#blogpost7

Where is music in nature? Where is nature in music?

I was really excited to learn more about this week’s topic as music holds a significant place in my life. I consider a few of my close friends and family to be talented musicians, and I make a lot of music myself. I wouldn’t consider myself a professional by any means, but it is something that brings me immense joy regardless of skill-level.

Gray, P. et al. (2001) defines music as, “patterns of sound varying in pitch and time produced for emotional, social, cultural, and cognitive purposes”. But music is much more than just songs that we hear on the radio or instrumental background noise.

Gray, P. et al (2001) mentions how there are numerous natural sounds that are only heard in certain parts of the world. However, technological advances make it possible for us to share these sounds with one another. I’m sure a lot of us know what a whale call sounds like, but how many of us have actually heard it first hand? It really is amazing how technology has allowed us to experience so many things without having personally done them ourselves. These sounds contribute to the overall ambience that is prominent in natural habitats. This can be considered the music of nature (Gray et al., 2001). These sounds that are created by nature itself are often utilized in many forms of media to capture attention. For instance, nature sounds playing in the background of movies or podcasts are often used. I’ve even used study playlists on Spotify that are simply natural sounds such as rain falling or birds singing as background noise to help me focus. These are all ways in which the music of nature is used in nature interpretation. These sounds help “transport” people into these natural settings without actually going there and provoke emotions in listeners.

What I find really interesting is how these natural sounds have similar patterns, rhythms and overall structures as the music we create as humans. Going back to the whales, their whale songs often follow patterns or rules that are the same as human-made music (Gray et al., 2001). It seems that music is something that connects all of us, including other animal species. Although our music does of course sound very different from whales and other species, we incorporate many aspects of natural music into our version of music and other forms of media (such as the examples previously mentioned).

Music can also remind us of certain things. A song that takes me back to a natural landscape is the song “If You Need To, Keep Time On Me” by the Fleet Foxes. I listened to this song a lot while traveling around many different natural places. Whether it was a walk in the woods in Guelph, or a hike in the Canadian Rockies, or in the car sightseeing in Iceland, I often found myself listening to this song. Now every time I hear it, it reminds me of the outdoors, and I still listen to it lots whenever I'm driving.

Many other songs remind me of nature, and I’m excited to see what songs some of you guys post about!

-Kendra :)

References

In The Historian's Macroscope: Big Historical Data, the idea of a macroscope is discussed.  The macroscope is very important to history and how data is processed and how a story is put together from the information we have available. The macroscope helps us aggregate so much data that we might have on a subject, and then make sense of it. It is taking a look at the bigger picture, and picking specific details in that picture. Taking these specific details, you can string each of these details together into a story that is easier to make sense of. This is a great way to pull an important story from a sea of information and put it in a digestible way. Trying to start with the story and build up could lead to a slew of issues. These issues could lead the researcher to be too focused on the minute details of the story. This could lead them to miss other details, or even the significance of the larger story that this minor story could belong to. However, it is important to be able to do research at the macro level and the micro level. The argument is then made that having the computational skills to be able to process all of this data is slowly becoming a necessity. Through the use of technology, we can pull together so much information that it may become too much. This idea of Big Data is daunting, no matter the field you are in. So having these skills to be able to dig through this data and process it into digestible and workable chunks is a necessity. This leads to the discussion of API’s and why they are important. These allow you to use your programming of choice to dig through data and to be able to sort it in a way that makes the most sense for the project that you are working on. 

In the article The Causes of the Civil War, 2.0, it is brought to the forefront why text mining is so important for historians. This article describes a three thousand page report that was compiled in regards to the Virginia convention. The Virginia General Assembly had met in 1861 and this took weeks. The transcriptions of this occurrence were not fully gathered and edited until 1965. This document has become a treasure trove of information. This transcription is the big data in this case. From here, methods of data mining were implemented to process this data down into manageable chunks. In this instance, the data mining worked to process down how many times and in what contexts certain words were used. From here, the article makes the case for digital data mining. A program on a computer is much better and faster than one person is to scrape through a document, or various documents, to gather this type of data that is not easily seen at the surface. 

Customer feedback refers to the opinions and responses of customers regarding their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a particular product or service. The primary goal of customer feedback collection is to ascertain their level of satisfaction. Obtaining feedback from customers enables you to improve your customers' perceptions of your brand or products while also providing you with sound advice on how to improve your business. 

After completing our MVP and wireframe, we conducted another interview with our target customers to review any additional feedback and fine-tune our application. I was able to interview five individuals who provided me with rich, detailed information about their comments and suggestions for improving our application.

The following are some of the things I've learned while conducting this activity.

 1. Customer feedback identifies product improvement opportunities.

Customer feedback is critical because it reveals what works well about your product or service and what could be improved. The perspectives expressed by my interviewees assist me in ensuring that the final product meets their expectations, resolves their problems, and satisfies their needs. 

