user Audiactiva

Running time: 2:34

 

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When I began the pod cast I began by searching randomly for the required sounds. I then came across the announcement about leaving luggage on a train platform. This led me to wonder what would happen to a package that was left there by accident. What sort of inner dialogue would that package have? How would it impact its identity?  I knew from the beginning that the luggage announcement had to stay. From there I constructed my narrative. I tried to think of other emotions that a package would have. The packaging process in and of itself is something that could cause confusion in how the package perceived itself. A package could be confused about which identity is its true identity. Is a package the thing inside of it, the box, the colored wrapping paper, or the brown paper and tape that it is mailed in? The package’s problem is not that it is left behind on the train platform, but that it has no clue what it is actually is. From the beginning its selves did not get along. With more time in the pod cast I would have hoped to show people interacting with the package that have the same problem to drive this point home better.

I also found it very important that the sounds in the pod cast reflected only the experience of the package. I could not include voices of those walking about the train platform, because these voices would not be understandable to the package. Instead I chose to include sounds such as footsteps and train vibrations that would be closest to the experience a package under a bench would have.

In this pod cast my lack of expertise with pod-casting technology did hamper the way I decided to present my ideas. With every single aspect of the pod cast requiring so much effort, it became preferable to go for the simpler route. With more experience with pod casting technology I could see myself becoming more adventurous in my presentation. I have learned a lot through this pod casting experience and I could see myself using it in the future.

Title: “Train at King’s Cross”
Description of Style: Narrative and Conversational.
Description of Piece: Two passengers argue over a seat on the train.
Description of three sounds: “Mind the Gap,” train chug/whistle, “Blimey.”
Running time: 2 minutes, 30 seconds
Artist Credits:

The “Mind the Gap” sound, titled “MindTheGap”, is attributed to the freesounds user “acclivity”, and the URL is http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=14904

The train sound, titled “ChugChugWooHoo” is attributed to the freesounds user “”acclivity”, and the URL is  http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=31626

I would also like to thank Jenna Johnson and James Stoker for assisting me in my project and allowing me to record their voices.

Link to my podcast:

 

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This is Evan Scott Bryson’s Oulipo-constrained podcast.

 

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Style: Nostalgic Interrogation

Description of piece: A rumination on the appearance, worth, and rift of a BATTLE ROBOT entering the life of a rural youth.

Prerecorded voice: ‘Goobyes’ from friends on cellphone voicemails; Rhythmic noice: police sirens; Exclamation: air raid siren.

Time: 2:35 (pardon, pardon—sound only lasts until 2:32)

—Of course, there’s a lot of drumming, and some distorted vocals in the music track; and, probably some other exclamations. This is give or take. (’And he takes and he takes and he takes.’) But my own I introduce in the peculiar order. I’m particular.

Who is on this track? Kimberly Sienkiewickz and myself and my snare drum. But also:

Twelve Thirteen’s stimulating song ‘number5′.

http://www.archive.org/details/twelvethirteennumber5

& a police siren found here, which breaks at about 230 bps, I bet:

http://www.jamglue.com/mixes/42932-Police-Siren

& a rad air raid siren found here:

http://www.jamglue.com/tracks/565015-Sound-Effects-Air-Raid-Siren

Thanks for this. If I can cite this any better, hunt me down and shake me until I do so.

SOME REFLECTIONS—

In Kieth Gessen’s opening remarks to n+1’s symposium, “A Practical Avant-garde,” he says, “One of the things we expected to happen when we started a magazine that published fiction, and that didn’t happen—one of the many things—is that people would bombard us with weird stuff they’d written. We expected stories that didn’t make any sense, edible stories, or stories that caused you to go blind as you read them, and—it’s a good thing that this didn’t happen. But it’s also a little puzzling.”

And perhaps now I’m addressing Gessen’s comment to this crop of podcasts, which, given the “Oulipian” constraints, still share remarkable characteristics between themselves, and are seldom strange or unnerving or very unconventional, despite the various complications had by software users, and the various sophistications of their enterprises. What strange or unnerving podcasts might sound like I think we can imagine, but “very unconventional” edges on hoity-toity assumptions about what conventions, regardless, there are to flout. But I’m not here to discuss why our podcasts aren’t avant-garde (a question that is almost cruel in its supposition), though if the Oulipians often labour at works with avant-garde novelty or aesthetics, perhaps this brief transference of values can be excused as the curious ditherings of a fool always disappointed in his flimsy makings. (Perhaps not disappointed, but definitely curious as to the creation’s unresolved aspects. Who doesn’t have the same thoughts about the weather right now? Why won’t it just snow?)

