Refining:

I really think we have chosen a good prompt, and I really want to say thank you to James for leading me to do record sound in this task. Before participating in task two and studying about sound(week 3), I didn’t consider listening to be a form of noticing, I think the term ‘notice’ is more about seeing something. So I have learned either listening and viewing are a form of noticing, sometimes a sound is more powerful than an image.

I have realized the importance of sound, sound does not only allow as an unlimited field of imagination, it is also helpful for media makers to use when we are blocked by what we can see in front of us. If I am going to make a documentary about a place someday in the future, and I don’t have a good idea for it yet, I think I will set a recorder there and ‘listen’ to the place first. I believe this will give me a lot of inspiration.

I understand that the purpose of a non-narrative film is not to have an exact storyline or meaning to it, the audience is allowed to spread their imagination to understand the film in their own way. But I was still thinking that if a noticing piece like a collection of people crossing the road in CBD, is this consider as a non-narrative? Furthermore, exploring from this task, instead of a well-planned film with a script written, I think to film one’s surrounding like what they might notice, what they don’t and why is that will be even more interesting. Every individual’s interests will vary by the different of cultural background with different experiences, even they are being filmed under the same concept, I think I can expect for different results. And this is what I want to explore further throughout this semester.

Secondly, does non-narrative film confuse people? If they do, then is there a way change this situation I might be able to explore in my further media practices.

The last question I came out from this task was, how might colors affect the way viewers understand a photograph. When I looked back to the photographs I captured in James’ meaningful place, I should capture the tension and the loudness from the photographs but I didn’t, I can only feel the weather’s coldness out of the photo because of the greeny and blue tone.

Reflection for task two_

There were a lot of sounds that weren’t repeated for the next time, and I will say there were around 1/3 of the sources of sound I couldn’t find them when I started to photograph. What I was expecting Fawkner park’s environment to be way easier than Glenferrie road, and in fact, even the environment was more straightforward than Glenferrie road it has still become a challenge for me.  The sources of a sound weren’t being repeated for several of times like Glenferrie road. For example, James heard rustling sound of a shopping bag in the recording we thought might be easier to find people with shopping bags around Coles, but in fact, people who held shopping bags were everywhere on the street. In my case photographing in Fawkner park, I heard an animal’s sound in the recording, but when I stopped my recording at went to capture it, I held my camera 10 minutes just looking for a bird that flies over the sky but it didn’t show up. When I was holding my camera and wandered around which brought me to discover the leaves have turned into white from the reflecting of lights, so I held my camera up again I photographed it, more surprisingly, when I looked back to these photos of trees I have accidentally captured a flying bird!

What I really liked about this task and especially our prompt was to play the audio back after recording, and then take photos of what you can hear from the recording.  This is a good practice for us as media makers to get our eyes used to notice the small things. As I have discovered from our task one,  the fact that there are so many little things in our daily life that we might have missed out because of we have paid too much attention only to the big stuff.

Using this graph from week one reading as an example, people usually keep walking in the main road and focusing on the package which is very big that has no room for anything else to go on the road and neither from the small pathway, I will describe sound as something powerful that can go through the big block and let people see more things. For example, we went to my place for photography and recording because I told James that my memory in Glenferrie road was when I passed the road every day to school, so our focal point was put on how loud we can hear from the students and we both expected to hear non-stopped talking of students walking down to the station. However, from the recording, we were very surprised by the constant traffic sound was actually stronger than the girls that we were nearer.

Something challenged about this task was what I have mentioned in the first post, capturing movements (like running, jumping or animals) were still challenging for me. And secondly, shooting movements at night was even more challenging this time because the lighting was not bright enough for me to see all the details. Such as, a flying bird passed the trees that were impossible to see from the dark. Moreover, the just like I said further on the speed of sound was not able to be caught because it finished at the same time it started, but I guess having these challenges was sort of the point what Hannah was expecting us to experience from practicing. Those I have missed out were very interesting because they have shown how sound allows more unlimited imagination, and how powerful when sound and view can be when they came together.

Noticing: 

Audio file:

Audio and photograph – final submission:

In total, I have recorded two pieces of audio in Fawkner park as several games were happening at the same time but different sports. The first recording was men’s sports game and the second recording was women’s sports game. Fawkner park isn’t as manifold as Glenferrie road, especially the time we went there was the busiest time of the Glenferrie road (3:30 in the afternoon). When I started to record and taking photos was around 6:30 PM at night which sun has sat already, and the environment was very simple with lots of repetition of sounds.The biggest difference between what I thought I might be seeing in Fawkner park to what I actually see is, the sound finish at the moment it comes out. If I weren’t filming with a VCR, then a sound would be impossible to be recorded in the photographic form. There were few from my list that I couldn’t record the moment with a camera such as yelling, shouting, swearing, etc. these aren’t like running, or clapping hands are movements with sound, but yelling all you can hear is a noise unless I can photograph them right in front of them. Moreover, Fawkner park is not as

The biggest difference between what I thought I might be seeing in Fawkner park to what I actually see is, the sound finish at the moment it comes out. If I weren’t filming with a VCR, then a sound would be impossible to be recorded in the photographic form. There were few from my list that I couldn’t record the moment with a camera such as yelling, shouting, swearing, etc. these aren’t like running, or clapping hands are movements with sound, but yelling all you can hear is a noise unless I can photograph them right in front of them. Other than verbally spoken cannot be photographed, there was one more thing that I found difficult to capture, for example, I heard a bird during I record, but when I lifted my head up to look for it there was just a dark sky which there was nowhere I can see a bird flying.

