I did the “The Contest Nobody Could Win” assignment. It is a guessing game, where one must guess which songs make up a very short audio recording. Please don’t post your answers so that others can play too.
I used Audacity to create a mix of 6 one second segments from 6 different songs. I used Soundcloud to share the mix.
Although my mix is useful for nothing more than a guessing game, replacing the origin of the audio from songs to presidential speeches(for example) would be helpful for creating a combined theme of several speeches.
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/68097384″ iframe=”true” /]
Image Source: DS106 website
Which audio assignment will you be doing.
I decided to pick a song by popular artist Jay Z and “Chipmunk it” like Alvin and Chipmunks would do it. Song name is “99 Problems” and Jay Z performed it during Obama presidential election rally.
What hardware and software will you be using.
For mixing I used Virtual DJ Home 7 and my laptop.
A statement about how this approach to storytelling might be used to make an historical argument.
Chipmunked audio can be used as an interesting and unusual approach to make a historical argument. While working on this project I came to realization that chipmunking has a potential to have two different effects on the final outcome – positive or negative. By this, I mean if the original product is presented by respectable person and in the serious manner, the chipmunked version will turn it to funny and unimportant. In a case of any US president speeches no matter how important or urgent is the message, urgency and importance will disappear in the chipmunked version.
On the other hand, there are cases when performer uses inappropriate expressions such as explicit lyrics, unethical views or even incite hatred and violence. Products of this nature cannot be presented to certain audiences such as young adults. Using chipmunk effect will put a positive spin on this inappropriate product and, at the same time, will be able to historically preserve this artifact without destroying it. Perfect example is Jay Z and most of his songs that are filled with bad language and messages. After applying chipmunk effect the song became much “friendlier”. I would not even be surprised if one day Hollywood would use it in one of their funny kids cartoons.
To summarize, chipmunking effect on the audio product provides an interesting and unique opportunity where we can twist the message and at the same time make a historical arguments. Similar methods are used in politics and other areas of life where people want to emphasize certain messages that are convenient to them, and make extra effort to veil others that are undesirable.
The assignment I have chosen to take on is Forced Collabo, in which you must construct a new song combining artists you may never have thought to work together. This assignment struck me because of its potential for some really interesting results. You get the opportunity not only to rewrite history but to create a new story in which you are the author. With all of this in mind, I came to the conclusion that I would mix “By the Time I Get To Arizona” by Public Enemy with “Cybele’s Reverie” by Stereolab. While both of these groups operated during the same period, early 1990’s, they clearly come from two very different worlds, sonically and physically.
The hardware I am using to create my project is a Roland SP-404sx sampler recording into Logic Express. With the sampler I am able to assign different sections of each song to a specific pad and then play, edit, and record all in real-time.
Roland SP-404sx
I believe that through this process of combining separate elements of music, whether seemingly opposed, can prove telling about the nature of music itself and how people relate to sounds throughout the world. Technology such as the sampler has given musicians a tool in which they can create new music by breathing life into the work of others, sometimes long forgotten soul 45’s and maybe other times top 40. In either instance, the sampler, since its inception, has served as the greatest force against exploitative copyright law and continues to leave music in the hands of its rightful owner, the musician.
Not many people are familiar with the sounds of the ocean, 100 miles from shore, and the sound of reels screaming while tuna fishing out there. I will be producing a short audio recording from one of my tuna trips out of the eastern tip of Long Island (have some of them on video). I will be using my mac, and the software is audacity. This approach to story telling can offer a very “real” experience of a certain event and the listeners may be able to get a better thrill hearing this aspect rather than reading about it or seeing pictures.
Which audio assignment will you be doing.
The audio assignment I had chosen is “Chipmunk it”. Its remixing a pop culture songs to mimic the effect as if a chipmunk was singing it.
What hardware and software will you be using.
The hardware I uses its a computer. The software I use is VirtualDJ.
A statement about how this approach to storytelling might be used to make an historical argument.
This approach to storytelling might be used to make an historical argument because it create a new way of looking at the music and how it change over the years. Also, people obsession with “chipmunking” songs. Examining the popularity of “chipmunked” songs, and raise the questions why Chipmunked music is so popular?
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/67862851″ iframe=”true” /]
The chipmunk audio approach to storytelling could be used to make an historical argument by comparing the effect of the chipmunk audio to the intended audiences. For example some of the questions that arise while chipmunking an audio is does the message still get delivery as intended of the original author, does the message still hold values and significant meanings and will it have the same impact. For example if we chipmunked the 2012 presidential debate, will the listeners of the debate feel the same way about their candidate. Will they know who is saying what? Or will they take them seriously? And will they vote base on the messages or change their views.