No—I think I’ll continue on that route. If the only literature is voluntary literature, as Raymond Queneau posits in the minutes of Memorandum #4, then hot dammit none of us had much of a shot at the an art enterprise anyways, that is, if we concede a difference between assignments, exercises, productions and commodities. We may be speaking the same language between “works” and “dalliances,” but in the end that seems, to me, about as much distinction as “glib remarks” and the “State of the Union Address.” (Although, nobody quotes from State of the Union addresses, and the glib remarks slide into infamy forever—a lot of tosh. And, I’m reminded now of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel _Less Than Zero_ written in a Bennington creative writing class. I’ve bought three copies in the last four years. What a lot of tosh this back and forth is.)

I’m interested in machine as machine and I’m interested in resisting/worshipping the machine in direct proportion to how far I can anthropomorphize the machine’s intentions/capabilities. When it serves me I serve it. I didn’t want to make a podcast about something that wasn’t a machine, a metal-wires-plastic-silicon thing. The music I’ve been listening to this semester has that sterile sounding gling-modulation of robots making sweet love music. “PowerBooks having sex,” is how the magazines put it. The noise in my head is cobalt-cunky and jiggered with delay, clips and clicks. Daft Punk, Battles, The Books, Animal Collective, Girl Talk, and more specifically Squarepusher’s “I Wish You Could Talk” and “The Exploding Psychology” (off the “Go Plastic” album).

So I considered for a while just crashing a bunch of shit together, hyper-magic-mountain-style, and listening for the robot love. Would the sounds fit for constraining emerge? I recorded seven minutes of half-listened to voicemails to uncover any nuggets—I had one from Valerie asking me if I was eating, if I had viable sources of food (my meal card ran out). How often does one get a desperate hunk of love transmitted like that, begging one to eat? And my twin brother, he called on his way to Poland, and wished himself happy travels and for me a good weekend! I recorded a windy night sitting with my blind dog on the back porch, raising my PowerBook up to the wind chimes. I filled my mothers wedding crystal with different volumes of water and massaged their rims, had my father toot his deputy’s La Sabre horns, smashed wood and pipes together….

But the avant-garde, the spurious, the bi-curious, the deathly-ill-sounding, is hard to manufacture when I don’t have a line-in or a complete drum set. And, also, the persistent nagging, deep in my gut-pit that Audacity might quit and hide my files on the fifth hour of prime-production. A thing called the “noise floor” also plays a part in righteously slamming me into a bad mood. As I bowed across my brother’s violin strings, I could see the fine input glyphs churl and churn into a thick band of crunch. Consumptive coughing. (But all the sweet violin stuff didn’t make the cut anyway—the machine decided for me, in this instance, what it felt worth keeping, and when, and took everything—even the windchimes.) By moving initial recording to GarageBand I was able to manufacture some base tracks to be messed with in Audacity. Insurance. The downloaded sounds were ok by and bye.

The Oulipo constraints were hardly! Although, listening now—listening convulsively—to my podcast, I think where I activate the constraints is not as transparent as it could be. The track begins with a mouf-beat breathed into a flash of bass, a drop, but that is still recorded voice, only deteriorated. —And then those words are spoken, “From the beginning…” and then a—an exclamation? No—just some exposition. Slight. After this a snare drum is played—but that isn’t my rhythmic noise (I play for slops, folks—I only have rhythm where rugburns are concerned), this is just some dischord. Then the “Goodbye” spoken, quickly, puntuatingly, by the robot lady in my voicemail and my friend Megan, layer-caked. More rhythms emerge. The police sound. Then onto the soft spot of the programming, and then the air ride siren (exclamation). But then the ending happens—where the girls admits something. And this is an exclamation, too. With knowledge of the constraints, everything built around them mirrored them, embellished them, scooped them. The constraints began to echo one another, and then to converse. Retro-active-like.

Anyhow, had I that most-coveted resource, I would have: added really obnoxious crunchy sounds exploding in the higher octaves, complimented by the tensing and unspooling of somber chords on the bottom of the organ rack.

