Category: 2024

I found Merche’s pieces intriguing. I love that she started as an engineer and had limited knowledge in music yet continued to get a PHD in music and create all these fascinating pieces. It takes great courage to be able to do that. I particularly liked the piece that she created in her hometown. There is so much effort and thought put into it to celebrate her culture and include her people in what she loves. I also love that most of her pieces have some sort of underlying narrative and background story because it makes them much more interesting to watch and uncover the story. Her type of performance is something I would enjoy watching. lastly, I like her perspective on failure.

Through the previous stages of the assignment, we had reached the conclusion that we should each make an audio collage based on our interpretation of overpopulation. 

When I think of overpopulation, my mind automatically goes to traffic, crowded places, loud voices, sirens, etc. I imagined myself walking down a busy street and tried to replicate the sounds I would hear. 

By downloading some audio samples from Freesound*, I created an audio collage of people talking over each other, sirens, horns, phone ringing, crying baby, laughter and a background of music. I tried my best to make the sounds interesting by including fade-ins and fade-outs, tweaking the pitches, amplifying the sound and adding some echoes here and there. 

*all audio files used are creative commons 0, and are in public domain

1. Why does the tunnel digging machine spin?

To break down the dirt and move forward 

2. Why does the dirt need to be broken?

Because if its solid it wont get pushed out 

3. Why should we push it out?

To make a tunnel 

4. Why do we want a tunnel?

To create a passage 

5. Why do we create a passage ?

Because there’s no more space above ground

6. Why is there no space ?

Because there’s too many humans (earth is overpopulated)

7. Why are there too many humans? 

The birth rate is higher than the death rate 

8. Why is the birth rate higher?

Because we have good medical care/ medicine

We started by asking a bunch of why questions as instructed in class and it quickly escalated from tunnel digging machines to overpopulation and birth/death rates. 

We then decided to pick overpopulation as our topic and thought of how we may represent it creatively. after careful consideration, we decided to create audio collages depending on our personal interpretations and imagination of the word. 

After we were all done with our sounds, we compared them, and created a story combining our individual interpretations.

Our story stems from the fact that Yasmine’s audio revolves around the overpopulation of sounds in nature while Fatima and Mirette’s sounds revolve around the overpopulation of traffic and people in the city. Seeing as both interpretations are opposites, we used a canva template, to create a poster to advertise a camping resort that allows you to get away from the noise and traffic of the city, and reconnect with nature in a  more quiet and relaxing environment. We called the camping resort Camp Sherwood, and included a phone number, email and website where you can book.  

Final Results:

Our why question took us to the topic of overpopulation. My group’s chosen medium was audio.

I created an audio that tells a story where this person is living in an overpopulated area and then decides to escape from it.

I think Merche was probably my favorite guest out of the ones that have visited so far.

One of the most interesting things Merche talked about today was her ceramic disco booth. I thought it sounded really nice and soothing. I bet the video doesn’t quite do it justice though.

The atmosphere I could observe from watching the video looked really interesting. I don’t know if it’s because of my exposure to experimental musicians recently but I actually might be down to watch an experimental performance now. 

Perhaps one of the most interesting design choices I’ve heard recently was her choice to include spikes on the ceramic disco booth. The spikes weren’t there for aesthetic and certainly didn’t affect the music, at least not directly. The spikes were there to calm Merche’s nerves but hurt her finger tips a little. She believes she drowns out the nerves by inflicting a little bit of discomfort.

I’ve never thought to design a system to reassure someone’s stage fright with spike-y pain. That’s beyond interesting to me.

Just as I was going to ask it, Darko took the words straight from my mouth. “Would you listen to your music while cooking?”

Of course, I think we all remember her answer.

“Hell no.” 

First of all, that response was hilarious. However, I think it’s really interesting that she is strongly against casually using experimental music like this as background music. 

Video Editing: DaVinci Resolve

Photo editing: GIMP (can use Preview on Mac for simple edits)

Vector Graphics: Dotgrid (very limited tool compared to Adobe Illustrator)

Audio Editing: Audacity

Website (free account, write CDC): cargo.site

Why do people have to pray?

Prayer is a way for individuals to connect with God, similar to how we communicate with our parents. When we pray, we express our thoughts and needs, and God listens.

Why is communication with God important?

Communication with God is believed to strengthen one’s spiritual faith and provide guidance in life. It is through this connection that individuals seek comfort and clarity in their decisions and experiences.

Why do people seek to be connected with God?

Many believe that being connected with God brings happiness and peace. This connection is seen as a source of strength and comfort in navigating life’s challenges.

Why do people strive for a happy and peaceful life?

Happiness and peace are fundamental desires that contribute to mental and emotional well-being. Achieving these states can lead to a more fulfilling and meaningful life.

Why is a fulfilling life significant?

A fulfilling life is often associated with personal growth, satisfaction, and the achievement of one’s goals. It impacts how individuals contribute to society and their relationships with others.

