Am I really that noisy?

I did not realize how noisy I am in the mornings! When I read that we had to make an audio recording of our daily lives I decided to make one of my morning routine. The other parts of my day are either much quieter or in a public place where it would be a bit more awkward to tote around a laptop to record.

When looking at tackling this project, I tried to tackle it with an open mind. I've never tried to do an audio recording so I tried not to worry about it too much.The installing of Audacity and LAME went very smoothly, which was encouraging. Then, once I figured out what exactly I wanted to do with my project it went even smoother. I went against my usual process of making a list and instead just followed a more linear process. I began recording and came up with more and more ideas as I went along. I really enjoyed gathering the audio samples and recording different sounds on top of one another.

Overall, I feel like audio is a very interesting compositional medium. I'd be very interested in exploring it more.

I feel like my track needs a bit of an explanation so here it goes:
-It starts with two different sounds of my alarms going off (usually it takes 2 to wake me up in the morning)
-Then, you hear some generic tv talk show sounds in the background, I like watching them in the morning.
-The water rushing is me washing my face, showering, etc. (Yeah, I sing in the shower)
-The next little bit is me getting some breakfast (Cheerios, to be specific)
-I then went to practice some scales on the piano!




(There's my audio! Hope you enjoy it.)

Interview

--How would you describe what you do?
There are many different things that I "do". Part time, I'm a sales associate at a women's clothing store. But, I want to be known as a classical singer. So, I sing. I perform a variety of different languages, styles, and moods all set to music for any number of people. Sure, at some point in my career I would love to sing to sold out opera houses. But, at this point in my career, I will settle for small groups or even just one or two classmates.

--Is this different than what other people think you do?
When most people think of an "opera singer" they think of a very large woman wearing a horned helmet and they probably immediately get bored. I, however, like to think that opera is one of the most interesting art forms around today. Operas portray the most extreme emotions and tell some of the most beautiful stories ever written. I also don't just sing on a stage, I study music 24/7 in order to be able to perform. I think there is a lot of misconception about how difficult and intense the process of becoming an opera singer is. We don't just learn songs for an hour in our lessons, we also study music theory, ear training, and the piano. We go to school for years to build our technique so we can sing for, on average, about three hours over a full orchestra. I believe that being an opera singer is almost like being an Olympic athlete. It takes years to train and incredible amounts of stamina to succeed.

--How do you know if you’re on the right track with a project?




Whenever I'm doing a project, I tend to set goals of smaller pieces I want to accomplish by a certain time. If I'm on track with that, I'm on track with my project.

--How do you go about making choices?
I am a big fan of the pro/con list. I need to see things written out in front of me in order to really be able to think about my options. I'll make my list, go over it, and if the decision is not immediately obvious, I'll spend some more time thinking about it or ask the opinion of someone I trust. 

--How do you know when you’re done?
When I know my material (or project) backwards and forwards. If I'm really done, I should be able to tell you everything about my work without (much) hesitation.

--What’s your workspace like?
Small, noisy, a bit cramped, and with a piano. Most of the time the sounds of other musicians accompany me, but sometimes my workspace is completely silent (except for me).

--What are your essential tools?


A piano, healthy vocal cords, water, music, my iPod (or another way to record myself).

--What’s the most surprising tool you use?
Probably my water bottle. Its not really surprising that a singer needs water, but my water bottle is incredibly large (upwards of 40 oz.). It tends to take people aback when they see it.

--What was your biggest mistake or the one you learned the most from?
There was a time when I thought I knew a piece because I had performed it perfectly a while ago. I was cocky and ended up making several mistakes. Now, I always run over everything. Even if I'm totally confident with it.

--An example of your work:




This is a piece called "Dein Blaues Auge" by Brahms. This video was taken when I was around 14 and had been studying voice for about a year or so. 

How am I composed?

How are you composed? (What are you made of? Who, where, and what influenced you?) I was born in Massachusetts but only lived there for a few years. When I was four my mom, dad and I moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I've lived here for the rest of my life, go to school here, but I don't plan on spending the rest of my life here.

When I was five, my parents got divorced and my father moved to Reidsville and eventually got married to my step-mom, Susan. Later on, my mom got married to my step-father, Hal. I believe this moment really shaped who I am today. Being a child of divorce changes the way I look at relationships. It has also affected how I relate to my parents, all four of them. I also think all four of them have had very large impacts on my life. My dad and I are basically the same person. We make the same jokes, and think about things the same way. We have always been inseparable.