I think a constraint the Oulipo should take into account—the ur-restraint, which exists internalized and externalized among structuralist ideas about language—is a notion of agency. And what happens when that agency, at every turn, is compromised within the panoptic cult of the university. And, I guess this is what I’m talking about now—the constraint of time, which is not intrinsic to Oulipian methodology, but serves a function all its own, on both the psychology of the creator and the life of the created. Frankenstein-style. BATTLE ROBOT-style.

Families Don’t Always Getting Along

Confiding Narrative

A sister tells the listener about her brother’s seemingly stressful relationship.

Prerecorded voice: Automatic voice message system of a cell phone

Rhythmic noise: Alarm clock going off

Exclamation: “You’re pregnant!?”

While I worked on my podcast, the Oulipian constraints acted as a set of boundaries for me. Working with some constraints was actually helpful and the fact that the first sentence was already dictated, although there was room for interpretation, forced me to narrow my thoughts down. The first sentence forced me to think of a general plot for my story, if that is what it is called, and from there I decided where I would work in the three required sounds. I thought of how I wanted to my characters to interact and what characteristics I would try to demonstrate in them. I made my choices of sounds to include based on what I thought would help develop my characters, as much as you can develop them in two and a half short minutes. I was hoping to convey the effect of a person confiding in a friend about her brother. It was not supposed to be particularly gripping or intense, I merely wanted to portray the life of a couple in a way that would make the listener feel as if they were being directly spoken to. I originally put another voice in (the voice of the person I was talking to) but left it out at the last minute because I wanted the listener to feel as if they were being addressed. In the background are few lines from the couple themselves, as well as some of the background sounds that would be heard in the couple’s living area on a regular basis.

Given more time, I would include more background sounds. It seems a little dull to me when I’m just narrating without much sound in the background. I like the spots where vocals overlap and I would have like to include more of those. Doors closing, food cooking, computer typing—these are all sounds I wish I could have put into the podcast, but there comes a point when you have to stop working. That was one thing that was difficult to control. Telling yourself to stop looking for the perfect sound and be satisfied with what you have. Technology was an excellent tool because it enabled me to find so many interesting sound clips. This had a bad side though, because I was constantly looking for something a little better. I wanted to put some music into the background, but I listened to clip after clip of music on free websites and nothing was really clicking with what I wanted for my narrative, so I decided to give that search up. I really enjoyed recording my own sounds, but was a little disappointed when I found better ones online. Recording my own sound was a lot of fun, but sometimes I wondered if I was wasting my time because chances are good that someone has already recorded the sound effect I’m looking for and I might just be able to get off of the internet. Technology was great in the way it opened so many avenues for me to explore sound and music, but it inhibited me in the way I had so much at my fingertips that I feel I spent too much time searching. Another difficulty I had was that when I was putting my podcast together and mixing tracts, I often had so many up that it became dizzying as I tried to keep track of them all.

I’ve learned that I always underestimate how long a podcast will take me. I’ve also learned that it is good to set time restraints on myself, particularly when I’m searching the online creative commons. Working audacity has become easier and actually enjoyable for me—an unexpected plus of the assignment. By creating my own media I have come to truly appreciate the time and effort that goes into the scripting, editing, and producing a work.

Baby Cry: pfly http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/

Alarm Clock: Jackstrebor http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/

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Have Your Cake and Eat it Too

Dialogue

About an argument between two people

The first sound is the pre-recorded voice of Boris Hladek talking in German. The second sound is the rhythmic noise of a clock ticking. My last sound is the exclamation of “dammit” from the female character.Its running time is exactly 2 minutes and 30 seconds 

