Journal Two: Sound in Media Pieces

Sources:
Bear71:
http://bear71.nfb.ca/#/bear71
The Russia Left Behind: http://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2013/10/13/russia/
Tomato Can Blues:
http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/tomato-can-blues/

I explored Bear71 first, and I think it spoiled me for those that followed. Initially I didn’t enjoy the audio in this piece; I liked that it used audio samples from the forest, but I thought that they were drowned out by the music. However, as the piece progressed that same music really helped to draw me into the piece and connect emotionally with the narrator. I also liked that the background noise changes as you navigate the area, bringing in samples of traffic as you near the road, etc. Additionally, the continuity of the audio helped to maintain interest, especially given that all the video clips in the virtual environment are soundless video surveillance clips.

In contrast, The Russian Left Behind felt bereft of atmosphere. It was going through this piece where I realized how much the audio in Bear71 had driven my progress and fueled my engagement. Although I enjoyed reading it, it was harder to avoid distraction, and the videos where a temptation to skip swathes of text. The boon of the videos, is that they use only captured sound, so they give a good idea of what it would be like to be there.

Tomato Can Blues, with its narration and subtle music, is very easy to listen to, however, the pace of the narration is slow and makes reading along feel plodding. As well, the narration breaks from the text in places, which makes reading along difficult.

Of the three pieces, Bear71 is the most immersive. It encourages exploration by dispersing the visual elements through the map, but the narrative and music continue throughout, so the interaction feels cohesive instead of disjointed. I believe it could have had a better balance of less ambient music and more use of sampled audio, and that this would have given a better impression of a wilderness setting, which is somewhat lost with the abstract imagery. The Russia Left behind could have benefitted from continual audio as well, becoming more immersive. Had the videos contained only the interview dialogue, sampled background sound from those interviews could have been used in each section of the piece; fading in and out as the user scrolls. Tomato Can Blues, with it’s constant narration, doesn’t need the text, this piece could have used more illustrations, or newspaper clips and other visual content to balance out the audio. As well, sampled audio could be keyed to the illustrations to make them come alive, like the buzz of a t.v. or the crash of a hammer. As well, an in-text indicator for the narration would make reading along easier, as I found that it is easy to get caught up in the illustrations and let the narration get out of sync with my reading position.