 This summer, I helped my dad and step-mom move about 3,600 miles to Portland, Oregon. This picture was taken on that trip in Dyersville, Iowa at the house where "Field of Dreams" was filmed. Its always been one of our favorite movies.

My mom has also made a giant impact on my life. She has constantly worked incredibly hard to give me everything. I remember a time in ninth grade when my school was planning a trip to Europe and I desperately wanted to go, but I didn't think it was possible. However, my mom somehow saved up enough money to send me and I wound up having the best time. Shes headstrong at times, and we fight occasionally, but she has always been someone I look up to.

The first is just a picture I took (and love) of my mom and the second is the two of us at my high school graduation party.

My step-parents have influenced my life in a very different way. My step-dad and I have extremely different opinions on just about everything and sometimes he can be very arrogant, but he has taught me almost how I don't want to be. That sounds bad, but its true. He tends to think before he speaks, and now I do my best to avoid it. My step-mom, Susan, is a very kind, sweet woman and she is very career driven. She has taught me to go for anything I want, even if it seems impossible. When she was applying to be the national director of a non-profit based out of Portland, Orgeon she didn't think she would get the job. But, she put her best foot forward and fought hard for it. While I may not always like the fact that she is the reason she and my dad now live across the country, I know she is there because she fought hard and I aim to do the same.

From the left: Susan, my step-mom, Holly, my mom, me and Hal, my step-dad.

All four of my parents and the way they live their lives have really shaped who I am today. Sure, my family structure is less than traditional, but I love it. 

Okay, I'm not trying to be cliche here, but another person who has completely changed my life is my boyfriend, Matt. He is one of the smartest, most hard working people I have ever met. During the school year he would work 30+ hours a week, commute to UNCG four times a week and handle a full academic course load. I quite honestly do not know how he stays sane. He is incredibly intelligent, that's probably how. He makes good grades, and in general is just a very intellectual person. He's constantly curious and wants to learn everything about just about everything.




He pushes me to do more, even though sometimes I want to take the easy way out. Sure, it frustrates me to no end sometimes, but eventually I see the rewards.  He makes me want to be the best version of myself that I can be. He makes me want to learn more, see more, and study more because his passionate curiosity for everything is absolutely contagious.

I could list more people who have touched my life, but I think these five are the most important. Sure, there are other people I look up to artistically but, at the root of who I am as an artist is who I am as a person.

Happy Friday!

Today's experiments with composing images were actually really fun! When I got up this morning and checked the course website I was a bit anxious about everything I needed to get done (along with working all day), but I feel like it turned out well!

The first image I created was a fun, Jackson Pollock-esque doodle created on an online program. Here it is:

Pretty neat, right? To be honest, this was also the first time I had ever tried to do a screen shot and it worked pretty well! This was just a fun, simple program that I really enjoyed!

Next was my "double exposure" photo edit. At first I was really confused about how to make the layers do what I want but, after watching the video tutorial, I got it to work. Here is my photo:

I really enjoyed working with this technique of making one of the photo layers more transparent. I love how it looks and I like the different pictures I used (one being more serious and one a bit more cheerful). I'll probably play around with this technique some more with some nature photography. I think its interesting to see the duality of the image and want to explore it further.

Next, I made a gif of the same image using five different filters. (Thanks again to Pixlr!) Here ya go:

Playing around with the different filters was definitely fun! I especially enjoyed using the "Blur" filter. I attempted to make a gif where I transitioned from very blurry into completely in focus, but it didn't turn out very well. I'll admit, I was a bit intimidated by the thought of making a gif, but it was really easy! It's also a great way to show transitions between images without making the viewer scroll or shift their gaze. Very interesting.

Since making this first gif was so simple and fun, I decided to do another for my third photo composition! I used a few different photos of me making different expressions and in different poses and here's how it turned out:

I'm really fascinated of the idea of using the gif format to create variability in between photos. It creates a serious amount of contrast but I feel like it works better than just pasting five (or more) different photos onto a plane. This way, the viewers eyes do not have to even move or disconnect in between images.