           I started my endeavor by searching last year’s podcasts from the festival to try and understand what I should attempt. I found the German podcast from Boris Hladek, and fell in love with it. I knew I wanted to use it in my final product. This was the only constraint I had for a while, and I decided to develop a story line around it. I thought it would be interesting to try and hold a conversation with Boris. The other two oulipian constraints didn’t play a part until later. I finished my story and realized I still needed to somehow incorporate these two things in.             The second constraint of the clock related to the background music I designed for the podcast. I thought the idea of time was an interesting concept when the storyline had to do with a potential death. The third constraint of the exclamation was the final decision I made. I really wasn’t sure at all what I wanted my exclamation to be. After listening to my podcast a few times I thought “dammit” would be appropriate.             I chose a woman to hold the dialogue with the German character because I wanted it to appear like they may have had a relationship. They background music was something I developed in garage band. It starts simple and adds layers of music. This creates a climax where there is also a climax in the story. The music adds another layer to the story and helps make sense of the clock tick at the end.             I hoped to convey the effect that there was a relationship problem between this couple. It may or may not be because of the language barrier. The woman started out calm and nice, but then got crazier and crazier when she wasn’t able to understand what the man was saying. She interpreted him wrongly which greatly angered both of them. In the end a gunshot is heard. It is not known what was being shot at.             I think I was fairly successful. The hardest part for me was the time constraint. We were supposed to get it in exactly 2 minutes 30 seconds. I accomplished this, but I had to stretch out and shorten a few areas that I would not have normally done that for. The dialogue was affected by the time constraint as well.             If I had to go back and fix it, I would make it flow better. I would also try to create a tie in to when the two characters start talking at the same time at the end. I would have liked more of this interaction at the beginning as well. I would also think about changing my three sounds. I definitely liked the German, but it would be interesting to experiment with this anyway.            The technology was horrible. I’m not a very technologically inclined person. I had tremendous difficulties with it the whole time. It took probably 5 times longer than it should to create because I kept losing the podcast. My skill with computers is the only thing I hated about the technology though. I loved being able to layer sound, and cut and paste it as well. This is a very simple medium to work with, that allows the creator to create exactly what they want. All it takes is a few tries to get it perfect. I would definitely like to use this medium again sometime. acclivity. SmallCarriageClockTicking.wav.<http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=30608>HerbertBoland.GunshotsSynthesized.wav. <http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=30185>Boris Hladek

http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/KG/cake_covers/Boris-Hladek_Cake.mp3

      Catching up with Friends
Conversational atmosphere
Two friends try and see where life is going while getting off a train.

Pre-Recorded Voice: the Chicago Transit Authority speaker

Repetitive Noise: City sound loop, found thanks to freesound.net

Exclamation: Passing Car honk, found at http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/

Running time 2mins 28secs

Cast: Character A: Jason Borntreger

          Character B: Dustin Lawrence

It’s funny, I believe that the intention of the assignment was to have the Oulipian guidelines constrain our creativity, when in fact it did quite the opposite.  If given a perfectly blank assignment I would have struggled to find a solid idea.  I don’t think it would be unreasonable to assume that most of the class would have asked for some guidelines, especially a required time length.  Having a few fences put up in my way guided me to my idea for this assignment.  What inhibited any form of progress and prevented any kind of quality from my final product was the format of the assignment.

            The Oulipian guides of the beginning line, time length, exclamation, and repetitive noise all served to usher to this idea.  In my head the first thing I thought of when I heard “To begin with they never got along”, was two friends sitting and catching up on a recent break up of tow other mutual friends.  It is not a mystery to me why I thought of this first, I am simply writing what I know.  Recently I had a conversation very similar to the one I had my two friends verbally act out.  I had these two friends, my two friends started dating, and then my two friends (after a year of being a successful couple) broke up.  It was hard on both of them, but it hit me hard because I had been modeling my own relationship after their’s.  It was kind of a, if they can’t make it what chance do I have kind of a moment.  Well while I was sitting with a friend a few months back I realized that the rational I was assuming was the cause of this breakup was actually the worries and doubts I had concerning my own relationship.

            In all honesty I know why my friends’ relationship ended; they wanted different things out of life.  She wanted children and to settle down in a family way.  He wanted anything other than that.  After a certain point they both acknowledged that they ultimately were moving on different paths and decided it was best to split.  I was far more worried about staying with my girlfriend because of a feeling of obligation.  While writing the script for this podcast I thought it would be interesting to have the listener character call out the knowledgeable character on confusing his stories.  The “Who are we talking about here?” line is actually just an echo of my own internal dialog for when I realized that I was not thinking of my friends’ relationship but my own.

            The purpose behind the setting was I simple.  When I first heard of “pre recorded voice” the first thing I thought of was the voice of the CTA announcer calling out the stops.  From there, everything else in the planning processes just fell into place.  The repetitive noise would be a loop of city noise or train noise.  The exclamation would be one character screaming or cursing after a taxi nearly hit him crossing a street.  In my head it all worked out flawlessly.

