Song Audio Reflections: Assignment 4B

Song by Me


Song by Chris Faust


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Mike Mytnick's Song

Amanda Oyakawa's Song

Chris Page's Song
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Response to Mike's


Response to Amanda's


Response to Chris's

Brainwashing Yourself: Assignment 4A

Once again, we turn to changethis.com for another interesting article.  This time, the article is “Brainwashed” by Seth Godin.   In the article, Godin explains seven steps, or “layers” a person can go through in order to re-brainwash themselves to negate the brainwashing effect society has placed on us since childhood.  I will be looking at two of these seven layers.

Here is the link to view the article for yourself:  "Brainwashed"

The first layer I will be looking at is the one titled “Acknowledging the Lizard”.  In this layer, Godin talks about the “lizard brain” or the “prehistoric brainstem that all of us must contend with”.  In layman’s terms, it is the portion of the brain that dislikes being laughed and fears rejection.  Godin says that it is the portion of the brain that tells us to keep our heads down and follow orders.  It is the portion that makes us fear the social punishment that may result from not doing our homework.  Godin says that it is only by acknowledging our fear of rejection that we can ignore it to fulfill our desire to create our art.

Another layer that I think is important is the last layer “Learn”.  In this layer, Godin talks about how learning isn’t defined the same as it was fifty years ago and that true learning happens outside the classroom at expos and on blogs and in other experiences.  He suggests that a person never stops learning and as long as there is something to experience, there is something to learn.  Godin leaves off on this note: “The opportunity of our time is to discard what you think you know and instead learn what you need to learn. Every single day.”

I feel that these two layers are connected to the blogs that we are creating in this quarter in that these are just the kinds of outside experiences Godin speaks of in his “Learn” layer.  Also, by presenting our work on the internet, it has the possibility of being one of the most exposed thing in the world, which may make some of us, like one such as myself who absolutely hates having his work viewed by others, incredibly unnerved.  This falls into the “Acknowledging the Lizard” layer where it is the fear of rejection or the dislike of our work that keeps us from displaying it in such an open manner.  That’s why I believe that by having the class be able to view one another’s work at all times and by having these assignments/blogs in general, may help us to grow as artists.

Soundscapes and Audio Reflections: Assignment 3B

~Here is the soundscape made by Christopher Page and myself~

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Kelly Matousek's Soundscape

Audio Reflection

Covering a Covered Song: Assignment 3A

Covers can be a touchy subject among fans both of the original work and of those who were introduced to the work through the cover.  Fans of the original may feel that the cover does honor the original song and fans of the cover feel that fans of the original are too big of fanboys to accept anything new.  Regardless of these groups, I am going take a look at an all-time classic metal song: “Holy Diver” by Dio and the newer and rather well known cover: “Holy Diver” by Killswitch Engage.

Dio - Holy Diver

Covered by:

Killswitch Engage - Holy Diver

There are some similarities between the two songs, the most obvious of which being that Killswitch Engage managed to stave off any urges to change any of the lyrics so the lyrics in both pieces are the same.  Another similarity between the two is the melody.  Both songs start out with the same familiar sequence.  However, this is where the similarities start to end and the differences begin.

While the original Dio version is certainly intense, the Killswitch Engage version seems to dial the intensity of the piece up to 11, being much, much louder than the original.   This is the same with the pitch of both songs.  While Dio’s version is sung in an intense, yet slightly higher, pitch, the Killswitch Engage version is sung at a much lower one.  Yet another difference, is the feelings of tension and release used in the songs.  In the Dio version, there are long, slow stretches of music without lyrics and it really makes you anxious or tense waiting for the story of the song to continue.  Whereas in the Killswitch Engage version, the whole song sort of flows together and never really lets up on the intensity, leaving the relief only for after the song’s ending.  Another somewhat large contrast between the two songs is the way the lyrics are sung, aside from the pitch of the voices.  While in the Dio version, Dio’s voice will remain largely in the same style of singing, Howard Jones, the lead singer of Killswitch Engage, will occasionally stop singing the lyrics and beginning screaming them to the point that the words are just about intelligible.

Overall, I would have to say that I prefer the original Dio version of “Holy Diver”.  That isn’t to say that I hate the Killswitch Engage version, though.   Each version of the song has its pros and cons.  Dio’s version can be a little slow at some points while the Killswitch Engage version is decidedly faster.  On the other side of the coin,  Dio actually sings all the lyrics to the song, while Jones will end up screaming them at the listener in an extremely loud, deep and often intelligible voice.  Certainly the whole point of doing a cover is to take a song one likes and make it into your own, which is exactly what Killswitch Engage does by changing the heavy metal “Holy Diver” into a metalcore, screamo “Holy Diver”.  I cannot say that they did not achieve that goal and if people prefer the cover to the original, who am I to argue.

Under the bed? Behind that tree? Where the devil is that howl? Assignment 2

This assignment revolves around Jonathan Flaum's Finding Your Howl, a cool article containing two different yet similar stories about finding one's self.  Above is my summary of/response to the manifesto.

~Savlonic's Electro Gypsy~

Finding Your Muse and Spinning Your Wheels: Assignment 1B

Mitch Ditkoff's "14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas" is, in my opinion, a very useful article about different ways to brainstorm to shake out or conjure up any, as Ditkoff puts it, brilliant ideas. I would definitely recommend this article to anyone struggling with his or her normal brainstorming methods and would like ideas on how to do it differently.