Also, for the maker of the chipmunk 2012 presidential debate, is he or she saying that both candidates are essentially the same. Does the author want the voters to listen to the message rather than the tone and delivery?
Another example is chipmunking historical speeches. As we mentions in class, if we chipmunked Dr.King’s I have a dream speech, and play it to an audiences whom have no knowledge that its Dr.King, will they still feel the same way about the message, will it be impact and emotions be felt the same way. My guess is probably not but does it signify the important of the speakers who delivering the speech?
In conclusion, I believe chipmunking an audio is an interesting approach to storytelling and making a historical arguments, because it have several intended ways of producing a story, by hiding anonymity of the author and changing the delivery of the contents.
Reading, due by class time on Monday:
Nov 19: The goals of public history
- Anne Trubek, “A City’s History, Made Mobile,” Yahoo News, June 6, 2012.
- Explore the site “Cleveland Historical.”
You will choose and do an assignment from the DS106 Audio Assignment Bank. This project can be related or unrelated to your group project.
Here is a guide to producing audio.
By 8:00 am on Monday, November 19, write a post that includes the following:
- Which audio assignment will you be doing.
- What hardware and software will you be using.
- A statement about how this approach to storytelling might be used to make an historical argument.
By 5:50 pm on Wednesday, November 21, post your audio production (hosted on Soundcloud) to the course blog along with an updated statement about how this approach to storytelling might be used to make an historical argument.
Ira Glass on Storytelling
- Building blocks
- Anecdote
- Moment of reflection
- Break away from conventional presentation of argument followed by evidence
- Hard to find a good story
- Kill the crappy stuff, failure ok
21 minutes
Discussion of Site Maps
- Group by group review
- Restatement of guiding historical questions
We are examining how voters and candidates use the internet and its tools to affect the elections. In 2008 a new record was made by first time voters and in the 2012 elections we saw voters vote online.
Currently we are working on a website built on baruch blogs to represent each one of our elections (2000,2004,2008, and 2012)
Maps, pictures, articles, and other interactive data will be presented and will vary per election.
There will also be a comparison between the 4 elections.
[entry-title]
“What effect did the debates have on, specifically, the 1960, 1992, and 2012 presidential election outcomes?”
site map
http://instigatordh3460.wordpress.com/
To analyze data we gather, tools such as wordle, fusion tables, polls included on our site, and maps will be used to help in support of answering our question.
Assets: debates.org , pewresearch.org , gallup.com, 270towin.com, http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/, whitehouse.gov, Presidential debates (novel by Alan Schroeder)
Watch:
Ira Glass on Storytelling, in four parts on YouTube:
Pt 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loxJ3FtCJJA
Pt 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW6x7lOIsPE
Pt 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI23U7U2aUY
Pt 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baCJFAGEuJM
Group Work, post due by 8:00am on Wednesday:
Together as a group you should create a detailed site map that outlines the organization of the assets you presented in class for the last assignment. Remember that your project needs to cover the following areas: spatial history, data mining and analysis, textual analysis, and visual and aural culture. All four of these areas should be represented in your site map.
You may design and publish your site map outside of our class blog, but write a post with the map embedded (preferable) or linked to.
Your post should include the following:
- A statement of the historical question you’re examining in a single sentence
- A visual representation of how your final product will be organized for readers/viewers (this is the site map) — be as specific as you can about how users will navigate through the various forms of material you will present
- Reference to tools that will be employed to analyze data before it gets presented on your site
- Reference to tools that will be employed to display information on your site
- An up-to-date inventory of primary sources
Discussion of Site Maps
- Group by group review
- Restatement of guiding historical questions
Reading Review:
Bill Nichols, “The Voice of Documentary,” in Alan Rosenthal, ed., New Challenges for Documentary
- Documentary strategies and styles have a history
- Four major strategies presented, evaluating strengths and limitations
- Direct-address, Griersonian, off-screen narration
- Cinema verite, everyday lives, portable cameras, “transparent”
- Interview-oriented
- Self-reflexive, acknowledge documentaries have always been “forms of re-presentation”
- Question of “voice”
- Importance of balancing raw data with interpretation, linking evidence with argument (while providing proper context)
- Reading/Writing the silences
Next Steps
- GET CAUGHT UP.
[entry-title]
A statement of the historical question you’re examining in a single sentence
Why is the war on drugs not a key issues in the 2012 Presidential elections?
Our plan is created a website where visitor can easily navigate through the site. For this site map, we decide to use google site, as a template for now. We haven’t decided if we will continue to use google site or look for another web hosting site. We’re going to split up the workload by having William researching Prohibition and drawing a connection to the issues drug in 2012. Cary will research the impact and effect of crimes and spending in relation to drugs over the course of the years. Stephan will look at the Reagan Era and how did the War on Drugs started. I will research current events and did result each candidate stance on drugs impacted the poll, in state like Washington and Colorado where Marijuana is legalize for recreational uses.