            So the Oulipian guidelines posed no real threat, technology did.  The version of the podcast that hopefully (knock on wood pray to Jesus) is attached to this word press page is my third attempt at completing the assignment.  Yes, believe it or not I had a version of this podcast recorded and ready to go last Wednesday, but files weren’t combatable and resources weren’t available for me to use over the weekend.  So, I tried the audacity way of doing things.  Horrible little program’ too limited in its scoop, not user friendly, not easy to learn, and its ugly.

            I decided on the location of the scene based on a sound effect I all ready have in my possession.  However, after several attempts I was unable to get my copy of the CTA man saying, “This is Noyes” into audacity.  What I was finally reduced to doing was holding the mp3 recorder up to the headphones of a Christopher Center computer and playing a youtube video of someone else riding the train.

            I found myself extremely frustrated during most of this assignment.  Frequently I would hear the sharp bing of the computer telling me that whatever it was I had wanted to do was not going to be done.  Bing, file full.  Bing, file incompatible.  Bing, wrong format.  I am ashamed of the work I was forced due to technological difficulties and time constraints to turn in and publish on this website.  I do not think it sounds very good, I do not think it does my original idea justice, and if given the opportunity I would gladly delete it and try to start again.

street-train.mp3

 

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Style: CONFLICT

Description: This podcast serves as the only remaining record of a relationship, sped up to a 2 minute, 30 second time frame between two individuals who never met.

Running Time: 2:30

Some Sounds: An answering machine message [Pre-recorded voice], a bass line [rhythmic noise], and WHAT?! [an exclamation].

As for the contributors of these sounds:

Voices: Megan Telligman [me], Justin Egge, Amanda Gartman

Pre-recorded voice: Apparently a girl named Kallie found on the website http://freesound.iua.upf.edu and posted by user NoiseCollector.

Music: Nick, Dan, Ed, and Bobby of NATIVE

 

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My response: 

For my Oulipian podcast, I created a dialogue (in the loosest sense of the word) between two individuals. For whatever reason, they continually call and miss each other. The technology they depend on for communication eventually fails them. My concept for the story was a full relationship, sped up into a two minute and thirty second podcast. The couple begins lighthearted, not dependent on one another in the least, but the dependency grows as the individuals need the attention of the other for their own self esteem. Stereotypically, the male resorts to anger, while the female expresses self doubt. The relationship, if it can be called that, ends as most do and the individuals never even met.

 I worked directly from the constraints for my podcast. When I read about the pre-recorded voice constraint, I immediately thought of and found an answering machine message. I created my story based solely on this constraint, and I think it worked out fairly well. I didn’t have to do a lot of searching, I worked with what I found initially and it gave me more time to work on the podcast itself as opposed searching for obscure clips to fit a pre-written story. As for the other choices I made, I chose the music for the bass line that lends the rhythmic noise to the podcast. The music builds as the tension does, and in that sense it was the perfect song for the subject matter. Plus, my best friends are in this band, so it made getting permission to use the song particularly easy. Finally, I used my friends’ voices because they were accessible and flexible. The exclamation, “What?!” is foreshadowing of the “fight” to come.  I would continue to work on this story line if I had more time. A lot of questions are left unanswered, and I would like to make a more cohesive story if I had more time.

I think the technology both enabled and inhibited my creative process. It inhibited my creative process by constraining me to what I could actually achieve via podcast. I had to make sure my “actors” were able to pull off the emotions that I wanted to express. I couldn’t show “angry,” it had to be heard. I think the music helped me pull this off. It created a sense of tension and building until the eventual breakdown. At the same time, the constraints created by both the assignment and the medium forced me to think creatively about the space in which I was working and the amount of time I had. Like I said, my story was completely based on the constraint, and I know that if I had been given the assignment “make a podcast” it wouldn’t have been nearly as good as the one I have created. The constraints helped me come up with something “outside of the box,” ironically.

I’ve already mentioned that the new attention I paid to the emotion in people’s voices, but I also became more attuned to the subtle importance of volume. I learned that the podcasting genre can be a lot more than a guy recording his voice in a basement, instead can be a thoughtful dedicated process. It took me the better part of a week to compile my podcast, so I can’t imagine the amount of time true podcasters dedicated to the genre. I like the genre for the ease and my ability to incorporate music and writing, two things I love.

(or, “On the War of a Foot”)

A Short Story

An imprisoned foot plots against his captor, the evil leather shoe.

