Ways of Hearing

Discussion questions for episodes 5 & 6

Episode 5

At the beginning of this episode, Krukowski asserts, “the marginal-the rejected-the repressed-is whatever the powerful have decided is of no use at the moment.” What does he mean by this statement? He goes on to ask, “But might it [the marginal-the rejected-the repressed] not be a key to alternate approaches-to art, to society-to power itself?” (“Marginalized” is an adjective that describes a person, group, or concept that is treated as insignificant or peripheral.)

What is he trying to get at with this question? How does music indicate the differences between the powerful and the marginalized?

When Krukowski visited the record store, he discovered that there is some music that are preserve for longtime and are not used. He thinks that kind of songs are at the present not needed by the society. But these rejected music could be a form of way to propose different view related to the art, the society and to the power itself. Nowadays, we see that online research and business for music such as amazon or others has contributed to increase our lack of interest for record store. In the episode, Krukowski said that he found a lot of information by visiting the record store. For example, workers provide information about years, they can even advise about some useful online research for music. Also, we can understand that music in the record store are material, physic that can attract our attention more than the online immaterial music.

How are the music listening experiences enabled by Forced Exposure different from those that Paul Lamere is working on with platforms like Spotify?

According to Paul Lamere, we can recommend the composition of any music by knowing the culture, the acoustic and the social data. For him, it is important to focus on the digital technology and pay attention to people’ comment in the internet. In the record store, specialist in music are sometimes limited about the information they need.

What distinctions does Krukowski draw between being “surprised” by music and “discovering” music? What are the differences between these experiences and according to Krukowski, why are they important?

By using the computer algorithm, engineers try to understand what we are interested in. They are not pushing our curiosity to something that we don’t like but they work on to help us to find what we are looking for. That mean thy don’t want to surprise their customer about new music or different type of music but they assist clients to discover the genre of music the client is searching. it is important because it can save time and energy to satisfy our desire of that kind of music.

Episode 6

According to Krukowski, what is noise? What is signal? Why are these distinctions important?

According to Krukowski, the noise is something we can hear but don’t understand the meaning and the signal is a form of tone that we realize its signification. Therefore, by using the digital analogue we can bust the signal without the noise. We can make the music louder or not; the digital technology has changed our world.

What central idea about noise does this episode convey? Why is it significant?

We see in this episode; many music producers try to minimize the impact of the noise in music. The signal is one of the significant aspects of the song, the noise is that son we can perceive but don’t understand the meaning while the signal is that information we perceive, we are able to comprehend. In the episode, Krukowski says that in some cases, noise is inevitable, it gives the meaning of the son.

How does this episode relate to other episodes? 

This episode gives us one of the most important point in the music, in the real time it was not easy to control the noise and the signal. In the machine time, we come to approach to reduce the noise and focus on the signal. For example, in the public space we can use headphone to enjoy the signal of our song and reduce the noise we are hearing around. Also, we see that the proximity effect is significant for the signal and with cellphone, we lose the feeling of the signal.

Episodes 3 and 4

Episode: 3

1. According to Krukowski, what are the main differences between a microphone and a cellphone and why is this difference important?

According to Krukowski, with the microphone we can control the proximity effect of our tone such as our breath and the distance, but cellphone doesn’t not have proximity effect. Also, he mentions that our sound on the phone is sometimes worse, there is not sensitivity and being near of far from the phone is almost the same voice. Many of the speakers during the episode recognize that they can spend hours in the microphone but cannot do the same with the cellphone. Krukowski said, there are many sound’s details omitted with the cellphone and one of the most important aspect is the communication feeling.

2. What do Krukowski and Gary Tomlinson, the professor he interviews, assert about the “musical” qualities of the voice and how are these changed by digital transmission?

The Professor Gary Tomlinson says that one of the most interesting point during a communication is the musical aspect of the language, the tone of the speech. He adds that many linguists are not paying attention to that remarque and they only focus on syntax and grammar. Krukowski emphasis that we are losing the non-verbal quality of our language by using digital transmission. Technology system has a long way to pursue in order to record perfectly every details of human being voice.

3. What is the significance of Krukowski’s comments on the voice to ideas about community and interpersonal connection?

In the Krukowski’s comment, we can understand that digital tools fail in many ways to transmit exactly our tone to our interlocutor. For that reason, face to face communication is essential to realize the feeling of the sound of the voice. For example, we heard people say “I recognize your voice” that mean, it is not only the words and be able to communicate but they acknowledge the music of the voice.

Episode: 4

4. Krukowski begins by discussing the issue of music file sharing. What is your opinion of this issue? Should music be freely available, or should one have to pay? 

In the music industry, songs file sharing is a big issue for musicians and producers. These artists are working hard to create something for the public and some producers are investing a lot money in the music. Therefore, musicians should benefit for their copy wright as do for example books writers and inventors. If someone share a music file with others, that practice cannot helps the singer to make money. The music should not be freely available unless the government or other companies buy the product and make it available in the internet. Music industry should be considered as a business, for that reason the society should buy songs in order to let artists have revenue.

5. How does this episode represent the relationships between music, community, and culture?

In this episode we see that the music plays an important role in the community but with the digital technology, we have some problem about the copy wright. People used to say that music has no borders, it is one of the best ways to create unity and peace around the world. Also, music is known as the most important aspect for any community to sell or advertise their culture. For example, American singers are very famous around the world.

6. Does charging money for music impede the formation of communities around this music or does it help support the circulation of music?