2. Collecting customer feedback makes them feel involved.

Create an impression with your customers that your primary business objective is to alleviate their pains and meet their needs, not to simply collect their money. This increases their sense of attachment to your business; demonstrating that you truly listen enables you to develop stronger relationships with them. After all, the product is being created for them, and as such, it should be as close to their desired outcome as possible. 

3. Proactively identify dissatisfied customers.

Well, it's unpleasant to receive dissatisfied customers, but that is the reality. There will be dissatisfied and unhappy customers. This is where the value of customer feedback comes into play. Acquiring and analyzing customer feedback enables you to determine whether or not your clients are satisfied with your service and to identify areas for improvement, thereby reducing customer churn. As a result, when a dissatisfied customer expresses disappointment, you can respond immediately and work to resolve the issue. In fact, it is the ideal time to reclaim a client and possibly increase their level of loyalty. 

Thus, when some suggested that we change the color palate, while I want to maintain our color branding, I also feel like I need to make these minor changes to cater to our target customers who demanded a user-friendly color scheme for the application.

via Saatchi Art

Media scholar Henry Jenkins in the introduction and fourth chapter of “Convergence culture: where old and new media collide”, explores the concepts of convergence and participatory culture. But what convergence means? Convergence can be defined as:

A technological process – different technological fields that convert together.

 A media industries phenomenon – when a company merges with another media industry.

 A set of policies to regulate the media industries phenomenon – laws which limit the converging process

A social practice – the rise of user-generated content.

Jenkins emphasizes the idea that convergence is not only a technological process, but it is about a cultural shift. This is what he calls the “Black Box Fallacy” for which, he argues, media change cannot be reduced to a technological development solely. It is the illusion that technology provokes changes, but it just accelerates the process. The cultural logic of convergence is a process that invests everything including relationships, desires, memories. Therefore, it is not just a black box where different tools converge together, but there is more.

Participatory culture: in participatory culture people are empowered by technology. It is when users become users and producers, who change, manipulate, and create the content. It is important, nonetheless, to make the distinction between participation and interactivity.

Interactivity refers to the ways in which technology has been designed to give an answer to the user. For example, in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, the technology makes the users able to interact with it for the way it was designed.

via RedCapes

Participation is a social cultural phenomenon enhanced by technology for which users are able to change media content. It alters the logic by which media industries operate and by which people consume media products.

Participatory culture, however, was not born with the Internet – it just helped make it more evident. Folk culture is a pre-Internet participatory culture and the domain of gift economy. With the Internet, and billions of people involved, this gift economy clashes. Jenkins gives the example of the fandom world behind Star Wars and the grassroots production. The creativity of the fans’ universe is evident and people make something out of products, like in fan fictions.

One example of successful books originated by fan fiction is The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare. She wrote the Draco Trilogy, which went really viral in the fan fiction world, and was a sexy re-adaptation of Harry Potter’s character Draco Malfoy. This character inspired one of the main character of the series Jace. The fan fiction was then removed from the Internet and the author faced many controversies; nevertheless, the 6 books series, the film, and the TV series originated from a fan fiction. 

Reflection

Attempt

The main goal here was to create a pristine prototype of my package from last week.

Process

I added content from the original package, created a keyline, and printed it on card-stock paper. The paper is light enough that the shape will be able to fold while maintaining a sturdy form. I added a texture image of wood to the die-line that will be printed for the display in a gallery. This will create more visual contrast and interest to the package while adhering to the brand style.

Outcome

This package was a bit wide and had areas that could have had no stroke for die-lines, or at least a grey .5pt stroke. The panels also needed to be rotated 90 degrees to be read upright. Aside from these slightly frustrating issues, I’m pleased where the package is so far in this stage.

Discovery

Attempt

After receiving feedback to simplify my design, I tried a few concepts. These concepts geared toward a more sleek and clean design.

Process

I focused on the earbud part that goes in the ear. I tried creating a mockup with tabs that crossed over inside the circle. My other mockup consisted of slits near the parameter of the circle, in which tabs would slide into. I also added a separator at the bottom for extra earbud pieces and instructions. A thin piece of paper with holes to display the product was also added inside; wrapping inside the package shape.

Outcome

The second mockup was the most successful, the tabs on the other created awkward lines around the circle. The second one allowed for smooth edges, minimal materials, and simple design.

Discovery

Enjoy the Playlist Knitting 0.4, the drums are faster now. So stick to the beat.

Smaller but better. I wanted to start by knitting a scarf but I noticed that the best is to start from a small knitting square. I could concentrate more and perfect my craft with knitting tighter loops. I still need to work on my initial knot and loops, I’m still scared to make them too tight. However, my ending knot is getting better.

By now I don’t use the YouTube tutorials. So I don’t have to stop my music whatsoever.

So my advice, would be to start with small goals and not to get yourself too much ahead of your skills. Know your own limitations.