Specific Sounds:

• Voice: “Oh I can’t stand you,”
  • http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/index.html
• Rhythmic Noise: footsteps
  • http://www.pacdv.com/sounds/index.html
• Exclamation: Scream(1e),
  • http://ljudo.com/default.asp
• Background music: “Wrong Turn” by Balloonist,
  • www.opsound.org

2:30

 

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Notes on “Foot Notes”

Reading the beginning of “Yours for the Telling” by Raymond Queneau, gave me an idea of what the Oulipian artists were doing, but it was difficult to do these things myself because they were not things to be done, only things not to be done. The constraint wasn’t to write an odd story about “sprightly peas” (171), but to begin an experiment with vague ideas at hand.

The first line, “To begin with, they never got along” was my starting point. Here I began moving and thinking of things, beings that wouldn’t get along. Some of those listed were a cat and a dog, a soul and a mind, band members, co-workers (which I immediately nixed), a finger and a nose (crude, I know), and the multiple personalities of one individual. The latter was investigated the furthest of these, though I decided it was a bit unoriginal and with obvious conclusions. Something ordinary was needed; something seemingly boring was in order. Under my computer desk my feet ached under the constraints of their newly purchased leather shoes. My shoes were not getting along with my feet and “to begin with, they never got along.”

So I began toying with the idea, building “the labyrinth from which [I] propose to escape” (Brief History of the Oulipo, 175). The sound effects fell into place. In the storyline, the foot eventually tells the shoe “Oh, I can’t stand you.” My original idea was to have the shoe say something sinister, something evil to the foot, but came to the conclusion that the truly evil thing about the shoe was that it was devoid of all feeling or care, and therefore had no soul (and this is why my feet were in such pain). After hearing the foot’s remark, I decided that the shoe should have some extra sinister act. He manipulates the foot (and the “father of the foot) so that they slam the big toe into a wooden desk leg. Both the walking, which was my “rhythmic noise” and the screaming as the “exclamation” seemed logical choices for sound effects. My way out of the labyrinth was clear and straight in view.

What remained difficult was the task of writing such a short piece. After recording the initial script I had 20 seconds to cut from the piece, (2:50 sec in total). This I did by gradually re-recording occasional bits as well as cutting unnecessary milliseconds between words and breath’s. I will admit that because of this the podcast may more too quickly at times. I struggled to balance the 2-minute-and-thirty-seconds time constraint with a need for a natural, fluid sound. Eventually I cut the piece down to exactly 2:30 with trouble and many re-writings. It still moves quickly. Without something behind the text and effects, though, the piece felt dry and uninteresting. The music I’ve selected was found on opsound.org. It seemed the appropriate touch to breath life into my story. I had to edit the piece at one point, trying to preserve the idea of it as a whole while balancing its tone and feeling with those in the story. The original song “Wrong Turn” by Balloonist was over 4 minutes in length. I had to edit it down to exactly 2:30 to fit our constraints.

The constraints, while at times were abhorred by the author, only furthered my imagination and creative process. Sometimes in my own creative works, say, song writing, I’m lost without constraints. In turn, I propose constraints on my own work which usually only hinders it. Because these were external constraints, ones which I had no part in deciding, I had to use them to my advantage. I looked to them eagerly with excitement. The technology wasn’t a constraint in itself, but the search for my sound effects through the use of technology (the internet) was terrible. For example, I originally wanted the shoe to say something like “It had no soul” or “The thing had no soul” but couldn’t find any free pre-recorded sound bites of this nature available. When I stumbled across “Oh I can’t stand you” I had to re-write the piece to fit, satisfying my first requirement. The other two sound-constraints were essentially as I meant them to be, though. Once found, they were easy to manipulate and mold.

If I had more time I would continue to work on the fluidity of my words. The writing and story line, though a bit odd, works. I might re-write the piece to allow for more spacing between breaths and words. I would buff up the spoken words as well, adding a bit of reverb (not offered in audacity) and echoing sound effects. Overall, though, I am fairly satisfied with my product and intrigued by the Oulipian idea of constraint. The experiment was not a failure.

Style: An epic revisited  Description: The history of a hobbit, a ring, and the future of an entire realm retold with the rhythmic cadences of a fan conjuring thoughts of tribal drums in the background. Yes, a fan.Running time: 2:30.00

Three Sounds: The prerecorded voice is taken from an action figure of Gollum from “The Lord of the Rings” in which he says “my precious”. The rhythmic noise was made using a ceiling fan and the exclamation is a mimicry of Gollum with the pitch of my voice changed slightly.