Overall, I feel like I've learned a lot this week. I may not have concrete answers for what composition is, but I am further along the road of figuring it out. I have also learned quite a bit of snazzy new software! As someone who is not so great at computers, I feel like this is a very big accomplishment.

I feel that new media composing is a great advancement in the field of composition. Sure, the "old" ways of composing are wonderful, (The phrase "If its not broken, don't fix it." comes to mind) but some of the new-media ways can be more efficient or even more visually (or aurally) interesting. New media can better demonstrate variability even in short periods of time, where as older methods of composing may not. However, I'm not convinced that technology in the field of musical composition needs to progress as far as having Artificial Intelligence compose symphonies and such. To me, there is a certain line that is drawn in between something that needs to be created out of passion and something that needs to be created as quickly and efficiently as possible. I'm not positive of where that line is at the moment, but I'll let you know once I find it.

A Picture is Worth 1000 Words?

Today's exploring led me to really question how I feel about how important images and representation are to our society. I was a bit amazed by the amount of editing I was able to do with just a few simple programs, so imagine what a professional could do! Its amazing how easily someone can take an image and distort it in whatever way they want. Today also had me explore my own self-image because I was editing pictures of myself.

The first thing I was asked to do was to take a simple headshot of myself. Not too difficult. But as soon as I read that I would be taking a picture of myself I jumped out of bed to fix my hair. I had an almost knee jerk reaction to try and make myself more presentable. I've never really thought about this response before because it is so natural but now I finally am. Is this reaction because of societal norms? Or is it something I've seen growing up? Most likely both! I feel like society tells us that, if we are going to be in a picture, we need to look our best. Next time I'm asked to take a picture of myself, I think I'll do a little experiment and just photograph myself exactly as I am.

I was then asked to use this image and use it to Popart/Warholize myself and here is how my first image came out:

Not too great right? At least you can see my teeth!










Then, I decided to use an older image and see how that would work. Here it is!

Personally, I think this one is kinda neat! Sure I'm off center and you can't really see my face...but its neat!

Then, after experiencing some technical difficulties with installing Java, I used Face to the Future to mess around with my face even more! This was a very unnerving, silly experience. I feel like the images are not necessarily nice looking, but they really are interesting to look at!

 Like I said, interesting! While the first two are almost surreal to look at, the last one almost looks like me. In case you were interested, here is the original image:

Then I used another editing software, Pixlr to further mess around with this same picture. First, I decided to explore their "Retro" editor and this is what I came up with:

This one reminded me a lot of the program Instagram. I don't personally use it, but a good deal of my friends do. This was super easy to do and I feel like it added a bit more contrast and interest to my image. It was also very quick and easy to operate. Personally, I like it a bit more than my unedited image. I feel that it is more interesting visually. Here is the second image I created on Pixlr using just their regular image editor. This editor was a bit trickier to use but this is what I came up with:

I added a layer and decided to experiment with doing a very edited image next to the unedited image. I'm not very experienced with photo editing software, but I feel like I did a pretty good job! I added contrast and more of a red color hue to the image and did a few other little edits. I really this its interesting to see the contrast of the edited image versus the unedited image.

The more I play around with my own images, the more it makes me wonder about photo editing in advertisement. I know that a lot of editing is used especially in women's fashion advertising. Bodies are made to look smaller and faces made to look perfect. What is this doing to our self-image as people? Most likely distorting it. I think I'd like to play around more with edited vs. unedited images. There may be more photos to come! Thanks for reading! 

BTW, LOL

I'm not a big fan of "text speak". Whenever I text someone I try to be grammatically correct and, in general, I shy away acronyms. However, I realize that this is not necessarily the case with all of my generation. For the most part people say what they need to say using as few words as possible. Is this making us dumber as a generation? I'm not really sure.

In an article in Wired magazine, it is said that "video and PowerPoint have replaced carefully crafted essays, and texting has dehydrated language into "bleak, bald, sad shorthand". An age of illiteracy is at hand, right?". On one hand, I agree. I feel that, as a generation, we have gotten a bit less verbose. There is a certain beauty in language that I feel like we have almost lost entirely. Something I really enjoy is sitting down to read a good book and actually having to think about the words on the page and what the author is trying to say. I feel that, as a generation, we have lost this passion for understanding. As long as it is around 100 pages and has a snappy story, we'll gobble it up. I feel like text compositions have gotten simpler and devoid of the interest and passion they once had.