When I listen back to the recording, the first thing I noticed is the conversation happening near me. It was the only sound that came out at the same volume level as the sports game, but the people chatting were standing much nearer to me than the actual sports game. This is telling me again how big the sound was coming from the sports game, and how quiet is the Fawkner park without the sports game.

When I went back home and listened to the recording for the second time, there was another thing I found interested was the content of the conversation that I have recorded. Opposite to what I expected, this group of people chatting near me was waiting beside the oval for their games, but what I heard from their conversation was nothing about the sports game, they seemed to be relaxing, chilling out and no one appeared to be worried about the up coming game. When I listened carefully, I heard both the conversation and the yelling from the games, and the atmosphere of this conversation became a huge contrast with the players in the games.

We picked up quite similar things in each other’s place, but he noticed there was music in most of the shops at the beginning of his recording and then when he went back to take photos after played back the recording, he actually found the speakers were hanging outside of the shop/ restaurant. Honestly, I have never noticed the change of music while walking down and up Glenferrie road every day. There was always too much going on at the same time each day which I am already being used to the rich layers of sound, so what I always did when I passed by is that I always had my earphone, so I have never paid attention to the sound of Glenferrie road.

Prompt:

Step 1 – pass through the location with a microphone and record for 10 minutes

Step 2 – Listen to the recording from step 1 and create a short list consisting of at least 40 photographs

Step 3 – Return to the initial location and shoot the list

We will then combine the photos and sound into a multimedia presentation to show the relationship between the sound and photographs.

James is very familiar with Fawkner park which he goes there every Wednesday for RMIT team, and he also thinks that it will be a place that is fairly different to Glenferrie road.  The place I have chosen as ‘somewhere meaningful to me’ was Glenferrie station, especially from the station walk up to MLC. My understanding to ‘a meaningful place’ should be a place we are very familiar with, so the place we picked both me and my pair were somewhere we must go at least once a week, I can even say that I can walk with my eyes closed.

-You should list what you know, don’t know and expect to see and/or hear in your pair’s location-

Before going to Fawkner park, I have only heard that there is a park in South Melbourne called Fawkner park and then I have seen there was a sports game when I passed by the other day. What I expect to see in Fawkner Park is should be much darker than Glenferrie road because we are capturing in the night and the layers of sounds will not be as rich as Glenferrie road either because 3:30 will be the busiest time throughout the day whether I am expecting only sounds of sports game like running, whistles, ball hitting the ground etc. As the shooting will not be the first time I photograph sports game, so I am also expecting to meet some challenges when I try to capture movements and facial expressions when players are moving so fast. I was worry about this because I had a chance to take photos of indoor cricket games for past studio project briefs. All I remembered from the shooting was the players were moving too fast for me to capture their face, the space was quite limited with not much lighting. I was expecting the same situation for this shooting. 

In addition, I am also expecting to see the anxious; nervous and tension on players face, either the players in the game or players still waiting for their term to join the game. I think what I will see players who are going to start the game will be doing stretching; warming up and discussing/ planning about today’s games besides the oval. 

-Linking to the Readings-

After reading the ‘Field Recording as Sonic Journalism’ and ‘Listening, Meaning and Power’ from week three, I was more curious about how might Glenferrie rd ‘sounds’ like at its busiest time, and how sports game ‘sounds’ like in an open place. Before continue to finish the readings, I listened to ‘Starry Night’ by Mazen Kerbaj without any background information or knowledge I listened to it for the first time. I can paint the picture of what is happening in the recording, and I can even feel the emotion of the recorder. I was amazed to experience the power of sound, and I guess what I got out of this week’s sound experience is that: There are a lot of forms of noticing, and the sound is one of them. Without image showing the audio allows the audience to paint the picture even more emotionally. 

– Task one reflection –

1. What made you stop to record the moments of noticing you did?

First, if the colour of the objects were vivid or special enough that will always make me stop for them, and secondly, if the colour was special that I really liked but it was not matching another object up at the moment I discovered them, I found myself must go back with something that I think will match with it very well. For example, I found the green couches beside our classroom I really liked. However, when I discovered this place I wasn’t wearing anything that can go with these green couches although I remembered that I have a similar hoodie that will really suit this green so I brought it the next and record the moment. ➡️

2. How did the way you collect relate to your initial research prompt?

Since I knew this task is more about a  moment of discovery/learning/epiphany which of course we need to be attentive and aware of everything we are surrounded by, once I had decided the direction I wanted to focus on, I held my camera/ phone wherever I went and walked slower than I usually do intentionally.

