DMA End of Unit III: Self

First, this third unit of DMA has been what I believe to be one of the most effective units for me, as far as meeting the main goals of the course. Ultimately, it has been by far the hardest unit to work on (for me at least), but I can say with confidence that through the unit, I was better able to 1) learn how to work more effectively online as a young/emerging artist, and 2) creativity compose and create new media content, and 3) utilize new-media to advance a self-oriented professional goal. These are all goals for the course, the first two being particularly addressed in Unit I and Unit II and the third in this unit. Fortunately, this unit, however, dealt with all of the goals. The main focus in Unit III, though, was to meet the third dimension of professionalism. Here, we students were called to expand their knowledge beyond just working and learning directly in our field. Instead, we were to learn how to use outside resources that may not directly connect to our field, and to find a way to use them in more practical terms for our career development. Basically, this unit enabled me to try to integrate all of the goals of the course, all in the hopes of making myself a better-rounded artist, student, and individual. Additionally, I must add that I absolutely agree with the goals of the course and especially the goals for the past three units, since I believe that they will all help me to expand my abilities and mind as an individual, and artist, and a student. Next, this unit definitely challenged me, but I also chose to make it more difficult on myself at times by trying to pay very close attention to detail and to think critically about my compositions, whether they be in the form of text or audio, etc. As usual, this unit forced me to be a little bit more thorough in my work, to pay close attention to instructions (sometimes looking over them multiple times), and to keep learning by way of trial and error. I am finding that when working with new technology, sometimes it can be more efficient to keep tweaking until what I want to happen works, than to go use another resource to assist me. At times I became very frustrated when working with almost anything to do with audio (from transferring recordings to converting recordings, to searching for recordings, to tweaking recordings, to downloading recordings, and to sharing recordings). Basically, I came across numerous technological difficulties, yet as I just kept working through the kinks and practicing, I was better able to meet the goals. There is some validity to how the saying goes that "Practice makes perfect". Of course perfection is unattainable, yet as I “practiced” working with new-media that was virtually foreign to me, I saw improved outcomes, and I would eventually find the answers I needed. Additionally, for this week in particular, I chose to work with a very broad concept of awareness. I basically got inspired first by knowing that I would be creating an audio representation, so I thought about what topics interested me that could be related to an audio track. I also asked myself what I am passionate about. Obviously, my art was the first thing that came to my mind (I’m a dancer), so then I thought about how I could relate my craft to the audio, without being too literal. I didn’t want to make the composition directly about dance or for dance. Instead, I thought about how as dancers, we often discuss the concept of awareness. All people have a certain degree of awareness, and for dancers, a sense of awareness should be heightened. The idea of awareness should apply to both an external and internal place; dancers must be aware of their bodies as well as the bodies, space, time, and energy around them. In fact, I’ve been told that dance is basically the study of space, time, and energy in relation to one another—isn’t everything, though, to a certain degree? Anyways, I thought about how as a dancer (and even just as a person), I should take time to notice even the smallest things—especially the things I tend to ignore. In doing so, I may heighten my awareness, while also de-stressing, and learning new things. This belief is applicable for anyone willing to become more open towards observing, not just dancers. In fact, I found that the assignment held a lot of deep meaning for me, leaving lots of room to explore with the compositional aspect as well as the intellectual thought processes behind it. The genre that it fit under was REMIX, because I used the Soundcloud website to find various other audio compositions or sound bites that I remixed into my overall composition. Also, on the website, I found several other audio works that were already remixed, and I could have remixed a remix. The context that the assignment fell under was especially composing and framing, since I was the one choosing how to organize and edit the material I had created myself or that I had taken from the public domain already. Furthermore, I worked with the principle of simultaneity, in particular, because the work consisted of both a surface, tangible aspect and also had a deeper, intellectual and non-tangible element to be explored. I basically put the piece together by taking bits from a radio broadcast about a similar topic to my own and mixing that with other sound bites I gathered along with my own sounds (ex. A heartbeat effect from Soundcloud, a sound bit of my breathing, and a sound bit of me spitting). I wanted to share a mixture of ordinary sounds of people or people’s body’s at work in tasks that no one really notices (like breathing or sneezing) and still have the intellectual element where someone was talking about the topic (the radio broadcast I chose). Here is the end product: Ultimately, I learned from making this piece, that I really enjoy working with Audacity once I figure it out, and when I have more time. Additionally, it caused me to keep trying on my own, to keep being curious, creative, and playful, and to keep thinking on a new level. The topic of awareness obviously captivated me as well. I felt like I could have kept developing this product I made, and I would like to see where it could lead me. I do like it, but I would say that there is so much more I wanted to do with it if I had more time, resources, and better know-how. Overall, I think it is interesting, but there is room for improvement and more development.