Tools we’re going to use is mapping of states where Marijuana is legal and illegal.Second we’re going to created a chart or graph on government spending on the war on drugs.
All is subject to changes*
[entry-title]
Historical Question: How have presidential campaigns used the internet to connect with voters?
Our site is very simple, allowing for a user-friendly interface.
Home page at the top with 4 categories for 4 elections (2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012) and each member will have their own table to show our data.
It will be very much like the simple design below, which we borrowed from Website Storyboarding examples:
The website will most likely be a WordPress template, hosted by Blogs@Baruch. This is still being discussed amongst the group.
The data we will be mapping is how each presidential budget changed into order to accomendate the tools, pages and staff for each of the campaign’s web-reach.
Though we’re hitting a bit of a wall on how to find how the budgets were allocated in 2000 and 2004, there are many sources for 2012 including information by SEO on how much was spent, and shared for both Romney and Obama:
According to SEO, Romney spent $1.32 “per click” while Obama spent $1.15 “per click” during their 2012 election campaigns.
This is a true innovative way of making a political statement, i would like to apologize in advanced if anyone finds it inappropriate in any way. Since this is a digital history class i would like to point out the idea and production of the clip rather than the actual content. In my opinion this is a work of comical art. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxch-yi14BE&w=600&h=366]
lyrics by Hugh Atkin
Can I have your attention please.
Can I have your attention please.
Will the real Mitt Romney please stand up.
I repeat. Will the real Mitt Romney please stand up.
We’re gonna have a problem here.
Y’all act like you haven’t seen a Mormon before.
Jaws down on the floor.
I’m not concerned about the very poor.
Got it wrong. Sorry. That’s not what I meant.
I want every American to be in the top one percent.
I’m really named Willard. That’s my first name.
I’m not looking for a colony on the moon. Just for someone to blame.
I like being able to fire people.
“I’m Newt Gingrich.” You’re fired.
“I’m Rick Santorum and I’m….” Fired
Boom. Boom. Boom.
“Conservative women love Mitt Romney.” And I love cars and I love lakes.
I’m running or office for Pete’s sake.
With regards to abortion. Pro-life? Pro-choice?
I firmly believe in my own singing voice.
For purple mountains’ majesty, above the fruited plain.
“Where were we at John?”
Uh… with regards to abortion… uh….
You can choose your own adventure.
It’s a Republican dementia.
And I’m more concerned about the banks: they’re unable to lend.
Corporations are people my friend.
My dog is on the roof. My dog is on the roof.
Who let the dogs out? Who? Who?
Understand I’m an exception. The Obama contraception.
Not a vulture, I’m an eagle.
Look I’m gonna get my lawn cut by illegals.
There will be an influx. Hispanic voters in trucks.
Look, if you don’t believe, I’ll tell you what, ten thousand bucks?
Well, I made a lot of money matter of factually.
I drive a couple of Cadillacs actually.
I have emotion and passion. That’s a joke for the record.
But if you want the soul of America restored,
Come on board. Take your fair share and every
Mormon wave your underwear.
Sing the chorus, papa bear.
I’m Mitt Romney. Yes, I’m the real Romney.
All the other Mitt Romneys are just mass debating.
So would the real Mitt Romney please stand up, please stand up, please stand up.
I’m Mitt Romney. Yes, I’m the real Romney.
All the other Mitt Romneys are just mass debating.
So would the real Mitt Romney please stand up, please stand up, please stand up.
Reading, due by class time on Monday:
Bill Nichols, “The Voice of Documentary,” in Alan Rosenthal, ed., New Challenges for Documentary
Group Work, post due by 8:00am on Monday:
Together as a group you should create a detailed site map that outlines the organization of the assets you presented in class for the last assignment. Remember that your project needs to cover the following areas: spatial history, data mining and analysis, textual analysis, and visual and aural culture. All four of these areas should be represented in your site map.
You may design and publish your site map outside of our class blog, but write a post with the map embedded (preferable) or linked to.
Your post should include the following:
- A statement of your historical question in a single sentence
- A visual representation of how your final product will be organized for readers/viewers (this is the site map) — be as specific as you can about how users will navigate through the various forms of material you will present
- Reference to tools that will be employed to analyze data before it gets presented on your site
- Reference to tools that will be employed to display information on your site
Reading Review:
Philip J. Ethington, “Los Angeles and the Problem of Urban Historical Knowledge: A Multimedia Essay to Accompany the December Issue of The American Historical Review.”
- Free write about the organization of this site
- Navigation?
- Methods of data analysis
- Means of media deployment?
