Category Archives: Discussion questions

This space is for you to engage in conversation about course reading.

Discussion Questions 5

1. Real time is lived time, time as we experience it in the analog world. It can change according to the mood we are in. But the digital time is not lived time, it’s machine time. According to Krukowski, digital time makes everything more regular than lived time and it makes us less unified.
2. When he says that listening has a lot to do with how we navigate space, Krukowski meant that listening is the way we understand where we are. We can use the sounds in our space to understand where we are and where we are going.
3. In a public place, anyone who wants can be there, people cannot be banned from there. That’s why Astor places can still be considered as public places. But by putting signs there, like no skateboard, they are limiting people and dictating how people use the space.
4. Since New York is in a nonstop change, it’s very difficult to control the sounds. For this reason, the concert halls were developed to keep the unwanted sounds outside and to allow us to listen to music in the best quality. This is very likely to earbuds and headphones, which are there for the same reason individually.
5. In my opinion, sounds play an important role in determining our experience in our space. Our experience in the same space can easily change if sounds change. We can enjoy the sounds of a city, even the car horns, or we can put our headphones and have a completely different

Discussion #6

Episode 3 

  1. The main differences between a cellphone and microphone according to Krukowski is that through cellphones people connect with each other, they can recognize each other’s voice, and “everyone sounds just as near, or just as far, as everyone else.” On the other hand, are the microphones, which transmit loud the voice sound to other people, or in the certain space.
  2. Gary Tomlinson believes that our ability to communicate with nonverbal parts of our voices goes so deep, it goes hundreds of thousands of years ago, before we had language,  we had utterances with musical qualities, what we needed to survive as species, like tool making and social organizations, we are musical beings. 
  3. Krukowski’s comments on the voice to ideas about community and interpersonal connection is that when we share our voices weather through songs or speech, are we saying more than our words, we connect with people around us, and those who are far away we connect with them through cellphones. 

Episode 4 

  1. As a user I am happy to have a big choice and to have access to a variety free music, I agree with the affirmation that music should be available to anyone who wants to hear it. However, playing and singing it is not just a musician’s passion, it is his job as well, he wants to charge a certain amount for his work, to be able to make his living and produce new music. 
  2. Music is bringing people together. Musician are the artists who self-express through beautiful sounds and are sharing their art with listeners, they are interacting with each other. 

Discussion question #6

Episode 3

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

– The microphones used by cell phones are sensitive while technologically superior to those they replaced, deliberately filter out background noise, and often vocal tone. This makes conversation via cell phone more difficult to interpret than on the analog land lines .There is no proximate effect in cell phone. Whereas in microphone has those proximate effect .Microphone can give the feeling of closeness to the listener just by leaning into the microphone,
 even moving an inch or two can create a very noticeable change in volume.

Q2.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?

– Professor Gary believes that human are musical being. He asserts that even before human had language  we had musical qualities that communicate what we need to survive as spices, social organization and even love. Now  the digital transmission does encoding our language, send it over the internet to make it perceivable at the other end of the   distance, But the nonverbal quality of our voice tends to be lost in coding.

 

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

We can listen the voices across the world through digital transmission. Even though it is possible to share our voice at great distances ,sometimes they fail as we are communicating. But there is always a place for improvement.

Episode 4

  1. 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?

-Music is a form of art. Artist put everything to create their art.Their hardworking and the hardship they get while creating an art ,is priceless. Valuable things should be paid . In my opinion music should not be free. Sharing a music file is just like a stealing from the artist which will hurt the very performers we love.Music for free also devalues the work of the artist . Basically it is like saying that the great music they produce is worth nothing or of no value at all.

Q5.How does this episode represent the relationships between music, community, and culture?

-Playing or  listening music is particularly important for Human Social Development. Music is a relaxing and can relieve feeling or stress and anxiety. Improved mental health in individual increases capacity for social integration. They feel much more involved in community when the feel Positive, relaxed and confident. Music is nonverbal and does not differentiate the, religion and culture. Music is able to bring diverse group of people together in a community. Music has  its own language of rhythms and melody to enable to communicate each other nonverbally. It promotes familiarity of different community and forms a healthy relationship and sense of belonging for those different cultures.As a result  music can develop more harmonious society.

