Write a 500 word individual reflection on the making of the podcast, including the team processes and the part you played in the production. This must contain references to at least 3 of the course materials – including readings and podcasts.

Our process started with deciding how to approach the topic of ‘anger’. We were all initially really keen to avoid discussing the COVID-19 pandemic and focus on some of the other issues that had arisen during 2020. After discussion amongst ourselves and the class, the topics naturally began to revolve around the pandemic and how people had felt and expressed anger during the past 12 months.

Emma took the lead on this project and was very consistent in keeping the group on track. She is a great communicator and expressed her concerns about certain parts of the assignment with us. This meant that we had a really good idea of how our progress was tracking throughout the semester. Wendy’s communication was also great, however she let Emma take more of a leadership role within the group. To Wendy’s credit she was always willing to complete any tasks that were assigned to her, and she was able to produce a great product really efficiently. This was especially noticeable when we needed to produce and upload the social media portion of the assignment. My role was to edit the final pieces together, produce the linking narration script, and record the linking audio. I tried not to remove much from the audio of the other podcast segments, instead relying on succinct narration and the mantra that “no-one should ever know you’ve done anything, they shouldn’t hear the edits, they should just experience the story” (Johnson) to produce a high quality podcast episode. The narration wasn’t a difficult job, but I was very aware that there was a male voice in the opener, the linking narration, and my segment. Although, I feel like this may have been counterbalanced somewhat by the four female voices.

I think that all three of our segments fit together really nicely. We wanted our pieces to each explain something about the anger that has penetrated the local consciousness this year, whether that be through direct or indirect circumstances of the virus. Our goal was to use our individual pieces in collaboration to “draw attention because [they’re] engaging emotionally and intellectually” (Wen). I believe that we managed to produce a really decent product under immense time constraints, without ever meeting in person. The only part of our podcast that I wish we had spent more time on is the naming of each segment within our episode. As Hoxmark writes, “the trouble is not usually thinking up podcast names, it’s remembering podcast names” (Hoxmark). With more memorable segment titles I think the linking narration may have been more compelling in actually describing the content in each piece. Overall I really enjoyed working with my team and I’m proud of what we were able to produce as a class.

 

References
Hoxmark, Jonathon. “How To Name Your Podcast”. Medium, 2020, https://medium.com/@GetMessyNow/how-to-name-your-podcast-ccf9a94f6d99.

Johnson, Natasha. “The (Subtle) Art Of Podcast Sound Design And Why It Matters”. Abc.Net.Au, 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/about/backstory/radio/2018-11-13/the-art-of-podcast-sound-design/10481114.

Wen, Tiffanie. “This Is Your Brain On Podcasts: Why Audio Storytelling Is So Addictive”. The Atlantic, 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/04/podcast-brain-why-do-audio-stories-captivate/389925/.

Write your 500 word reflection on the production process of your individual short feature story on your blog.  Don’t forget to include references to at least 3 of the course materials in your reflection. 

I chose to focus my podcast segment on an issue that I’m passionate about; exposing the alarmingly high rates of domestic violence in Australia. I was initially unsure if there was an appropriate angle to discuss this topic under our group’s selected theme of ‘anger’, but I decided to explore the topic through an interview before deciding how I would contextualise it within our topic brief. 

The majority of my learning about the effects of domestic violence has been through conversations with my partner Claire who is a social worker at a Women’s Services Centre in Melbourne. I chose to interview her for my piece as I had her wealth of knowledge and first-hand experience to draw on. Seeing as though the way in which I understand the current issues is through our ongoing conversations, I took note of a passage from one of the Week 2 readings which said that “podcasts are better characterized as conversations between a podcaster and his or her listeners” (Dizon). The way that Dizon approaches the idea of podcasting fit together with my approach to understanding domestic violence and I wanted to place my story within that same familiar and conversational setting. I knew that Claire’s expression of her anger and frustration would be heard in the interview recording because I frequently hear it in our face-to-face discussions.    