Charging money for music helps support the circulation of music. In many countries, copying and selling music for only the trader’s interest without the permission of the singer, is considered illegal. We should know that music is also considered as a job for some people who practice it. It isn’t only for fun but, these musicians work hard and spend months to produce the music we are listening. Music industry look like other businesses, these workers or musicians need money to pay their bills and live good live. Of course, I don’t like the overcharging customers for music in order to be the richest person in the world, but we should know that many musicians need the minimum of money to enjoy their life.

Ways of Hearing, Episode 1 & 2

Episode 1

The revolution between the analogue world and the digital world have changed our relationship to the time itself. In the digital world, there was not computers or sophisticate electronic devises. Musicians used to spend times with other musicians to play instruments and record songs in the studio, that moment is considered as a real time. But, during the digital period most of the works are done by using computers. We don’t have anymore musicians performing together to produce songs. Now time is flexible and variable, this new habit has changed our life experience. That mean, one person can sit behind his computer and produce different king of songs by using the digital machine; this time is a machine time.

Nowadays, the digital machine has changed our sociability in the world where we are living. As Krukowski said, the digital is more convenient than analogue instruments, it is easy to produce music and can be also cheap. But this fact has modified the way we share consideration and affection to others. Before, we use to discuss, exchange opinions with other people; that moment create solidarity and union between workers or in our environment.

Episode 2

Jeremiah Moss means that in many spaces in New York, people are not allowed to visit, he makes reference to the security guard who can come to redirect you. He said there is no more sociability in the society; people don’t want to be heard and fell like they are not here.

In this episode, we can understand that the noise in New York City is considered as a challenge that the city wants to control. These noises are coming from cars, busses, trains, musicians etc. Therefore, the city develops concert halls to control interior spaces. These spaces are designed to reduce voices or instruments song in the wall, they employ some new technology to control the acoustic. They are inspired by earbuds and headphones in which the sound of the music is very personal. For that reason, many public spaces where people used to go and enjoy music are close and now these areas are using digital songs to limit the noises.

In my own opinion, it is important to use the modern technology such as digital music because it is not expensive to produce songs and also it can save time. Behind the computer, a composer can produce many music. Also, by using digital equipment we can control the volume of the sound or use earphone to limit the noise. On the other hand, we should not forget to require to our musicians for some special events. It can help to create affection, union, love, relationship etc. between people.

In the Episode 4 by John Berger, we realize that images in the publicity influence consumers and it is very significant for them. As we see in the film, every detail in the advertising images is studied minutely in order to have an impact to the viewers. The goal is to make consumers enviable the product, to think how to get this good even if we don’t have money to buy it. In addition, the publicity is arranged to push clients to plan to save money only for the purpose of buying that object. Therefore, the publicity has an important role to play between business compagnies and customers. It gives us dream that if we own that product, our life will change, and other people will respect us or will think to create some personal relation with the owner. For example, the publicity of the car gives some information about the difference between the old model and the new one; in the publicity we can read or heard how the comfort it is, speed etc.

We see how the presenter shows the difference between oil painting and images publicity. in the European painting or any other painting, the painter shows to the viewers the achievement of the person in the art. The wealth that he or her owns, the painting is another way to celebrate the success in his life. it symbolizes his prestige or glory in the society where he is leaving. For example, we can see in some painting men surrounded by a beautiful woman and a lot of fruits or objects in a period of the society, the personage in the painting is showing abundance and good life. In contrast, publicity is to create feeling or envy to have something that we don’t own yet. Therefore, this sensation can push us to work hard and save money to buy that object in the publicity. The production of images for publicity is something that organized by the company to incite customers to have a planning, to work for something.

Nowadays, we know that advertising good touristic images is one the key to attract customers in order to improve the economy and develop countries. In that case, many tourism agencies work hard in collaboration with organism in charge for publicity. We see in the television, in the new paper or in the public notice many good images that can create an envy for us to visit the country. These images are always arranged to make touristic places more attractive and cheaper than other counties. But, when we travel to that country, the reality is very different to what we saw in the medias. Generally, they never show in the publicity the poverty or any king of problem that is facing the country. On the other hand, the tourism is organized in the way that, the visitor buys more or spend a lot of money in that country. For example, we see many countries are complaining about the current quarantine due to covid-19 because they are not getting people (tourists) to visit their country. That mean what we see in the publicity could be sometimes different to the reality and their goal is make us to spend money.

In the European painting, there are differences between nakedness and nude. Theses differences are more visible for women than men because of the tradition. For John Berger, being necked is to be oneself and being nude is to be seeing necked by others and not yet recognize by oneself. That mean we can compare nudity to the object such as how we see women in the art without clothes. Therefore, we can realize that this form of women representation can be applied to pictures and we can illustrate this fact in many images we have seen in our life.

At the beginning of this episode, Berger said that men dream to women and women dream to themselves. Also, he mentioned that women are taught how to appear to others, particularly to men because in the western tradition, the community taught women that their success depend to the way they look like for men. In this situation, western works of art consider women as an object that the beauty can be appreciate by men. These depictions have influenced the way we think, the place of women in our society. But in our modern society, women are fighting to be considered not as men’s objects but as a person who has the right as men. In the episode, we see the conversation between Berger and some women around the table, we can understand how these women want the society change the perception of western tradition painting related to the nudity of women.
During the presentation, we see women using mirror to look themselves and Berger shows some arts where women are looking themselves in the mirror. What are they looking for by using the mirror? Are they looking the imperfection of the form of their body? we see that mirror is very important for women, they use it to see how they look or how they should look like. Women pay attention to every detail that has a connection to their face and body, they are worry about their beauty, they want to be perfect in the eyes of men. According to Berger, behind this glace, there is judgments. Even today, this old European art still affects the society where we are living. In our daily life we see that women are more interested to their beauty than men.