Discussion #7

Episode 5

1. 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.)

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.” He is telling us that the powerful ones, the music that are trending, suppresses those that are not trending on digital platforms. Since people are only exposed to songs that are trending, unless and until we look for a particular song, we don’t come across a variety of songs. Also, with the algorithm created by the digital music companies we only get exposed to the kind of songs we tend to listen to. In this process, all other music is marginalized, rejected and repressed inadvertently for the consumers. He goes on to ask, “But might it not be the key to alternate approaches to art, to society, to power itself?  Krukowski is suggesting that if listeners are exposed to these marginalized and repressed group of music as much as the powerful ones, it can generate an element of surprise in the listeners and our musical experience will be diversified eventually.

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

The music experiences enabled by Forced Exposure is different from those that Paul Lamere is working on with platforms like Spotify because Forced Exposure doesn’t create an algorithm like Spotify does. It exposes us to all different kinds of music and enables us to explore them. With Forced exposure, there is a chance that we can bump into a kind of music that we never thought we would like, but Spotify only allows us to listen to the kind of music that we like. Krukowski asserts, “Online, it is becoming more and more difficult to escape the influence of those corporations and their algorithms that shape the subset of information we each see. They’re replacing the freedom and chaos of the internet at large with the control and predictability of their programs, but subverting that system is easy offline.” Music is catered to our own liking and if choices are not made consciously, we end up listening to the same kind of music over time.

3. 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?

Krukowski says, “Surprise is not the same as discovery to a huge digital corporation eager to change every one of us and as much of our time as possible with their product”. He compares it with Google and Facebook, how they provide us with the answer we are looking for. We don’t like it when they provide us unrelated and surprising answers to our searches. Similarly, recommendations on Spotify are designed to our liking which doesn’t surprise us, and we keep listening to them. However, discovering music is a totally different experience. It is coming across a different kind of music we have not heard before and then end up liking it. Krukowski shares his own experience of discovering the first ghost album through Forced Exposure. He liked it so much that he and his wife collaborated with them. 

Episode 6 

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

According to Krukowski, noise is something that we are not paying attention to when we are trying to listen. Signal is the voice we are paying attention to and that we want to listen to. These distinctions are important because until we decide the distinction between signal and noise, we won’t know what we are listening to.

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

The central idea about this episode is that noise is a part of sound and that noise and signal is relative. Noise is not literally a noise. It is beautifully used in the recordings of the analog days. In today’s digital generation, noise can be eliminated during recordings, but it is not more than a noise when it is played loudly. It is significant because if we reduce noise, we are eliminating the choice as well. According to Krukowski, “When you choose as a listener to focus on what is buried deep in the layers of a recording, instead of what has been placed up front to catch your attention. You have changed what is signal and what is noise”.

3. How does this episode relate to other episodes? 

This episode relates to other episodes in a way how all other episodes distinguish between signal and noise. Digital time is considered the signal in episode 1 because it gains our attention and it is similar to the signal we pay attention to when we listen to something. Similarly, urban noise is allowed to control with the signal you want to pay attention in the concert halls. We learnt that musical quality of voice was missing when cellphones were invented, but it did not affect the transmission of the words. So, we can say that missing quality of voice is considered noise because they did not pay attention to it. Likewise, when internet music sharing entered the market, people did not buy cds or cassettes. The market got rid of the physical forms of music like a noise, they only wanted to listen to the signal – the song. Also, the online music platform encouraged the marginalization of music that is not powerful or trending like the noise we don’t pay attention to.

Discussion Questions #6

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

According to Krukowski, the main difference between a microphone and a cellphone is that with microphones, we can make full use of proximity effect which is the adjustment of our voice with the distance from the microphone. The reason why people loved Frank Sinatra is because he mastered this microphone technique which made people feel like he was singing right in their ear. However, cellphones are only made to communicate our words. They did not get our feelings related to our words across. According to Roman Mars, “There is no proximity effect on a cellphone. Everyone sounds just as near or just as far as everyone else”.

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?