I knew that it was important to place my piece in the correct context right from the start. As the story is about the dangerous nature of lockdown and isolation it seemed logical to include a brief look at the ways in which people have been trying to engage with the others in a caring and compassionate way. Rather than jumping straight into the anger and pain of victims of domestic violence, I decided to play an audio recording of a group of people performing the Carpenters song ‘Close to you”. I usually find that the hardest part of producing a story is deciding how to introduce the theme and for this reason I wanted to avoid the easy, but emotive cliche of dark, anxious music at the beginning because I felt that there needed to be an appropriate setup before introducing the key topic. I took the idea of an early juxtaposition to the topic from the article ‘Score! Best practices for using music in audio storytelling’, which states that music “should not be used to make editorial statements or steer a listener towards judgements or conclusions” (May). With this statement in mind it seemed rational to elicit a positive emotional response to the introduction of my piece, rather than convincing the listener of any negative or empathetic point of view that they might develop by the conclusion of the interviews.   

The editing process was fairly easy for my piece. I was quite ruthless with what I cut from Claire’s interview, as I only wanted to keep in clear and concise statements that would benefit the angle of my story. I followed a sound piece of advice from a Week 12 reading which said that “there should be no fluff, no additional crap, no rabbiting on for 20 minutes before you get into the good stuff” (Corbett). This approach was instrumental to keeping with the time constraints of the assignment, while encouraging me to include only the absolute necessary pieces of audio that would enhance the listeners understanding of the issue.   

 

References

Dizon, Michael. “Podcasting: Oral Tradition Reloaded”. Law, Technology And Society, 2020, https://michaeldizon.wordpress.com/2008/12/02/podcasting-oral-tradition-reloaded/.

May, Michael. “Score! Best Practices For Using Music In Audio Storytelling”. NPR Training, 2020, https://training.npr.org/2016/07/05/score-best-practices-for-using-music-in-audio-storytelling/.

Corbett, Rachel. “How Long Should Your Podcast Be? | Rachel Corbett”. Rachel Corbett, 2020, https://rachelcorbett.com.au/blog/how-long-should-your-podcast-be/.

This assignment was a massive struggle for me. My MacBook finally decided to give up on me before I was able to complete editing and mixing my piece. There was a frantic struggle to get hold of a new device from RMIT. Luckily I’m a staff member there so I was able to arrange a long-term loan of one of the Student Life laptops. The whole process of having the laptop delivered took over a week, as I was unable to obtain a pass to get on campus. Eventually the device was delivered to me via courier, which was well past the submission deadline for this assignment.

The next problem I encountered was that administration permissions are required for new software to be downloaded onto RMIT devices. The frustration of dealing with ITS over the phone was a huge stress. I haven’t been able to download any audio editing programs at all in the time I’ve had a working laptop. My first thought was that I could at least get a hold of a basic online editing tool, like an online version of Audacity, which would give me a small opportunity to fulfil some of the basic requirements for this assessment. The only online tool which seemed to edit audio which I could upload was twistedwave.com. I had never used this website before, so I was expecting to at least be able to multitrack and layer some audio samples behind the interview dialogue. In the end I was only able to manage the interview dialogue as an individual track.

Overall I am hugely disappointed with the work I’ve had to submit. I expect much better results for audio pieces that I produce, especially since I have training in sound production. The requirements were not outside of my ability and I know that I wouldn’t have had any problem with meeting teh submission deadline. I guess this whole process has been a pretty just example of the stresses we are all enduring as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. None of my problems would have been such an issue during a normal period, as I would have been able to work from the RMIT campus or borrow some equipment from a friend.

 

I wasn’t totally unhappy with the interview recording with Claire, but I do feel that there were several easily fixed mistakes in the final edit. I should have picked up on them had I listened back to the conversation much more carefully. There is an unbalance in the room tone which could have been resolved by recording a new track with less disturbances in the background, and the recording could have been cleaned up a bit more to remove high end hiss.