3. What did you discover/learn about making media through noticing?

Through class discussion on Thursday, we showed each other our own collection of media and discuss what someone in our group has pointed out about my photos is something I did not notice during filming. One of our group members has written down shapes and angles on my paper, which are two things that I didn’t pay attention to when I was collecting my media. At this point, I realized week one reading was kind of linking to what Hannah asked us to discuss: when we are paying our full attention to something or an object, we might miss out something small.

4. What question(s) arise for you out of this making?

I really focused only on ‘colours’, I felt like everything that is colourful were extra conspicuous and vivid when I have this idea in mind, however, when we concentrate too much on a single thing then we might not have the time and effort to spend on the other things, which this is how I missed a lot of important things. 

– Looking back to the Patrick Pound –

The exhibition was very interesting and inspiring, I used to think that I am such a mindful person which is aware of a lot of things going around me, but after seeing  ‘Patrick Pound’s collection I was so surprised by how much detail are there in every piece of his noticing. There were two series of work that I found most interesting, one of them was in the first exhibition room which people’s face on each the collected photographs has been ripped off. The other one was a series that each frame has two photographs, they all seemed to be cut outs from newspapers and magazines but the two images ingeniously linked together. The first impression to this exhibition was wondering where and how did he get all these photographs from, but then I was thinking more of how could he be so mindful and keeping his eye on everything that is going on around him or even further from him.

This series of noticing is based on colours, it’s about when two different objects incidentally came together and noticing the colours on these two objects were overlapping or matching one another. The collection of noticing will be in a photographic form as the moment is more visible in a photograph instead of a continuing moment.  In the class time when everyone was choosing a concept for their collection of noticing, I noticed my sleeve matches with the table and my new nails colour are very similar to my laptop stickers, so I captured this down and decided to focus on this direction.

• Are there any similarities or patterns between your pieces of media?

When photographs were collected or captured seperately, I believe that most of us won’t notice there is any link in between or we might never even thought about it. After the exhibition, I was very inspired and also linking back to task one, I think what Patrick Pound wanted to deliver through out these collections was that when photographs (crafts) were brought together, the alignment will sort of push the viewer to start to find if there is a common point of every photograph. After I have listed my collections together, I noticed there were similarities, repetition between them other than colours.  

First, is the surface of every subject I captured in my photographs were kept changing, they were never repeated. Secondly, shapes – is something that kept repeating through out each of my photographs but I have never noticed. I discovered this repetition when we were sharing our collection in a group, one of my group members has written down the first thing she noticed in my photographs was shapes.

• List what you notice when looking/listening back to your media.

There was only one thing that I noticed when I went back to look at my collections, the first four photographs were taken with big colour patterns, the colours were very obvious and vivid, they were even based upon a colourful background. Although when the time came closer to the due date, the colour patterns in the last two photographs were very small that viewer might not noticed just by looking for the first time. 

– Readings –

“The essence of noticing is being awake to situations, being mindful rather than mindless.”

WEEK 1 – Noticing

From the readings in week 1, there was one sentence that I really agreed with the author was ‘we may think that we are widely aware of what is going on around us, but in fact, attention is highly selective, and for good reason’. I totally agree with this point, because I used to consider why people have different points of view even when they are looking at the same thing, my conclusion is according to the variation of experience, lifestyle, and beliefs. This is the same as noticing, deliberate noticing is actually difficult, we noticed things because we have an experience or even a small piece of memory that is associated with the things we give our attention to.

In a small group of 4, we shared things we noticed on the way to school. We were either focused on rushing to school, so we didn’t really notice anything until we sat down, when we get out attention to the time we are only thinking not to be late and time remain time, people will have no more attention to share with  or like me, I noticed the sunshine was on the wall of the train station because I read an article about how to use sunlight/ natural light to create a better photograph, so my eyes stopped on the sunlights.

WEEK 2 –  Ontography

To be honest, until this moment, I am still very confused with the term ‘Ontography’, however, through reading and discussion upon the reading I think I got the basic idea of this term, and I also understood why Hannah asked us to link ‘Patrick Pound’ with task one.  If we take a quick browse at each section of the collection we might not be able to notice why are these subjects collected together, they seemed to have no connection in between. Such as the collection around ‘hole’, there were books, CDs, living goods and etc. when I found the tiny figure which was a minor that was digging a hole, I was really surprised how attentive he is. 

– Things to be explored during the collection of notices –

Since last semester, I was aware of different colours, how might a single colour change a photograph and especially when two contrast colours meet each other. In the class time when everyone was choosing a concept for their collection of noticing, I noticed my sleeve matches with the table and my new nails colour are very similar to my laptop stickers, so I captured this down and decided to focus on this direction.

However, question rise at the same time, Hannah reminded me that she will be curious to know if I do this on purpose, which means instead of noticing the this I might make them up because the sense of noticing colours was raised.