  1. 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 the music helps support the circulation of music and help generate new creativity. Music for free is just like insulting the artists we love, and that is not good for the  music industry in future. Paying for what we are  getting is a way to express support  that every creation is valuable and worthy .

 

Discussion question 6

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, the main difference between a microphone and a cellphone is that the microphone makes full use of what audio engineers call the “ proximity effect”. Microphone speak closely to them exaggerate the bassier, cheshire tones in our voices. And if you back away from them, they highlight the brassiere, clearer tones . Microphone gives the feeling of close tone to the people. Similarly, cell phones make it possible to share our words across great distance. But they fail us in many ways, as we try to communicate one-to-one. Not only we are often left hanging, speaking into the air at one end and listening to nothing at the other. But even when all is working as it’s supposed to, the sound of our voice across the digital line is limited. It’s stripped to that minimum we need to recognize a voice , and decode its words. Furthermore, cellphone miniature mics in our cell phones are more sensitive and there is no proximity effect. Also, we lose on the cell phone is the part of our voices that communicates without language, the part we use for flirting.

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?

Gary Tomlinson believes that our ability to communicate with the non-verval parts of our voice goes so deep. It’s coded into the genetic makeup of our species itself. He states that technology encodes our language and sounds it over the internet and makes it perceivable at the other end of this great space of distance. The non-verbal qualities of our voices tend to be lost in that coding. In addition, musical qualities communicated what we need to survive as a species: toolmaking, social organization and love. 

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

Krukowski states that digital communication such as cell phones are convenient and reliable to communicate  with each other and can travel to anyone with our voice. but the feeling of emotion is missing in digital communication. Cell phones are engineered to communicate our words. Literally, cell phones create the feeling of one another for a moment no matter where the person lives but it connects the person and keeps in touch with the emotion. The voice has the power to express feelings to each other. The voice connects us very firmly with expressions. Therefore, the cell phone is the part of our voice that communicates without language, the part we are for flirting.

Episode 4

  1. 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?

Music file sharing is the sharing of music which should be available to anybody that wants to hear it. Sharing was seen as an existential threat. In my opinion music file sharing is bad because it is  a kind of stealing someone’s talent without concern or paying them enough. Music file sharing is bad for those small, struggling companies, and it’s ultimately bad for the people who love musical theater. On the other hand, music file sharing could affect some musician’s life from earning enough and it will be more convenient and less valuable.. In addition, the  freedom of recorded music has compromised musicians’ ability to  make a living from it. I believe it affects musicians’ work because people can get free music online without paying. Therefore,without more effort musician’s become unknown, popular and circulate more music which will gain a wider audience because it was easily reachable to the people through online.  Krukowski states, when he was on stage for music, the audience knew in advance the song that he was playing which made him cry  on stage. He mentioned, Our music had made it through all those barriers- barriers that made it impossible for record to get there. To sum up, music is an art and some passion. Someone’s ways of  life, so it should be highly appreciated and valued . It is a way of earning for livelihood so we should pay for their effort, hard work and dedication to us.   

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

Music is an art of delivering information through the words , it is the feeling of a singer to represent community and culture.  Music is a huge part of our lives. Musicians try to deliver  messages to the community  through their music. Music  influences  us and our cultural identity. So, every community preserving their identity of music will represent them. For example, in   Nepal the newar community plays the music which has its roots in classical Hindu and Buddhist music. It involved incorporation of folk music of the Kathmandu valley and its peripheries. Which represent their culture. In fact music carries the singer’s words,feelings, emotions and attachment  to the community and its people.  Music helps to define who we are , creating our communal self-identity. For instance, with the multicultural perspective we see that there are many cultural beliefs and that there are many performance practices and standards. This diversity enriches our lives, broadens our understanding of the world we live in, and deepens our appreciation for the music of our own cultures.   

  1. 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 supports the circulation of music because composers compose music for living. It is their job to somehow put food on the table at the end of the day. Charging money implied the importance of music towards the audience however good things always have a price on it. Music production is not easy, it takes someone effort, money and time, so charging money can maintain the circulation to keep on balance between music production and audience. In addition, copying and selling music is considered illegal without the permission of the singer because without their concern someone steals their work for their own benefit and they are not paid well. Therefore, charging money for music circulates healthy relationships to both musicians and audience because everyone needs money to survive their lives. Music is an art to form an art  musician’s work day and night. For their  hard work and dedication we should offer them their fruits of labor.  