There are a lot of pauses from Claire in my interview. I decided to keep them all in as I feel that it was appropriate given the topic of discussion and the pace of the dialogue. Upon first hearing the initial prompt, Claire is unsure of how to respond. I reflected on the article Ethical guidelines for editing audio (McGuire, 2020), that explicitly states that, “It’s not okay to tell someone what to say”. I left Claire to consider her answer instead of rephrasing the question as I didn’t want to lead her response in any way.

I also found it challenging to think of questions on the spot and I hoped that the content of the interview wouldn’t suffer as a result. Encouragingly the reading from the week 2 text, ‘Podcasting‘ (Llinares, n.d.) states that podcasts create “spaces for niche and cult content that caters for the more idiosyncratic cultures of interest”. Given that the brief need to be adhered to within the time and topic restraints, I think that this piece can be classified within a niche culture of interest.

 

Link to Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-803896620/if-i-had-my-time-again-assignment-1

Release Form: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12hHwr3HldoZFvWDrsKTwJVTrAnfdeszh/view?usp=sharing 

 

References

Llinares, D., n.d. Podcasting.

McGuire, M., 2020. Ethical Guidelines For Editing Audio – Jsource. [online] JSource. Available at: <https://j-source.ca/article/ethical-guidelines-for-editing-audio/> [Accessed 9 August 2020].

 

My approach towards making media has progressed in the past few months, specifically due to one passage that I read in Phillip Hammond’s text Climate Change and Post-Political Communication: Media, Emotion, and Environmental Advocacy. In this text are comments made by Anabela Carvalho, who talks about the dismissive language that is used when climate action is communicated to the public. Carvalho refers to this as being “passive” and “childlike”. I didn’t want my practise to pander to these same dismissive notions, and this thinking became a major part of my guidance in constructing my media artefact.

The topic of my hyperobject is food production. I chose to represent this topic through a soundscape that documents the history of farming practises from the pre-industrial era, through to the modern era. The idea for this topic came from reading the Vice article ‘The Climate Change Paper So Depressing It’s Sending People to Therapy’ by Zing Tsjeng. In the article Jem Bendell talks about the desperation that will haunt people if there is no food security, stating that, ‘You will depend on your neighbours for food and some warmth. You will become malnourished. You won’t know whether to stay or go. You will fear being violently killed before starving to death’ (Tsjeng, 2019). This got me thinking about the flaws in the food production model that we currently use. At the beginning of the media artefact we can hear light and organic sounds. There is wind blowing softly, crude tools being used to chip away at rock, and a shovel digging into dirt. This peaceful scene morphs into a cacophony of industrial noises. As we hear a tractor engine start up (documenting a step into the industrial era) the sounds of animals in distress, machines in constant operation, and the lurching of a deep mechanical bass noise begin to create a sense of dread and intensity. This progression of tension and stress is alleviated by the return of natural sounds, suggesting that there is another means to provide food security and distribution without the need for such impactful measures. I wanted to use the tension and stress as to play on the idea of hyperobjects existing with viscosity (Morton, 2013). Through the use of a narrative that speeds towards a dramatic climax, the soundscape echoes the panic and containment that Morton describes in hyperobjects.

The constraints I chose to impose on this project were:

1. No voiceover/no use of human voices
2. No use of news footage / news media
3. No use of content intended for/corporate/commercial/ advertising purposes

I chose not to use human voices or voiceover, as I didn’t want the subjectivity of my work to be undermined by the narration of events. There are many ways to interpret the soundscape and each person who hears it will create their own images to accompany the sounds. The restriction on news media and commercial content was chosen so that I would be forced to create my own imagery from scattered materials. I felt that if I was using pre-existing sounds and materials that had already been heavily edited and constructed to form a story, then the work would have already been done for me. I’m happy with the ways in which I was able to work around these constraints. I was encouraged to be original and focus on the arrangement and layering of the materials to effectively communicate my message.