Citation:

Crunchy leaves - Cognito Perceptu

http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=17125

Thunder - Erdie

http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=24003

 Wind - Medialint

http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=11863

All sounds found on the Free Sound Project

 

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Language is imperfect.

Language is concrete.

Language is incapable of adequately conveying human emotion, let alone the natural world.

Whether it is justified or not, these are the complaints lodged against the written and spoken word.

 But even in the face of these charges, we haven’t stopped trying to express ourselves in new, more complex ways whenever the opportunity – or technology – allows it.

The podcast, as a technologically driven art form, takes into consideration the Oulipian desire to create a new entity while also taking the time to explore the potentiality of the written word when employed by this new medium. The key to the podcast as an expressive form is its ability to explore and experiment with words, thoughts, and emotions. This process, however, is extremely different from the experimentation one would undertake when attempting to express oneself through the written word.

Unlike writing that relies solely on capturing an emotion or image through black on blank (the written word can be read aloud of course as well), the podcast enables the user to compliment the language with an array of different sounds and even alter the pitch, speed, and overall quality of the spoken word to convey a desired effect. With this in mind, I attempted to use the available technology to the fullest extent by utilizing a number of sounds to create a certain ambiance unavailable to either the written or spoke word. However, after much debate, I decided to leave the main body, the spoken word that retells the story of Frodo, the ring, and Gollum alone so that the focal point of the podcast would not become how the word was altered – or the intriguing sound effects – but rather how the word was able to remain the same in the face of technology. While this attempt may not appear to be of the utmost significance, I found it important to place a certain amount of emphasis upon the spoken word in an effort to prevent it from becoming lost among the bells and whistles, the frills and bows of the podcast. For example, while I could have modified my voice in the “body” of the podcast just like I did for the exclamation at the beginning of the podcast, I chose to allow the words – rather than the tone or pitch of the voice – to convey the desired meaning; whether or not I achieved this effect is debatable and entirely up to the listener. In the same vein, I feel that it is much more challenging to let the words stand for themselves than it is to allow technology to shape and transform the ultimate impact and meaning of the language used. Similarly, while an eerie background may have helped influence the overall effect of the podcast, I decided to stay with a natural, almost tribal, sounding cadence made by running my fingertips across the moving blades of a ceiling fan. Although the creation of this podcast did not consciously begin as an attempt to let the word speak for itself in the technological realm, the final results – which were partially driven by what technology is incapable of doing – would seem to disagree.

While technology allows language to be conveyed in such a way that the meaning and effect of the mechanically-enhanced word can be explicated further and with greater ease than the spoken word alone, I still found it very difficult to convey the exact emotions I had envisioned while creating my podcast. For example, it was very frustrating to know exactly what type of sound I wanted to include in a certain part of the podcast, but not be able to find a sound similar to it; technology, like the word, has its limits to how closely you can express your thoughts and the world around you. The sound of leaves crunching is difficult to record and at times even more difficult to distinguish when you are not told that it is in fact the sound of leaves being crunched underfoot. Audio recordings, like the word, have a difficult time fully replicating human emotions and are often unable to adequately depict a scene as well as it would be conveyed visually. In addition to being limited by the sounds or lack thereof available online, I found that the form of my podcast was shaped by the parameters listed on the Third Coast Festival website. After finding out that the podcast had to include a prerecorded voice – in my case Gollum’s – the avenues of creativity closed very quickly. Being well aware of the fact that I had a prerecorded voice ready for the using, I may have neglected other possibilities that would have worked just as well. Oddly enough, the guidelines, which usually aid the formation of a written work of art (at least in scholastic circles), hampered the creativity of my podcast.

If given further time to work on this podcast, it would be well worth the effort to attempt to record a variety of sounds on my own so that they could coordinate with the overall theme of the podcast. The creative process, I feel, is stunted a bit when the creator has to rely on the creations of others; one would feel more invested in the overall product if wasn’t an amalgamation of work from other sources. On a lesser note, I would continue to work on the podcast in an effort to strengthen the storyline a bit and possibly add additional layers to it although it would be difficult to do given the two minute thirty second time limit; this time limit does add to the level of creativeness necessary for this podcast assignment, however.

But, when all is said and done, my podcast learning experience hinges greatly on one thing: it is much easier to envision what emotions and ideas you would like your podcast to communicate than it is to successfully express these given emotions and ideas in a podcast.