Discsussion of Inventory of Assets
- Group by group review
- Restatement of guiding historical question
- Detail of inventory of assets
Next Steps
Instigator Group members: Robert Sorenson, Jordan Smith, Felipe Francois
Archiving History Digitally Historical question: What effect did the debates have on, specifically, the 1960, 1992, and 2012 presidential election outcomes?
Workload: Jordan will be covering the 1960 debates/election, Robert will be researching the 1992 debates/election, and Felipe will be working on this year’s debates/elections. We will be focusing on undecided voters, as they are the most influenced by debates. Some of the outlets we are considering for our debate feedback are CNN, Fox, the New York Times qand other online sources.
Some obvious challenges we anticipate are with respect to collecting data. Like getting access to recordings, transcripts and poll data of the debates. Another problem is how do we put the information together so that it makes sense and reflect the actual debate. Lastly keeping our own biases at bay so that we represent the facts as they appear.
Possible sources for the debates are:
Commission on Presidential Debates.- http://www.debates.org/
2012 Election Central– http://www.2012presidentialelectionnews.com/2012-debate-schedule/2012-presidential-debate-schedule/
FactCheck.org. – http://factcheck.org/2012/11/obamas-numbers-updated/
Pew Research Center– http://pewresearch.org/
270 To Win– 270toWin,
Gallup –gallup polls,
We plan to use wordle, Fusion Table and other major social networking sites, such as Twitter, tumblr to give a gage of this presidential election. For the other earlier years we’ll use exit polls of those elections since we didn’t have those technology in the years we choose. We will be doing more research on how we will handle the issue of data mining.
1. Statement of the historical question we seek to answer
“What are the similarities and differences of the promises related to economic, foreign policy and domestic social issues made by George W. Bush and Barack Obama during their presidential campaigning?”
2. Our group’s division of labor
We decided to divide our research work based on how they relate to 3 major topics. These topics are economic, social and war. Tatsiana is researching economic issues such as deficit spending and taxes. Philip is gathering information related to national security – the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Guantanamo base closure. Estevan is focused on researching domestic social issues that may include healthcare and environment.
3. Overview of the sources that we plan to use at this stage
These are some of the sources that we potentially plan to use for our project. These sources point to various issues discussed by both presidential candidates during their presidential campaigns. We looked at Bush’s election campaign in 2000 and 2004, and Obama’s election campaign in 2008 and 2012. Here we included video material, textual and data mining analysis.
George W. Bush acceptance speech
2000 Presidential Debate
Presidential Debate 2004
The Broken Promises of George W. Bush
Bush-Cheney 2000 website
Bush-Cheney 2000 – Energy website
Obama Declares Plan to Cut Deficit in Half
Obama’s record of broken promises
Barack Obama on Lobbyists and His Campaign
CNN Discusses Obama’s Hypocrisy on Lobbyists
Obama and the Bush Legacy: A Scorecard
Historical Military Pay Rates
4. Is the data will be broad enough to address our question, but also manageable within our timeframe for producing these projects?
During initial stage of our research we came to realization that our topic can be too broad and, as a result, decided to focus only on economic, foreign policy and domestic social issues discussed during presidential campaigns. Also, we narrowed on just two presidential candidates Bush and Obama. This still leaves us with large amount of material for our analysis since these two presidential hopefuls made extensive list of promises during their run for the top US political office.
Reading:
- Philip J. Ethington, “Los Angeles and the Problem of Urban Historical Knowledge: A Multimedia Essay to Accompany the December Issue of The American Historical Review.”
Group Work:
- Your group should be prepared to present a preliminary “inventory of assets” for your project; a list of sources (or potential sources that you will locate) that will propel your argument. Be sure that these sources represent our distribution areas of spatial history, data mining and analysis, textual analysis, and visual and aural culture.
Model Graphical Representations of Data Around Hurricane Sandy
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/03/before-after-hurricane-sandy-photos_n_2068996.html
- http://www.emc.ncep.noaa.gov/gc_wmb/vxt/RT_ATLANTIC/SANDY18L/
- http://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/at201218.asp
- http://alert.mta.info/sites/default/files/pdf/hurricane_recovery_map_bw_Nov5midday.pdf
- https://twitter.com/ElBloombito
Reading
- “Our consciousness of the past is inextricably bound by pictures”
- Increase in pictorial archives because of digital media
- Images as evidence, not just extraneous/illuminate
- Cyberspace can be immersive, encyclopedic (based on database architecture)
- Navigating virtual space
- Integration of info vs linkage
- 19th century increase in pictures with text, Frank Leslie’s and Harpers
- Narrative and story telling
Errol Morris, “Photography as a Weapon.”
- Authenticity and manipulation of images
- http://fluxmachine.tumblr.com/
- Photographs can deceive in many ways (can be as simple as changed captions)
Group Work Updates
- Plagiarism review
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