The Real Me
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.
December 8th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Kylie,
It’s always interesting to play with the divided self since it’s rare that any of us finally feel unified. Interesting too that the place you feel most yourself is foreign, away from home, different.
I think it’s fine that you chose to create your story first and then go in search of sounds, but I think it shows in some sense, too. The sounds, while clearly related to the story, feel “tacked on,” working primarily as illustration, not contributing overall to the mood of the podcast. That said, my favorite sound was the Hallelujah exclamation. Nice humor there.