I hope that the outcome of my project excites an idea in the listener that there can be a more respectful and resourceful way to achieve effective food production. My soundscape shares the idea that we are currently situated in the horrific industrial section of the narrative, but there is an opportunity to break through into the natural resolve at the end. There are three distinct parts to the piece, each with their own unique associated feelings. I hope that we can look at our current situation with as much clarity and recognise our feelings about the methods we choose to enact.

 

References

Hammond, P 2017, ‘Introduction: ‘Post-political’ climate change’, Climate Change and Post-Political Communication: Media, Emotion, and Environmental Advocacy, Routledge, pp. 1-17.

Morton, T., 2013. Poisoned Ground. symplokē, [online] 21(1-2), p.37. Available at: <https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/article/532809>.

Tsjeng, Z 2019, ‘The Climate Change Paper So Depressing It’s Sending People to Therapy’, VICE 28 Feb, accessed online: <https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/vbwpdb/the-climate-change-paper-so-depressing-its-sending-people-to-therapy>

 

The first thing I decided to do once I had considered the critical feedback from Elizabeth, Wendy, Amy and Cormack was to completely overhaul my entire idea. I decided to keep the topic of food production but the method of communication needed to be revised. My intention was to illustrate the developments in farming techniques from pre-industrial to modern era through a series of heavily edited photographic collages. However, when I began the process of actually constructing the images in Photoshop I found that a significant deficit in my skills with the software was letting me down. I was unhappy with the quality of the work I was producing and the medium wasn’t effectively communicating the message. I made the decision to construct a soundscape using Adobe Audition. Audio is much more familiar territory for me, and although I wasn’t able to achieve one of my self-set objectives of pushing my skills into more experimental and visually creative modes, I was able to achieve a much higher quality outcome.

Research for my topic began with engaging with content online, which depicts the conditions of current farming practises. I then looked into progressive farming and food production models that are aiming to remedy the devastating impact of monoculture. I used YouTube for the majority of the information. Some of the videos used for research included, but were not limited to:

• Animal Outlook. (2017). Carton of Cruelty: Behind Big Dairy’s Closed Doors. [Online Video]. 12 May 2017. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxJ3d_hnXXM&ab_channel=AnimalOutlook. [Accessed: 12 May 2020].
• TEDX Talks. (2018). The End of Animal Farming | Jacy Reese Anthis | TEDxUniversityofMississippi. [Online Video]. 15 March 2018. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBmbVphZKYc. [Accessed: 12 May 2020].
• TEDX Talks. (2014). Factory farms, antibiotics and superbugs: Lance Price at TEDxManhattan. [Online Video]. 11 March 2014. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwHapgrF99A&ab_channel=TEDxTalks. [Accessed: 12 May 2020].
• Minute Earth. (2017). Why Farming Is Broken (And Always Has Been). [Online Video]. 28 September 2017. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkMZJrbCRdQ&ab_channel=MinuteEarth. [Accessed: 12 May 2020].
• (2018). Along The Edge | A Montana Family Harvest Story. [Online Video]. 29 April 2018. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JvlGSnYJA0&ab_channel=AgriStudios. [Accessed: 15 May 2020].
• Daniele Cesano. (2019). Joel Salatin – Polyface farm. [Online Video]. 9 January 2019. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smVYindYP3w&ab_channel=DanieleCesano. [Accessed: 15 May 2020].

Materials were sourced predominantly from Freesound.org, which has an abundance of free sound effects, and audio to use for podcasts, music creation, film Foley, etc. The entire soundscape is made from edited and sliced pieces of sound effects, without the use of music at all. Some low drone noises were used to create suspense, however these are artificial noises that mirror the engine and factory noises that were also used. Some background sound was sourced from YouTube – specifically from a video of primitive construction methods.