Krukowski and Gary Tomlinson asserts that the musical quality of our voice is the nonverbal part of our voice to communicate. Tomlinson states that, “It is not only in our memories from our early childhood, it is coded into the genetic makeup of our species itself”. Krukowski resonates with him because he believes that his mother constantly singing when she was pregnant with him somehow influenced him in becoming a drummer. He feels that her musical quality of her voice got embedded in him. With technological advancement, we see that the digital transmission has changed the musical quality of the voice because the nonverbal qualities of our voice are lost in the coding of our voice. There is so much left out with the aspects of our voice when it is digitally encoded and transferred

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

Krukowski’s comments on the voice is significant to the ideas of community and interpersonal connection. He believed that our voice is a sound which is not being listened to properly these days. The shift from analog to digital transmission of voice has made a big difference in the community. The introduction to cellphone has certainly made interpersonal connection better, but the quality of that connection has reduced. The message is conveyed, but the emotional aspect of it is left behind. They can hear the words, but the musical quality of voice is certainly denied. The mikes on the cellphones are so sensitive that it picks up all the noise in the surrounding that it is unable to produce the quality of sound that was generated by the old analog ones. We cannot communicate with the part of our language where voice is not needed. If Frank Sinatra was born to this generation, people would not connect to his love songs like they did during the analog days.

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?

Krukowski discusses the issue of music file sharing. He mentions that the file sharing has made it difficult for the musicians to earn a living. They are not paid enough for the work they put in to generate their music. In my opinion, I feel that, file sharing has in fact affected musicians. People get access to their music online for free, so they don’t actually have to buy it. However, their music has gained a wider audience because it was easily accessible online. Krukowski says, “Our music has made it through all those barriers, barriers that made it impossible for records to get there. Barriers that made it hard for musicians to get there”. So, if it was not for the file sharing online, his band would not have an audience singing along with them in Belgrade and that couldn’t get them more emotional than ever.  Regardless of the wider reach of music, I feel that people should pay for the music they want to listen to. Music is a work of art, just like other arts in the market. Musicians have worked hard to produce their music. They also have a livelihood to earn, so we should respect their effort and pay for their music they are selling.

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

This episode talks mostly about how we experience music these days. Krukowski feels that music file-sharing has enabled his music to reach such borders that even musicians themselves can’t reach. He mentions that, “Jace Clayton investigated some fascinating ways, the digital music tools developed in the first world have made their way to third like auto tune in North Africa, where a technology intended to polish notes and Western pop has been put to entirely unforeseen uses”. These musical tools produced in the first world were used in a different way in North Africa and came up with new interesting music at their weddings. This new era of digital music created in the Silicon Valley can affect a Berber wedding in North Africa and vice versa. So, a whole new meaning, an interconnectedness among the music community has formed.

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

I think charging money for music doesn’t impede the formation of communities around this music because if people like certain song or music, I think it will circulate well regardless of its price. People have the tendency to buy only things that they like. So, if a song is liked by the audience, they will pay the price to listen to it. Those people who liked the music can in turn become a fan of the music and form a community. The collection of these funds can strengthen the musicians’ status to pay for better promotion of their music. These promotions can help them expose their music to public and widen their audience. With this, there is a possibility that more people will buy their music. Now we can see that there is a flow of income, so once musicians feel that they have collected enough funds, it will be easier for them to make their music free to public. Therefore, charging money for music eventually supports the circulation of music.

Discussion #5

Episode 1

1.What is Krukowski’s main point about how we experience time in the “real” world versus are experiences with “digital” time? Why are these differences significant?

Krukowski’s main point about how we experience time in the “real” world versus our experiences with digital time is that the real-world time is the time we live and the actual experience we get out of the lived time. It is the one that we experience in the analog world where every moment is felt. Digital time is something that is pre – programed and we are directed towards it. We are told how our experience will be. These differences are significant because the genuine experience of a moment is being lost in the transition between real and digital time.

2.What does Krukowski mean when he says that listening has a lot to do with how we navigate space?

