War of the Worlds

Orson Wells War of the Worlds broadcast was not something I thought I would be interested in at first. I have seen the movie adaptation of the story and found it to be an okay sic fi film that relied on a lot of special effects, action, and things blowing up. This broadcast on the other hand was much more engaging than I had thought it would be. I chose to listen to the broadcast while walking my dog. At first I expected to kind of tune it out and have it be a background noise to our walk. But while i continued to listen, the exact opposite happened. The walk became more of a background for the broadcast I was listening to. The way the broadcast is presented is so believable that I found myself completely absorbed by it, and I realized I had been paying little to no attention to where I was walking.  I believe that one of the most successful elements of this story is how they had, other public officials make announcements to the people throughout the broadcast. It was not just the radio host reporting, having people in positions of authority address the public makes it that much more believable.

"If it's not an advertisement then what is it"?

Xerox Project

A dogs reaction to a photocopied 

version of myself replacing 

my actual self in an everyday situation. 

Persuasive Games

http://persuasivegames.com

I love the idea behind persuasive games! I think that the things that the games teach should be something people are already aware of, but since that is sadly not the case this teaching tool is a great idea. I think that the general population would be much more informed if they played these games. These games have the ability of making what might not seen interesting to the average person not only interesting, but fun, and accessible. This website challenges the idea that video games have had nothing but a negative impact on society, these games are a call to action, to make people more aware and more educated. 

A Clock Work Orange and Singing in the Rain

The song, Singing in the Rain, would not be what you would expect to hear in a movie such as A Clock Work Orange. With ultra violence, rape, and crime, the song does not seem to go hand in hand with the movie itself. But the director choose to keep the song, and it was a very interesting decision. In the clip, the main character, Alex, and his gang are destroying a house and raping the woman of the house just for sport. All while this is going on Alex is belting out Singing in the Rain. This may seem random but it is actually the only song that the actor playing Alex knew all the way through by heart. The actor knowing the song by heart meant that he would not have to concentrate on remembering the lyrics of a different song, while also acting out a challenging scene. The overall casualness of the song lyrics and melody, contrasted with the violence of the scene also give the audience an extremely uneasy feeling while watching.

Electroacoustic Music and Multimedia Concert

Mark Snyder's music was very interesting. I would not say that I found the first part of it particularly engaging, I often found myself fighting with my eyes to stay open. My favorite part was the end when he included a harp and some vocals. That portion I found very beautiful. What Mark's music reminded me of was eerie background music in a horror movie. I think that the electronic portion of the music is what added to this kind of cinematic element. All in all I found the concert interesting, but not something I could find myself listening to on a daily basis.

Flip Book