Deep Listening Exercise

Cyber Cafe

On Monday after class I sat in the Cyber Cafe and I did the assignment. The entire ten minutes of sitting there I heard a background noise of low toned voices just surrounding me. There was also the low frequency of the heater consistently blowing air. I also heard more distinct noises that would only last for a short duration. Coming from the kitchen part of the cafe (to my left) were the sounds of a blender at a very high amplitude. It sounded as if ice was being crushed up. I also heard the squeaky compression of a toaster. Over the period of me listening I noticed that even though the voices were constant they morphed into different frequencies due to the changing of people in and out of the space. Coming from a bunch of different areas of the space for short bursts of time were the sound of someone typing on a keyboard, papers crumpling up, someone tapping on the table like drums, coins rattling in the register, chairs dragging across the floor at a high frequency, and people laughing and coughing loudly. One noise that really stuck out to me was the sound of wet squeaky shoes walking across the cafe! These sounds were a bunch of sounds that I most likely wouldn't have heard if I wasn't paying attention to them. The cafe is a place to eat, chat with friends, and study and I think that all three are possible to do in this space. The mood of this area is pretty flexible and how you feel when you enter is pretty much the mood you can stay!

H2O

My creation of H2O came about when I got the idea of animating an ordinary everyday object. I thought of many things that I use each day, but then I wanted the object to be very familiar and that almost everyone uses or has used at some point in their life. That was when I realized what the perfect object would be and I decided upon a plastic water bottle; I never leave without one!

As I started thinking of this whole process there were many actions that I wanted to execute, but I didn't know exactly how nor did I have some of the materials that could assist me. These challenges were somewhat easy to work around, it was just a matter of forcing myself to let go of the idea and think of a new way to make my animation happen. For example, I wanted to show the water bottle hopping up and down in some scenes, but if I used my hand it would have been in it and if I were to use an object to prop it up, that would have been seen too. I didn't think about editing it out in the future, but now that I look back I probably could have. I could have also used different camera angles to show what I wanted.

I wasn't too sure what message I wanted to get across to the viewer, but it came to me as I was working on this project. The way I perceive my animation is that in life, there is always going to be obstacles and challenges, whether they are big or small, to get the necessities you need. The path to success can have its troubles, but then there are those moments that are smooth sailing! What happened to the water bottle was that it ran out of water and needed to get to the sink to fill up and move on. On its way to the sink there were a few little obstacles it had to overcome to get where it needed to be. Even though it fell down, it got right back up and the water bottle kept on moving. It was determined to reach its goal! After it was filled up, it went to the fridge like it was supposed to and succeeded!

My animation portrays a very light hearted mood and has a very universal meaning, which is important to me because it allows me to connect with a wider range of people!

Optimism Pessimism

Storyboard

Stop Motion Practice

Self Portrait 2

Self Portrait