Audio Essay ‘Gravitational Anarchy’

“A mysterious case of the topsy turvies and a return to the question of what felines feel when they fall.”

In order to gain more of an insight into the world of audio essays I had a deeper delved into the site ‘radio lab’ (http://www.radiolab.org/) which was discussed in a recent weeks tutorial.
In particular I looked in to the essay of ‘Gravitational Anarchy’ which involved guests David Quammen and Neil deGrasse Tyson, I choose this particular example because I am quite a fan of Neil DeGrasse Tyson and the topic does relate to growing technology, in this case for astronomical reasons (where as our essay will be conducted on technology in regards to wearable devices). The piece begins with a story excerpted from an essay by Berton Roueché. This is an excellent example of referencing and using other sources for the audio aspect within the essay.
The mixture and choice of music within the intro dialogue (Rouechés except) is quite interesting a church organ is used to build suspense as the character almost overlaps her own voice in order to delay the level of silence in the piece creating a very fast paced narrative which keeps listeners on edge. The use of other voices to play separate characters within the story adds in extra excitement and helps personalize each individual. As the story is set in another era slow jazz music is used, the music is also deliberately warped as the character explains her imbalance. This connection between the music and the narrative helps the audience picture what the characters balance would be like visually although conveyed purely with audio.
Finally there is also aspects of discussion between two guests as they reference back to the narrative piece excepted into the essay and refer back to how Rouches story conveys meaning towards the term gravitational anarchy. Of course there is so much more detail used within this essay and all the essays posted onto Radio Lab but listening to each one allows a user to note down certain prominent characteristics and they can choose if those characteristics would work well within their own essay in this case linking soundtrack to the narrative is very important especially when describing a scene or a dramatic reading.