                                     

 

Discussion questions # 6

Question # 1:

The microphone provides more authentic experience for the listener, mainly thanks to the sounds in the background and all aspects of the individual voice or environment. The digital transmitting of the voice thru the cell phone is cutting off all nuances of the voice, same as the other sounds, voices, etc. that are happening around us. The microphone allows the speaker to present the mood, exact color of the voice, nuances naturally recognized in the voice as the energy of the person who is talking into the mike. The main purpose of the cell phone is just transmission of the voice without any disturbing elements as clear as possible, only as of the communication canal on very fundamental basics, helping just to understand the message as clearly as it is possible.

Question # 2:

The musical qualities of the voice are even about all the imperfections which are adding extra special value to the voice. Concentration on the tone of the voice and listening deeply, trying to read between the lines and learn more about the speaker. Not only words are important to understand everything. It is one of the natural abilities of the human to use music as a language. Digital transmission is concentrating on the message and clear grammar throughout the far distances. But it’s missing the personal quality and the sense of connection.

Question # 3:

We can listen to the voices or music across the world thru digital transmission. But even it is a very practical and significant possibility, there is still a huge difference if you connect with people and can communicate in person. The emotions, extra feelings that we can experience during live communications are unique and noninterchangeable because they easily transmit to our memories and cooperating with our other senses.

Question # 4:
I think that the digital sharing of musical files is all right. It is a different experience than the live concert, which is usually very expensive. I had the chance to listen to the Czech symphonic orchestra playing in the theater live, but when I listened to the very same thing online, it was never the same experience. I want to say by this, that without the internet, I would have not even idea what the classic music is about or if I want to hear it alive, pay for the concert and share the moment. That is why I think that sharing music digitally could be beneficial for the listeners and the artists as well.

Question # 5:
The music itself is a very important part of our lives. We could have always communicated thru music. In the past, when the languages were not developed yet, and today we can introduce or communicate the different cultures or opinions between each other and thanks to the digital world even across the entire world. Music is connecting people on the multi-sensual level, creating memories, expressing different ideas, opinions, and idealism. It is a big question, if sharing musical files should be charged or not, in the end, I think it should be up to the artists individually.

Discussion questions #6

Episodes 3 & 4

Episode 3

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

The main differences between microphone and cellphone is a microphone make sound clear but cell phone makes sound quality worse and more aggressive. The problem with a cellphone is to transfer words without feeling and sound of music. Cellphone engineers only care about transferring the word not the feeling or where we are or the sound of breathing.    

  • 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?

Musical qualities of the voice are changed by digital transmission. A digital transmission transfers the music as a word but it does not translate the feeling. The main idea of music is expressing the feeling, not the only word. In addition to losing the voice music tones will change the musical qualities.    

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

Krukowski’s comments that digital tools make share our idea and interpersonal to farther distance and easier to reach, but it fails to connect and communicate with each other.    

Episode 4

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

Krukowski discussing the issue of music file sharing, before the technology they gain money from travel tours and music albums. People bought music to listen to because it was not available. With digital audio and technology such as phone applications and youtube, the music become available and free online why do they buy the album and song available on the internet. I know that the songwriters, producers, singers lose money because they donot sell music album as before but I have one question if they lose money why do they make new songs and albums. I know they donot lose money they earn from other ways. Even though the song is free online but when you pay for a subscription on your phone or you watch the song on youtube,  the singer earns money. Based on that music is not free but it is available.       

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

Music has a different language, music describes people’s feelings, their culture, and their community. Every culture has its special song that discuss also their life topics, for example, bob Dylan sang for the Vietnam war and he uses music to protest of sending soldiers to Vietnam. A singer can succeed when he feels connected and closer to people’s problems and use his talent to express their feelings  The melody of the song has changed by technology and digital tools. For example in the old songs, you find people dress nicely setting in the opera to hear the musician sang slowly and clearly without stress the enjoy comparing to now our life is fall of stress and life responsibility and that made us rush as a result our song is rush as our lifestyle. In the old song, it was impossible for any song to had any unsuitable words, in comparison, music now is influence by street language.           

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

Money and music are connected but the singers are artists they have a message from their songs. their concern should be on their talent not on the money they will earn form the song. They should be concerned to make their music last in the long term not to sing for the short-term and make it forgettable. Many companies’ concern now about focusing on how to develop technology not to improve the music as art.