 Editing was done entirely in Adobe Audition. Sound effects and audio were arranged in order to present a narrative of pre-industrial, modern, and progressive faming practises. Cross-fades were used extensively throughout the piece to create sweeping transitions between each era. Some subtle EQ was used to bring specific sounds out from the mix, while others were panned left or right to create an illusion of space. Minimal effects were used besides some slight tweaks of reverb.

 

The feedback I received from my presentation was very positive. I feel that the panellists were really engaged with the topic I had chosen and they all gave me constructive comments, which helped me in rethinking a few aspects of my project. My ideas had been indecisive and complicated and the presentation feedback allowed me to focus in on what I actually wanted to communicate through my media artefact.

Wendy asked me whether I had through about including home gardening in my piece, or if I was only focusing on large-scale agriculture. I hadn’t given the idea much thought until that point, but it urged me to want to explore the idea of grassroots food productivity on an individual level.  Amy recommended several resources that I could use to draw insight from. After the presentation I looked into the material and found some of the information incredibly useful, especially around alternate approaches to communicating my topic.

Elizabeth provided peer feedback for my presentation and it was incredibly helpful to hear her thoughts. Elizabeth provided some information about websites where I could find free and stock images, citing Pexels as an appropriate resource. She also recognised that the task of locating the right images sounds like a long and tedious process and suggested that I should start collecting and researching materials as soon as possible. I received this feedback gratefully, and I was especially thankful for Elizabeth recognising that I was trying to address the topic through an experimental lens. Her feedback concluded with, ‘I think that it gives you a great chance to subvert the traditional chronological portrayals of this industry. Utilising not only what is in the frame but how the piece is shown is another alternative way to portray your message’.

Presentation Feedback – Elizabeth Busch

 

I really like Elizabeth’s focus on feral cat’s as a hyperobject. Although I wouldn’t have thought about such a specific topic as a hyperobject, I can see how it fits in amongst invasive species as a broader topic. Placing the images of over-domesticated cats being shared on social media against the reality of feral cats living in the wild gives this project a really interesting twist. presenting feral cats as they actual look and behave is probably something that most people have never seen before, and it definitely has a chance to challenge the common perception.

A few ideas come to mind during Elizabeth’s presentation:

1. There could potentially be a decent amount of background material about invasive species by researching the dingo fence which runs through outback NSW and Queensland. Although the dingo isn’t an introduced species the fence is still a great example of pre-industrial control methods.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingo_Fence)
2. Figures around the eradication of native species by feral cats will help illustrate the point. This could be demonstrated through the critical numbers of Tasmanian Devils which are hunted by feral cats in the wild. 
3. Another angle could be to discuss or acknowledge the moral implications of killing. There is often a tradeoff between controlling a species in certain areas for commercial gain (kangaroos on farm land, foxes, rabbits, cats) and creating a total imbalance of the natural system. There is a larger debate too about the worth of one animal compared to another.    
4. Sound could play a massive part in this work. In particular it might be interesting to include the natural and man-made worlds by using gunshots, cats meowing and screeching, car engines, etc. Footsteps and paw-steps pacing through grasses and scrub would give an impression of size difference between humans and small animals. A subtle pulsing heartbeat throughout the piece would add to the soundscape if suspense is needed.

 

Presentation Slides

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1syno8tjIawHGH7PVW0arxD_eZSoSWVhU2PPAjpSlxaE/edit?usp=sharing

The topic of my presentation and my media artefact is food production. I chose this topic because I have a huge interest in urban farming, sustainability,  self-reliance, and alternative living practices. The main theme throughout these interests is finding an alternative way of sustaining our current needs and desires by using new technology and resources to revert back to a more simple means of obtaining food. I firmly believe that the agricultural industry is one of, if not the most influential player in the climate change debate. Agribusiness is built and sustained on energy consumption and energy production. The current models used by large-scale farms in order for them to meet consumer demands require such huge amounts of energy that they have a significant (and very confronting) impact on the planet. This is true for both livestock production and crop farming. Not only does the actual process of growing food on a mass-scale require absurd amounts of energy, but the transportation of produce for consumption is one of the leading contributors of climate-altering emissions.