When Krukowski says that listening has a lot to do with how we navigate space, he means that sounds have the ability to tell us where we are. He tells us that we use our hearing to locate sounds around us to figure out our location. So, if we are not aware of the sounds of our surrounding, we are not in that place. You are at the place what your mind is listening to. If we are walking on the street of New York but if you are listening to something, your attention is on that audio and you are not aware of your surroundings or the space you are in. The piece of audio transports us to the world where it is coming from.

Episode 2

3.In the interview at the beginning of the episode, Jeremiah Moss argues that developers in Astor Place are “privatizing public space in a very stealth way.” What does he mean by this? What does Moss say about the distinction between public and private space, and why is it important?

Jeremiah argues that the developers in Astor Place are “privatizing public space in a very stealth way.” Here he means that the private companies are being cautious in trying to own public spaces. They develop these public spaces with better amenities such as tables with umbrellas and chairs, but with certain restrictions posed and added private security guards walking around. So, it is still public place, everyone is allowed to use it, yet you have to follow the rules set by these private developers. Moss tries to distinguish between public and private space. He says that public space is where people can do whatever they like to do, such as hold protest or somewhere people can express their opinions without having to follow rules set by private companies. He argues that it is important because people don’t realize the encroachment of their public spaces. They are not even aware of the public space they are around because they are always on their screen. They notice that there is a glass tower on their path, and they lift their gaze off their screen to see their reflection and then resumes back on their screen. So, they are creating their own private bubble within a public space. He is worried that people are not paying attention to their changing surrounding.

4. What is the significance of Emily Thompson’s idea that the development of concert halls arose from desires to “control interior spaces”? How is this desire, according to Krukowski, related to earbuds and headphones?

Emily Thompson’s idea of the development of concert halls arose from desires to “control sound in interior spaces” because there were technological changes which gave rise to many machines that produced loud sound such as motor vehicle with loud engines, elevated trains everywhere and subways were simultaneously being built. So, that period was difficult for people to deal with. The desire to be in quieter environment inspired people to control noise in an interior space which eventually lead to the development of concert halls. According to Krukowski, this desire is related to earbuds and headphones because this device helps people create their own environment where they can avoid outside noise. He says, “They create an auditorium without the walls”. It is in a way creating the same refuge as concert hall can create. The stereo is catered to their own liking and own space.

5. In your own opinion, what are the key ideas from this episode about the relationship between sound and space? What strikes you as interesting about the ways that sound influences our experience of space.

In my own opinion, the main relationship between sound and space is that sounds make us aware of our surroundings and it lets us travel time. Certain sounds can be so striking that it makes us nostalgic and lets us reminisce the moment related to it. It is interesting how we can recognize our near and dear one’s voice and that sound takes us to the space where we can find that person. If we hear a voice that is close to a person we know, our mind takes us to the immediate memory we have of that person. So, if it is our school friend, it takes us back to our school. It is interesting that sounds can trigger our memory.

Discussion #4

1.According to Berger, how do “publicity” –what we would call advertising–images influence consumers and why is this significant?

According to Berger, publicity influence consumers by advertising pictures of people who have been transformed.  As a result of transformation, they look enviable in the eyes of public. The state of being envied includes glamor. When we see Marilyn Monroe, it is her glamour that attracts her fans. Therefore, the main purpose of publicity is to promote glamour that attract consumers. It is significant in a way how it helps to develop a hope in an individual. Berger mentions, “Glamour is for everybody who believes they can be glamorous or perhaps more accurately, for everybody who finds that they cannot afford not to be glamorous”. He is telling us that people aspire to achieve glamour like they are promoting. It entices people so much that it forces people to achieve that glamour. So, transformation of people helps generate hope in the public, that they wish to go through the same process of that transformation. In a way, the glamor they are trying to sell is successfully sold to the public.

2.As he compares oil painting to publicity (advertising) photography, Berger argues that oil painting “showed what the owner was already enjoying among his possessions and way of life;” “it enhanced his view of himself as he already was.”  Whereas publicity pictures, “appeal to a way of life that we aspire to or think we aspire to.” Why are these differences important? What do they reveal to us about the production of images for publicity?