Maybe we have gotten to the point where a paycheck is more important than passion, who am I to say? Sure, I have taken singing gigs simply for the paycheck, and I may not have been as excited about those performances as I would a performance of music I really loved, but I did them so I could pay the bills. But I digress.

I feel that maybe there is a time and a place for using acronyms and basic language, but there is also a time to paint with words. Maybe at times we will all need to compose simply because we are being paid, but there will be other times when composing will take every ounce of passion and energy we have. So, where do we draw the line on how we can define composition? I feel like this is a very complicated question and I'm only beginning to scratch the surface. 

Today's Travels

Today made me focus on other aspects of composing that were more interesting to me personally. I got to explore how composition effects artists I admire such as Sally Mann and Richard Wagner which I found very intriguing.

Instead of going to my go-to search engine, Google, I hunted around with different search engines I found on the "Internet Tutorials" page. While they did not necessarily lead me to the articles I ended up using, they gave me the inspiration and ideas to explore what I ended up finding the most interesting. I ended up finding an article that included a story about a colorful rehearsal between Wagner and an orchestra. I also thought more about an artist whose work I greatly admire, Sally Mann. Her photography is very well composed and her process is intriguing. 

At one point in the reading, Manovich discusses the difference between old media and new media and brings up photography. I am by no means a professional photographer, but it is something I definitely enjoy in my free time. He says that even photographs can be divided into old media and new media. Photographs that have been printed and put in a book are classified as "old media" but the exact same photographs placed on a CD would be considered "new media". I'm not sure of my exact opinion on this, but its just something that I found intriguing and I'll have to think on it more the next time I photograph anything.

Manovich also discusses the five principles of new media. The one that I feel I could best employ in a still image photograph and in my own art form, music performance, would be Variability. No two images or performances are ever going to be exactly the same. I think it would be interesting to conduct a project where several performances of the same musical piece are sung/performed and then have them all play at the same time, or in a round. It would be a bit jarring to hear the cacophony of sound that would occur, but it would demonstrate variability very well. A photography project that could be done would be either  taking a time lapse image or a series of photographs taken in the exact same spot at the exact same time every day for a long period of time. In effect the set up would be exactly the same, but the images would vary. I've included a video where 12 pictures are taken every day for a year. Enjoy!

"What is composition in general, what are the differences and common features of various types of composition?" 


As a musician, when I head the word "composition" I immediately think of someone writing a piece of music. However, I realize that there are many other definitions for that word. For example, Webster defines it as "an intellectual creation". (See other definitions here! ) Therefore, I feel as if we are right to call ourselves composers. So far we have been asked to think, contemplate, and compose pieces both that express ourselves and that show how we feel about a subject (and hopefully both of those written components have been intellectual!).

To compose something requires inspiration, thought, and effort. A musical composer can't just slap some notes on a staff and call it a symphony. Real intellectual creations require thought and time. You need to go and spend some time with yourself to really figure out how you feel on a subject or issue. At least, that's my opinion. I know that I can't make up my mind about anything when I feel as if time is quickly rushing away from me. My best thoughts come out of a bit of pondering. To call something a composition, whether it is a film, art exhibit, or symphony, you must be willing to put thought behind it and have the knowledge required to back up your thoughts. 


There are still obvious differences between compositions though, both in medium and quality of work. A written paper is different from a painting. They both require different mediums and a different set of skills. It would also be obvious if someone writing a paper started a few hours before it was due. The work would most likely be sloppy and the thoughts scrambled. Same with the painting. The painting may not have real development or may just not really be presenting a message to the audience.

Here's a little something I found interesting today; I love folk music. So I was listening to a song called "Saro" by Sam Amidon and realized that the lyrics were extremely similar to another song I love ("Pretty Saro" by a local composer named Kenneth Frazelle). It is just interesting to think that familiar hand-me down lyrics could weave their way into two very different genres of music. One is more "New Folk" and the other was composed to be performed in a more professional setting. Pretty neat, right? Here are links to both songs:

Here's "Pretty Saro", sung by a UNCSA alum Adam Ulrich. (The song I'm referring to starts at around 1:07) 

And here is the  Sam Amidon song. Yes, the lyrics and melodies have differences but they are also extremely similar! 


Thanks for reading!