I have been researching food production for several years. My passion for urban farming and self-reliance means that I have spent countless hours reading articles, books, magazines, forums, etc. to find the best (and most suitable) ways to grow food in whatever circumstances I find myself in. YouTube content also plays a massive role in this research. I am subscribed to dozens of YouTube channels which explore best practices for permaculture, polyculture, homesteading, wilding, and general resourcefulness.

I’ve chosen to focus the form of my artefact in producing a photography essay. This will be comprised of old, contemporary, and progressive farming techniques which have been captured by amateur photographers. The importance of using amateur content is so I can avoid using commercial and advertising materials and news media sources. I am fully expecting to find this a challenge, as the distinction between ‘amateur’ and ‘professional’ photography is often blurred. To the best of my research I will use what I consider to be amateur photos, but I might have to extend this restriction to include other content if it will improve the quality of my final work.

In terms of works that I will be using for inspiration; I’m yet to dive down that rabbit hole. I have a general picture in my head of the style of work that I want to produce, but I don’t recall ever seeing similar to it. The outcome I’m aiming for is a seamless meshing of several photos which are edited in Photoshop to produce one single, cohesive image. A big part of my research into this project will be tracking down techniques and methods that can be used to achieve this look. I’m hoping that I will discover similar artistic works while I try to learn the skills I need to create my own work.

 

Adeline Johns-Putra’s text challenges the idea of traditional modes of philosophical enquiry in understanding the enormity of climate change. We are asked to consider whether we will see the emergence of a new ‘critical climate’ in which our capacity for understanding progressive philosophical rhetoric (such as understanding the impact of humans outside of the human experience) is applied in our approach to climate change, or will we simply revert back to our ‘old habits of critique’ which have been the foundation in understanding the natural world around us up until this point.

In current climate media it would seem that we, as the audience, are still presented with endless forms of the ‘old habits‘. Even if there are new modes of enquiry being used within scientific and philosophical circles it seems that they aren’t yet filtering into the public space. As mainstream media outlets are the product of capitalist systems, and capitalism isn’t (at this point) greatly concerned with an aggressive restructure of philosophical debate around societal deconstruction, it doesn’t seem likely that a dramatic change in ontology should be expected anytime soon. Climate change is certainly the biggest threat to humanity that we know as we live and experience life in 2020, but it’s not the only existential threat that has been imposed upon humanity. Through global warfare, famine, and viral and technological disasters the methods of enquiry that we revert to have always provided a rationale for discovering a solution.  The ‘old habits’ are sound philosophical traditions that have imposed, and aided, threats throughout history, while providing a framework for reason that drives us to act. While I like the idea of reimagining and affecting new methods of enquiry, it also opens up the opportunity for irrational debate around the reason to act. In all honesty it’s incredibly hard to imagine a ‘critical climate’, let alone  a critical reflection that doesn’t involve political influence that challenges the core fundamentals of modern Western philosophy.

In saying this, there is some evidence of a changing approach towards a ‘critical climate’, but perhaps it hasn’t yet spread into media production yet. Climate change, as fact, has been adopted by the vast majority and concepts such as permaculture, solar power, speciesism, localisation, etc. have all risen to the attention of the public eye in recent years. Modes of enquiry are being adapted to suit our understanding of climate change, but they aren’t altogether ‘new’ concepts. We are gradually starting to learn to accept ourselves as a living organism which is part of an environment and not a higher authority. Although, if we fully understand this then I feel that we will naturally revert to the ‘old habits’ by reframing our new understanding as part of the human experience – which is always represented through our traditional notions of understanding.

 

References

Johns-Putra, A., 2013. A New Critical Climate. symplokē, 21(1-2), p.7.