116 Reading Response

1. Identify the article you have selected and why you chose it.

I chose the article "The Lure of the Local, Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society" by Lucy R. Lippard. I chose this article based on the title. Lately, I've been very intrigued by the idea of local things. I traveled out west for the summer, and I stayed at a random Co-op for a time where the people there (over twenty of them) strove to eat only local food. They would personally meet and know the farmers they would recieve their food from, and would not buy anything imported from out of the area (like bananas and coffee). I've also been intrigued by the idea of the local because of the community it brings. I hate how impersonal our country has become because everything is imported from another place. It makes it so we don't care where or how we get the things we want, as long as we get them. This rant is basically why I chose it.

2. What are the main points of the essay?
This article talked a lot about this idea of home, and brings up the question on whether home is a community or a place. It talks about the ambiguence of the concept of "home" or of "community."

"Home changes. Illusions change. People change. Time moves on. A place can be peopled by ghosts more real than living inhabitants." (Lippard, 23)

The article also talks about how the home is viewed as the "center" in many communities, like the world revolves around it. It talks about the fifties and how the home became a fortress and a place for a family and about the suburbs.

It talked about the suicide rates in those times, and how though the suburbs were good places to come home to, they were not good places to be stuck in.

It talks about mobile homes and RVs, and about how people stopped viewing home as a place as much as just a structure, something that could be mobile.


3. How are the ideas or arguments in this article relevant to your own practice as a media artist?

"A starting point, for artists or for anyone else, might be simply learning to look around where you live now. What Native peoples first inhabited this place? When was your house built? What's the history of he land us around it? How does it fit into the history of the area? Who lived there before? What changes have been made or have you made? ... What is divergent from when you were young? ... What is your house's relation to others near it... " (Libby, 25)

Lucy Lippard goes on listing things to practice and research to get to know your local community better. I think this is all important, especially to a film artist, since projects usually take a large amount of collaboration. Local communities have always intrigued me and still do. I believe the world can and is constantly changed by them, and that if any movement or revolution in this world starts with a solid, local core base.

Soundwalk Response

* Were you able to find places and spaces where you could really listen?
It was hard at first to listen to the sounds around me, but after about five minutes I became accustomed as was able to block the thoughts running through my head and really, truly listen.





* Was it possible to move without making a sound?
No, nor did I really try. Just because I'm listening to the sounds around me doesn't mean I tried to not make a sound. My sounds became a part of the symphony of sounds around me.


* What happened when you plugged your ears, and then unplugged them?
The sound of my body seemed to fill my mind, as if I were hearing my heartbeat. Then, as I unplugged my ears, the sound of the environment slowing came to me, much like a camera fades in from a black screen to a scene.

* In your sound log exercise, what types of sounds were you able to hear? List them.





Water fountain splashing
Scrape of Tennis shoes
Skateboarders knocking against the concrete
Beetle mating call'
Laughter
"...and the Lord said..."
Swoosh Swoosh
Loud talking, echoing off walls
Keys jingling
Piano playing a symphony





* Were you able to differentiate between sounds that had a recognizable source and those sounds you could not place?
Yes. I heard a lot of high pitched humming noises from time to time. Later, asking a friend about it, I was told it was the mating call of some kind of beetle.
* Human sounds? Mechanical sounds? Natural sounds?
All sounds are only natural, since everything is composed of something from nature. And yet, all sounds are only mechanical, since they are merely comprised of vibrations that can be shown visually through a wave module. And yet still, all sounds are human, since my human eardrum is what picks them up and my human brain is what interprets them.
So, basically, I don't understand the question.

* Were you able to detect subtleties in the everpresent drone?
No, not really. The ever-present drone soon faded from my mind. It's strange how our mind can filter these sounds so easily, but how it takes a lot for a microphone to block them out.
* Extremely close sounds? Sounds coming from very far away?
No. And yes. I don't really understand the question. The source of the sounds I was hearing were both close and far away, traveling towards me at 700 mph. Though I only heard the sounds as they got close to me, since the eardrum only picks up the sounds that are already inside the ear.

* What kinds of wind effects were you able to detect (for example, the leaves of trees don't make sounds until they are activated by the wind)?
air hose hissing
wind blowing through the trees, making them sway and creak.
The sound of wind going past your ear.

* Were you able to intervene in the urban landscape and create your own sounds by knocking on a resonant piece of metal, activating wind chimes, etc.?
Yes. I knocked on this mailbox like thing. And punched a sign. They were interesting sounds.

* Do you feel you have a new understanding or appreciation of the sounds of our contemporary landscape/cityscape?
I would say I have a new understanding of both. But my new understanding is definitely negative. The whole time I was on the walk I was thinking about how annoying these sounds are when you really listen to them. The sounds of traffic, the sounds of motorcycles backfiring, the sounds of car alarms, of the constant hums of electrical units I don't even know about. We shut these sounds out everyday from repetition, but the simple microphone will pick them all up equally without bias. But I hate all those sounds.

* How do you think your soundwalk experience will affect your practice as a media artist, if at all?
Seriously, I don't think it will effect me at all as a media artist, but maybe that just shows my naivety.