These differences are important because each aspect of these imagery, oil painting and publicity photography maintains its own uniqueness and purpose. Berger tells us that oil painting has the idea of grace, elegance and authority and portrays what the owner already has which only adds more to his own views of himself whereas publicity pictures inspire people to the way of life that they wish to attain. It is the aspect of glamor that is missing in oil painting. It is the glamour that drives the whole notion of publicity photographs. Berger argues that a publicity picture “suggests that If we get what it is offering, our life will be different from what it is.” So, in a way it puts forward a promise in an individual, but a promise that can be only attained if we have money. Therefore, the production of these images for publicity reveals our anxieties about money.

3. Choose one of the “dreams” he offers or think of your own. How does this dream offered by advertising use imagery to manipulate consumers?

The dream of faraway places where the images created for different destinations are so eye catching that we tend to delve into the realm of that unseen place which produces an imagination within us. The advertised photographs are exotic enough that it tends to manipulate a consumer’s mind. It delivers the promise of a beautiful experience depicted in the photograph. The consumer begins to envy the promise of a beautiful experience in a faraway land. They wish that promise to be fulfilled, so they do whatever they can do to experience that advertised image. Now that the consumer is influenced, it encourages them to live the experience promoted by the publicity photograph. So that is how the dream, or the promise offered by advertising use of imagery to manipulate consumers.

Discussion #3

1. One of the main premises in this episode is Berger’s distinction between nakedness and the nude female form as it is traditionally represented in Western art. What are the differences between these things and why are these differences significant? Do they apply to images you have encountered in your experience?

In most of the European oil paintings, women have been objectified for men’s pleasure. According to Berger, “Naked is to be oneself and to be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself”. Naked is a state of a woman where she is without her clothes and she is being herself. She is not expecting any spectators whereas a nude female form as traditionally represented in Western art is a form of art where a woman is objectified and she is expected to have an audience. She has to be seen in way where she can inherit pleasure in her male viewers. These differences are significant because in nude forms, their facial expressions are designed specifically to lure her spectators. They are always seen looking at the artist. In my opinion, nakedness is more intimate than nudity. I have come across nude statues of Hindu gods and goddesses. The goddesses pose the same relation as to the women in traditional western art. Their eyes reveal what they are trying to say. Berger states, “They are not naked as they are, but they are naked as you see them”

2. According to Berger, how have Western works of art depicted and defined different roles for men and women? According to Berger, what is the significance of this? Do these depictions influence the ways we think of the differences between men’s and women’s roles in society today?

The role of Adam and Eve have influenced the tradition of women playing the passive and submissive role. It has been shown much in the European oil paintings. The God granting men the agent of God has given him the role of spectator in those paintings where women were subjected to nudity to fulfill the appetite of men. Their sexual passion and energy were minimized to show the men’s dominance over women. The ideas behind these painting depict a male dominated society. The conventions built from this culture has laid the foundation for gender discrimination. We can see an existing patriarchal society where women are marginalized despite their potential. The traditional western art of female nude form clearly reveals the misogynistic attitude of men still prevailing in present times.

3. How does Berger describe the significance of the mirror in paintings depicting women? What does this object say about the ways beauty is defined in these paintings? What does Berger say about the depiction of the female gaze in the paintings he discusses? What kinds of more contemporary examples does he relate this to, and what significance does he draw from these connections between older European art and depictions of women today?

Since there is always an awareness in a nude female form, Berger mentions “Susana painting” where she sees herself in mirror first to see how she will be judged by men and how she should submit to their demands. The mirror is significant in way how the painter calls the painting a vanity at the end. It was said that she used the mirror to please the men. However, at the end calling the painting a vanity was an insult. She did not use the mirror to please herself, the painter enjoyed painting a nude woman and later he blames it on her that it was for her benefit. The female gaze depicting in many of the early paintings hides the feelings of women, lacks dynamism and freedom. Their expressions are nuanced in way it becomes appealing to the male audiences, but those are not happy eyes, rather an eye that shows awareness of people seeing her naked. There is a resemblance in expression of the females in traditional western art and contemporary nude photographs. Both of them are looking to charm their male audience. Today’s women subject themselves not as an object of submission, but a self-promotion, to draw admiration and popularity for themselves. However, the women in traditional art were a mere object to please men.