Interactive Mobile App: Prayer Challenge

I decided to create an app which is called “Prayer Challenge”. The App Concept is as follow:

Prayer Challenge is a mobile app that simulates various life scenarios where users must navigate challenges through prayer and spiritual guidance. The counterintuitive twist is that instead of simply making life easier, the app increases the complexity of challenges, demonstrating that the more one prays, the more intricate and demanding the situations become, emphasizing the continuous need for prayer and connection with God.

Objective:

The objective of “Prayer Challenge” is to reinforce the notion that constant prayer is crucial not because it simplifies life, but because it prepares and strengthens individuals to face increasingly complex life situations. By engaging with the app, users can see a direct correlation between their prayer efforts and their spiritual and personal growth.

App Features:

– Users are presented with different life scenarios ranging from personal struggles, professional challenges, to relational issues. Each scenario requires users to engage in prayer to seek solutions.

– Prayer Meter: The app includes a ‘Prayer Meter’ that tracks the user’s prayer frequency and intensity. The more the user prays, the more complex the scenarios become, suggesting that deeper spiritual challenges require more intensive prayer.

– Spiritual Guidance: After each prayer session, the app provides feedback in the form of spiritual advice or scriptural quotes to guide the user through the challenges.

– Progress Tracker: The app tracks the user’s spiritual growth and challenges complexity over time, showing how increased prayer leads to higher levels of personal and spiritual development.

I decide to start off with a discussion question that I once had with my friends. The central question that we have is

Does there exist an absolute objective value judgment, or all the values we consider follow some constructed social contrasts?

Of course there are, as you can see that the human civilization is developing and the worldview of most people are getting better. These are all thank to the common values that we hold about love and peace. It’s with these beliefs that we all work towards a same goal.

Why do you think the human civilization is developing? Is it due to technological innovations? Then the society of cyberpunk is a paradise. And also, why do you think the worldview of most people are getting better. To a monarchist, our current society is a disaster.

The defeat of Nazi’s, end of slavery, and rising women’s rights all demonstrate such development. Now in most places we have equality, democracy, and freedom. On the one hand, we enjoy the advancement of technological innovation, while on the other hand, we are not backlashed by it.

Why do you think equality, democracy, and freedom are good? From which standpoint that you jump to this conclusion?

Equality means everyone is given similar amount of opportunities. Democracy guaurantees our government to be listened by our people. Freedom promotes chances so that no one is controlled. They are all better off than the characterisitcs of a slavery society, where a lot of people have no freedom nor voices. Their very well-being are highly dependent upon their masters.

Why is given the chance a good thing? You mentioned about being better off, why is it so? In math we can compare two numbers as to 4 less than 5, but here what is the comparison based off?

Following your logic, if these moral standards don’t exist, why is it the unemployment rate decreasing, economy prosperating, violence decreasing. Objectively speaking, these are all values that humans endorse. Otherwise, would you think that killing, bullying, stealing is a good thing?

Why is it not? For a strong person who could take advantage of his/her body strength, it’s a good thing for sure. You are not answering the question of “why” are they good, but simply listing things. Your logic is based upon having some basic “good” things, like axioms in math, whereas they don’t actually exist.

Okay… But if you ask 100 people, I believe there’s 99 of them would argue in a similar way, calling for love and peace. Is this a pure coincidence?

To be honest, if you asked the same question to the people centuries ago, they would have given you totally different, or even opposite answers. So, the central question is back , does there exist an absolute objective value judgment, or all the values we consider follow some constructed social contrasts?

It then enters into a loop, as the debate ended with the winning of the post-modernist view – our subjective value judgement depends upon the constructed social contracts with barely any “objectivity” involved. Some of the questions can be answered in an economic or biological point of view, like why do we avoid violence or why do we promote love and peace, but speaking of the moral value judgements, there’s no universal answer of what’s good or bad, but only subjective ideas that’s subjected to the constructed social construct. Therefore, I made this small collage that demonstrates this.

Why did you come to Berlin?

• Because it was one of my choices for my abroad J-term.

Why was it one of your choices?

• Because the classes offered here were interesting and I’m also fascinated by the country’s war history. I wanted to experience it firsthand.

Why did you want to have such an experience?

• Because I’m interested in the morality of violence and therefore, would like to understand this particular history better. It will help me make sense of the present and my role in it.

Why is such a revelation necessary?

• I simply like thinking about such concepts. It gives me a clearer sense of the grim realities of human society and thus, of my existence.

Why do you ponder over these striking questions?

• I randomly think about these before bed when I can’t sleep. They are fascinating and sometimes challenge my perception of societal values.

Why can you not sleep without having such thoughts?

• It is difficult to fall asleep in general. And I have a less than healthy sleep schedule.

Why do you have difficulty falling asleep?

• I’m not sure. Perhaps it is because I take a short nap late in the afternoon. Or maybe because I don’t have a particular set of habits that alerts my body of bedtime.

I created a binaural beat by combining two mono tracks of frequencies 220 Hz and 224 Hz for the left ear and right ear respectively. I mixed the two tracks and exported the mp3 file. Then I sourced some rain, wind, and wind chimes audios online and merged these with the binaural beat to make the final soundtrack.