Sound and visual media
This assignment asks you to consider how the cultural disruptions of the COVID-19 global pandemic and its subsequent lockdowns have influenced the way we HEAR visual cultural activities.
This short paper will critically examine, analyze and assess the acoustic context of a chosen cultural work. This could be a gallery exhibition of visual art, a popular (or not so popular) TV show, a night out at the cinema, or a public art installation.
Pay particular attention to the spatial context of where your visual experience is taking place and consider how the sound of this space is influencing or inflecting your overall media experience.
Pay attention to, and critically consider, the sonic conditions that are often rendered as secondary to the visual aspects of cultural experience.
What are the dynamics of noise, silence and music at play in the visual cultural experience you’ve chosen to examine? What sort of listening practices are encouraged?
This assignment asks you base your reflection on a recent personal media experience, so you are expected to write about something you have actually done during this term. By writing about an experience you intentionally go out and have this term you will go into that experience actually listening for things.
In other words, do NOT simply reflect back on an experience you may have had previously. Use this assignment as an opportunity to get out into the world and experience something.
This assignment takes the idea of “cultural work” in a rather narrow sense, and as such is not intended to cover “everyday” types of cultural experiences such as sitting in coffee shops, shopping malls, or public transit.
What would the gallery/theater/cinema/public space sound like before, during or after a visual art exhibition/play/movie/experience?)
Are there related cultural or artistic practices that your event/artwork/etc. that might relate to or somehow inform the nature of its aurality?
Are there historical practices, or shifts in historical practices, which might inform the aurality of this experience?
What are the social or cultural norms that help produce the ideas of silence, noise or music that might be in play? How does the expected or intended experience of your chosen subject implicitly draw upon these norms? Does it challenge them in any way?
New question: Has the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic affected the way you hear or experience of this event? Do you recall your pre-pandemic experiences of similar events?
You should draw upon AT LEAST THREE scholarly sources for your assignment. These sources should be applied in a way that illustrates and adds depth to the observations you’re reporting on in your paper.
DIGITAL PROJECT OPTION
Instead of a traditional written assignment, choose to submit a 3 to 5min digital media work (e.g., audio podcast, video/VLOG, media slideshow, etc.) instead. Engage the substantive content requirements of the assignment in the same way as a written report. Digital media, though, offers you a wide range of creative ways to make your point, and that’s what this option is all about.
If you choose this option, discuss your ideas and proposed format with the beforehand.
