Microproject 4

The Water's Perspective of the Bathroom

   We all use the bathroom multiple times each day.  We often think of the bathroom as a quiet, private place where we can simply "do our business."  However, the bathroom is a very quiet place until we enter it.  We then turn on the vent, flush the toilet, wash and dry our hands, etc.  I originally had no intention on doing my project in the bathroom but while I was "doing my business," I realized just how much unique sounds fill the space.
  I want this video to inspire a variety of emotions.  The image itself is simply a camera underneath the sink with water pouring on it.  Nearly all sounds have to do with water when one is in the bathroom.  Therefore, I want the person to have the peaceful emotion of moving water, but hearing the often uncomfortable sounds of the bathroom in the background.  I intentionally made the beginning quite boring with the sound of the vent.  This is all one hears while taking a shit, however it is a powerful and unique sound which we often drown out.  Many of us seem to feel uncomfortable when we hear bathroom sounds outside of the actual room.  This is the point.  The sounds are so distinguishable, but we rarely or never hear them outside the space of the bathroom.
  Then the other sounds are quite distinguishable but I used technology to add the sounds together and create the many sounds on top of each other.  This is because the water has many different paths it may take, and I want to make sure the person viewing the art fully understands that.  The water may end up down the toilet, it may come out of the sink, or it may even end up on the towel.  By placing the sounds together, it uses hearing to track the water's progress in the bathroom.  This was a nice surprise to see the artwork come out the way it did, but most of this was an intentional process.
  The most satisfying part of this project is the fact I successfully manipulated sound.  I have never been a music performer and could never play an instrument.  Therefore, this project was very difficult for me but I was satisfied that a nice piece of artwork was created from such a disgusting place.
   There were many times where I just hated this project.  I am a very visual person and I often have a difficult time picking out sounds.  This project challenged me to change my perspective on sound and learn how to capture it and manipulate it to form artwork.  While this was my most difficult project yet, I am happy with the way it turned out.
 

Blog 9

This is my favorite blog post yet.  We have been practicing all semester on how to look at the world with a different perspective, but this reading reaches the epitome of perspective.  A blind man seems to have a better grasp on how the world looks, reacts, and behaves better than the wife and the man.  The man had a very pessimistic view on life but the blind man helped him find his identity. My favorite part of the story came at the end when he asked him to describe a cathedral.  When he realized he couldn't do it justice, the blind man had him draw it, with his eyes closed!  When the blind man asked him to describe it now, the man said it was really something.
There is nothing in this story that I want to criticize.  I feel like the point of this story is about perspective.  Before I read this, I would have said that blindness is a lack of perspective.  A blind man can only use his imagination along with his other senses to construct an image.  Sight is so important to us and guides virtually everything we do.  It would help us all to remove sight for a short period and construct an image with this "lack" of perspective.

Micro Project 4 Part 1

I place I go fairly often, at least a few times daily, is the bathroom.  My normal activities include actually using the bathroom, taking a shower, brushing my teeth, shaving, washing my hands, and other normal bathroom stuff.  The room contains a toilet, a shower, a sink, a mirror, a shelf, and a tile floor.  It is probably the smallest room in the house, but one of the most important.  Simply by walking into the bathroom, you may not notice that you are in a bathroom.  You must interact with it in order to figure out the identity of the room.  You must flush the toilet (a very distinct sound), turn on the shower and the sink, and turn on the vent.  Occasionally you might even let a fart slip loose.  Most of these sounds are very unique to this particular room so you will probably instantly know where you are once you hear them.