PWP Grows- Part 2

Time to Get the Ball Rolling!

                                                        

 Now that the frustrations of finding a recording device for my PWP are gone, I'm ready to get things going. I was afraid that I might have to come up with a new idea for my project since I wasn't able to find a recorder,but (thanks to Jeff's help) now I can finally get the ball rolling!



Where I Am Now

So where am I with my PWP? I am currently at the point where I'm ready to create the blog for my PWP. I think I will create a template to use for my weekly posts, but I plan on making that once the blog itself has been set-up. Other than that I am ready to pick up the recording device and start recording audio. I don't plan on changing much about my PWP since most of you agree that it's a good idea. Thanks for the help!

Interrogating Texts

What's The Point?
    Every text that we encounter has a purpose for it's existence, some having more than others. One goal of interrogating a text is to discover why it exists. The relevance of it's existence may lead to your opinion, but your opinion of the text is different from interrogating the text.

Who's It For?
    Another key part of interrogating a text is being aware of the audience the text was written for. Just because you may not like the writer's opinion in the text or the audience the writer is aiming towards, you cannot use your displeasure with the text as a form of interrogation.

    I feel there is more to interrogating text than I have mentioned, but I think that keeping these two questions in mind while reading a text will help better understand the text.Critically analyzing and addressing a text is much different than giving an opinion on a text. By understanding the purpose and the audience of the text, it is easier for one to do the former than the latter.

My PWP- How I Chose My Project

Image source: http://srika.com/img/chicago_hdr/chicago_hdr_west02_1280.jpg

Where I Started: After reading the assignment description for this semester-long project I knew I had to do something that would keep me interested, but more importantly interest others. I had the original idea, which I said in class last week, of using the barcodes that we were talking about and creating a sort of blog that would open up when scanned where people are asked to tell what they were doing at the time they saw and scanned the barcode. This initially sounded like a fun project but I started to feel like it wouldn't catch on very well since not everybody has the technology to scan barcodes and, mainly, because I feel that most people (not being aware of this new use of barcodes) would not think twice about a random barcode stuck on something in city full of graffitied walls, "lost" posters, "wanted" ads, and whatever else you find sprawled upon the canavas of Chicago. So I kept brainstorming...

Where I Am Now: The idea that I finally decided to go with was inspired by an activity that I did with my Audio Production 1 class. We were divided into pairs and were sent outside with portable recording devices and a list of ten random words ("red", "ghost", "sparkle", and "interrupt" were a few). We were instructed to record sound-clips around the city for each word. Each group was then asked to play one of their sound-clips, with every group playing a different one of the given word-topics. In the end every group played their recording for their word simulteneously, creating a blend of noises and sounds that mimicked the outdoor-noises of Chicago.The final product sounded similar to this. After doing this activity I realized that I could apply it to my PWP through a blog. My idea is to record different sounds from around the city each week, posting one audio clip each week and writing about what it is, where I was, and how it reminds me of Chicago. On the final week I plan to post an audio-clip with all of the tracks from the previous weeks layered together and playing at the same time. I will conclude by writing about how that final track of every recording playing at the same time sounds, to me, like Chicago.

Mike A. Week One- WWB Fall 2010

What up!? My name's Mike Adler, also known as Mike A., and I'm majoring in the Audio Arts and Acoustics field here at Columbia College. When I think about my Web Writing experience I realize that it is very limited. My personal experiences with writing have all revolved around my academic life where, majorly, I would write essays and lab-write ups for my English and my science classes. Web Writing, however, is a completely different genre of writing altogether. The extent of my Web Writing experience is through the little amount of writing used on the social network that we have all heard of, Facebook. I am not a big Facebook person like many people of my generation are, but I do think it's a useful tool to stay in-touch with friends and family as well as to network with people and get your name out there (which can be good or bad as you could probably assume). The writing that I have done on Facebook, like with most people and any social networking site, is very different from writing for the World Wide Web and I can tell because, in making my first blog, it takes MUCH more thinking, rather than just throwing a few words together describing "what's on your mind". I can see that Web Writing is different from writing an essay for English class because it seems to be less formal, but also because, rather than stretching things out into several pages, the goal is to keep it short and enticing. Since I have very limited experience with writing for the Web I'm both nervous and excited. Nervous because of my lack of experience but excited to learn an important skill that will benefit me greatly in today's Internet-driven society. So let's have a good semester and help each other get better at writing for the Web! Search Mike Adler on Facebook and add me as a friend if you want to get to know me outside of our class blog(s)...