Discussion questions #6

EPISODE 3 – LOVE

  1. According to Krukowsi the difference between a microphone and a cellphone is that the sound of our voices in the phone has become worse with the switch to digital phones, but is not because the microphones in it. Cellphones don’t transmit the whole range of sound picked up by their mics instead they digitally process that sounds compressing it to remove unnecessary data and transmit just the essential information, our words. Another difference is the proximity in a cellphone you hear someone as far or as near as they are, with a microphone you could perfect techniques of recording controlling your respiration and diction, without disruption of any sounds, or getting closer and far to the mic at certain times so the people listening could feel like the singer is right at their ear, you can transmit feelings through a microphone.
  2. Before we had language hundreds of years ago we had utterances with musical qualities that communicated what we needed to survive, making social organizations. Gary Tomlinson says “There are musical absences at the heart of a language, we are musical beings as much as linguistics ones” he argues that teachers nowadays tend to focus on syntax and grammar and they leave out the musical aspects of language, Krukowski adds that in digital devices nonverbal qualities of our voices also tend to be lost, the sound of our voice across digital lines is limited, just to recognize a voice and understand the words, but that is not enough.
  3. Digital tools had allowed us to share our voice across the world, but they fail us in many aspects. To make our voice understandable across digital lines, the codes remove certain aspects “non essential”, but if you leave out the musical aspects of speech. The significance of these comments is that even though digital tools make our life easier, face to face encounters are essential to transmit our feelings through the music of our voice.

     

    EPISODE 4 – MONEY

  4. Krukowsi said “most musicians I know are paid way too little or much too much maybe it’s because no one is sure what music is really worth”. We have a lot of resources to listen to music free like Youtube, Pandora, etc. but in some platforms like Spotify and Apple music, you have to pay an amount monthly to stream music. Musicians invest time and effort into their music, mostly when they are starting in the business, everybody knows the musical business is competitive and just few people succeed, I think digitals tools are a great advantage to support new musicians and discover hidden talents. It’s also true that many people can’t keep their career as a musician because they have to found a job that makes money, being this said we should really support local artists that we like, paying for their music so they can keep producing it. I support music file sharing because even though it has its disadvantages for artists I think music should be available for everyone and not just for people who have money to pay for it.

  5. Music connects people, it helps you define your personality since a short age and even our social group even though you could listen to every genre of music it’s most probably that you like more one or two and your friends may like many artists that you do. Before people were classified in social groups according to the music they liked, but nowadays is not that common.

  6. I think charging for music helps support the circulation of music, because producing a song with good quality costs money and time, charging for music could keep musicians creating new music. I don’t think this impede the formation of communities around this music, if an artist is liked by the audience they would pay for its music and share it to more people.

 

Discussion 6

Question 1:

According to Krukowski, when we record our voices through the microphone, we have the ability to coalesce ourselves and delete unwanted voices. Also, the movement around the microphone has an effect on the sound dish. For example, when the singer approaches the microphone, the sound becomes deeper, and this makes listeners feel more with words, but when he moves away, he gives more clarity to the sound. As for the mobile phone, it is an invention for the exchange of messages. Krukowski says that sometimes sounds on the phone are worse than nature. But the most important feature in it is communication.

Question 2: 

Professor Tomlinson says that the best thing that happens during communication is the musical aspect and the tone of the sound, as we are creatures love music  by nature. He also clarified that at the present time, his linguist teachers give great importance to the rules only. Krakowski explains that non-verbal quality and words lose their sense of feeling and affection as a result of exchanging electronic messages.

Question 3:

The phone has improved the methods of communication between people because our voices are able to travel around the world, but it does not have the ability to transmit emotions, so the interview is considered a face to face essential.

Question 4:

Musicians always face problems related to violating intellectual property rights as a result of stealing original songs and making them illegal. However, with the advent of new electronic music platforms, people became more aware of the artist’s efforts. Therefore, I find that there must be a financial return for artistic works as a result of the effort and the time it gives.

Question 5:

From the beginnings, music is part of humanity. Always every culture is distinguished by its unique taste with music. And in our time, there are many types of music that express the region of origin due to digital development and cultural openness. Music has become the expression of society and culture, not just its creators.