To my understanding ‘convivial’ is in relationship to the atmosphere. Which therefore must have some sort of relation to how the atmosphere of maybe a unit/operation is made…? This is all I can really take from this.

I’m not quite sure yet how a ‘convivial making’ relates to a ‘truculent clamour’ of things because I would regard that differently in the way it would have something to do with all the parts of a unit or operation and how they interact together e.g a book and there is the pages, the words, the glue, the cover etc etc and their intense collaboration.

I will continue to think on this as I lay in bed with my awful head cold but thankfully I have submitted my essay on time!

I have completed my soundscape essay which resulted in a lot of procrastination but I really feel I have got a good grip on what I was trying to illustrate and reflect onto Bogost. I feel my points about how overlapping can also contribute to the individuality of the units is a really valid part of the essay and reflects how it draws attentiveness to the units themselves.

I am still trying to make my way through reading Bogost and my gosh there are some confusing points but I am making sure that I always take notes of what I don’t understand or those key parts I can reflect on. I am looking forward to going over this tomorrow.

I wasn’t able to attend class on Tuesday but after looking at the other soundscapes from our class mates I think we got it really wrong with interpreting what we were meant to do with the script. To my clarification I didn’t think we needed to have voice over of the list of units/operations but turns out that was a major part in this first soundscape to send to Offenburg. I am worried that it will effect our mark dramatically- but for next time I will defiantly make sure this doesn’t happen again…

In Class: Over the past 4 weeks I feel that my particpating levels in class are at a sufficient level. I could defiantly talk more in discussions as a class, but particulary in the group work (for the soundscape) I believe I have really contributed well to this. I was very straight up and organised from the beginning of establishing our groups which I think was very beneficial to our outcome of being on time and creating a successful soundscape to the selected locale. One thing that I want to improve on is my full attention in class. I feel that sometimes I zone out when theory and explanation about things such as ontography as I get confused or start to drift away. I think that to improve this if I take more notes through what Adrian is saying I will be able to reflect and comment on it more and this will help with blog posts and assignments.

Readings: I have re read ‘Alien Phemonology’ chapter 2 three times now… I really wanted to make sure that I was interpreting Bogost in the correct way for my essay and each time I did i started to understand it a bit more. After Adrian had a discussion with us at the beginning of Tuesday’s class, re reading Bogost after did actually make a lot more sense in regards to my soundscape and ontography. I feel I am participating in the readings at a high level and feel that my discussion around them is efficient for an in-depth understanding.

Assignment: Through the first soundscape I am happy with my participation with the group so far. I am always hesitant in the first meeting with a group because no one knows each others weaknesses/ and or what we are good at so it is mostly a trial and error. I think that since we were all straight up first hand (because we didn’t have a lot of time) we were able to get on track straight away where I made a draft of the script (list) that night that we were all able to comment on to get a good feel for where the soundscape was heading. Now it is due today and I feel reasonably comfortable with the outcome.

What I took from todays studio may not have a lot of importance or help me with this course but it stuck with me after reflection. Adrian made a very valid point that “you can’t be a photographer without photos and you cant be a filmmaker without a film” it is the thing itself (photographs, films, videos) that make you what YOU are. I think this is a really valid point because myself (which may seem silly) I classify myself as a dancer, but I haven’t competed in nearly a year so really am I dancer anymore? I want to be able to apply this to the course in relation to documenting my noiticing’s. I want to effectively over the 12 weeks of this course be a documenter and have evidence/work to support this.

After re-reading Bogost chapter two to try understand more in-depthly about what he is talking about I have come to what I think is a better understanding of what ontography is all about. The conclusion (right now) I have drawn upon is that it is a recording of things (lists or footage or sounds etc) mixed/contrasted together to constitute evidence of their intimacy and interaction.

Basically a break down in English for me (in relation to the currently project brief) it is a collaboration of sounds, mixed together to show the relationship between objects and or things.

On Thursday/Friday I created a list/ script of the noticing’s to include in our soundscape. We have decided to focus on a kitchen for our ‘room’ which I feel is a good start for this earlier project brief as there is a lot of sounds to put together in a 1 minute spectrum that doesn’t have to create a story. I think that this is something we have to be really careful with throughout each soundscape/video we make as story is not what this course is about it is what things ARE.

We have a rough draft of the soundscape which i’m quiet satisfied with. I think that it demonstrates the understanding of noticings and the relationship between ‘things’ and the physical surroundings. The further improvement that can happen with this soundscape draft is I feel their is a chronological order/ story which I think needs to be dis-jointed as it is not about this.

We finally have a draft of the PB2 soundscape which I feel has a lot of opportunity for uniqueness and to form quite nicely.

I had to do a in-class presentation for True Lies about the documentary film ‘Capturing the Friedman’s’. This film puts noticing’s into real live due to the contradicting plead of guilty and innocence of Arnold and Jesse.

I found this documentary so enticing into wanting to find out more as no new equilibrium was formed. This also opened up my eyes to the human memory and this can not always be relied on. A lot of this film was based on memory and claimed victims rather than hard physical evidence. For example, the police officer says that they found child pornographic magazines all around the house, BUT the evidence/photograph taken of the scene there is a few in the corner of the house? This made me notice the difference of claims between the police and the Friedman family leaving me more confused than ever after viewing.

From today to next Thursday I plan to:

• Increase my out of class work
• Focus more upon the reading of ‘Alien Phenomenology’
• More than 5 blog posts
• Understanding and completion of the soundscape
• Get a clear understanding of the essay