Here is a link to the article: 14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas

Ditkoff starts off his article by detailing the two schools of thought behind coming up with ideas. The first school entails the coming up of ideas through rigorous and purposeful mental ability, a western approach championed by Rene Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am”. This school believes that ideas are primarily of conscious origin. The second school prescribes to the idea of the transcedencey of ideas, that they already exist, but are only revealed to those specifically in tuned to receive them. Think of the concepts of the muse or the collective unconsciousness. This school of thought is the inverse to the first, characterized by the Cartesian view “I am, therefore I think”. This school believes that ideas are primarily of the subconscious realm.

Ditkoff goes on to say that both approaches are valid and that very likely our own views are a hybrid of the two. He then introduces his 14 ways by saying that the only thing needed for these to work is the willingness to try something new. For the remainder of this entry, I will pluck out three of his fourteen ways to review and throw in my two cents.

1. “Follow Your Fascination” – In this one Ditkoff talks about how if we are fascinated by something it is calling out to us.

I think that this one might be the most, if not in the tippy top, important thing you can do as an artist. If something is fascinating to you, as Ditkoff mentions, there might be something meaningful to explore behind that fascination. I know that, in my personal work, that if what I’m working on does not enthrall my interests, it’s not going be fun and, if I learned anything in MDIA 101, it’s that if your not passionate about your work, it’s going to feel like work and that is the worst thing that can happen to your outlook. I myself, when something strikes my fancy, tend to voraciously eat up any and all information about said subject and help the creative gears inside my head turn so that I might extrapolate new and original ideas. This is a very good suggestion of Ditkoff’s.

5. “Fantasize” – Ditkoff explains in this that in our society the word fantasize conjures up only images of children or perverts, an unfortunate thing seeing as our future employers want fantastic ideas, but no fantasizing. He says to throw out that notion and fantasize more often.

This is another good suggestion of Ditkoff’s, as the use of the imagination is one of the most important components to creative thinking, it what’s separates us from the machines such as Deep Blue (as used in the example in the actual article). No matter how much we strive to define things rationally and logically, there will always be the longing to free ourselves of that logic and immerse ourselves in the fantastical. I occasionally indulge myself in little daydreams, letting them float here and there within my brain letting what wanders in and out to do so freely. This has been useful as often times I will spot and idea or concept or character that I like and save it for possible use at a later date.

12. “Look for Happy Accidents” – Ditkoff discuss in this method the process of turning one’s mistakes into new ideas.

This one, while a good suggestion, is most likely the most difficult of the 14 methods. If you’re like me, you get frustrated at your making of mistakes and only admit that your less than perfect through gritted teeth and much to your chagrin. However, if you can soldier past your “failures” you can turn those “failures” into new venues for ideas. Personally, when drawing something, occasionally I’ll mess up and erase, but when I look at the work as a whole, I’ll notice how the “failed” part of the drawing sparks a whole new drawing in my mind and opens up new avenue to travel down in my imagination.

For the ending of this update, I’m going to take one of Ditkoff’s methods and see through it to completion. The method I’ll be exploring is Method #1 – Follow Your Fascination.

~What new idea is fascinating you?~

A new idea that has peaked my interest as of late is the notion of using music, or sound as form of weapon. Specifically in an RPG setting, but being advanced enough to have some of the instruments I was thinking about weapon-izing (see: saxophone).

~What new possibility has captured your attention?~

At first, when thinking about weapon-izing music, I only thought about using the music to conjure forth different elemental magics. I thought that perhaps since different types of instruments could produce different sounds, they would produce different magics when used. But then I thought, what if they were not only instruments, but physical weapons as well? This led me to devise different weapon/instrument hybrids, such as an Axe/Saxophone hybrid.

~In what ways can you honor this inspiration today?~

How I can honor this inspiration is research different instruments and weapons on the Internet so that I might better be able to amalgamate them together into the musical weapons I desire. By looking at pictures of instruments on the Internet, I’ll also be able to draw the instruments more realistically in my concept art.

What Makes Me Tick: Assignment 1A

What kind of creative person am I?  Well, to be honest, I wasn’t really aware that creativity could be broken down into specific kinds.  It’s just being creative to me. Maybe I’m just misunderstanding the question, but I’ve been staring at this word document for too long now, so I guess I’ll just explain how my creative process tends to work itself.  If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m not one who can just sit themselves down in front of a blank sheet of paper or word document and be struck by creativity lightning.  I’ll only end up getting frustrated with myself.  Truth be told, some of my best ideas come to me when I’m not even doing something related to my creative work.  For example, I could just be sitting in class, my mind wandering while listening to the teacher, when something will pop into my head and I’ll have to scramble to write it down lest I forget.  My idea production tends to be a little too sporadic for my tastes, but I’ve got plenty of places from which to draw inspiration.

Over the years many different things have influenced my work, for better or worse, but if I had to narrow it down to three artists or works it would have to be these:

~Sonata Arctica~

One of my biggest sources of inspiration would have to be music.  I can listen to almost any kind of music, close my eyes and have my imagination kick into overdrive.  I’ll form settings and people to the beats and melodies of the songs in my head.  This is especially true for Sonata Arctica.  Sonata Arctica is a Finnish power metal band that has recently incorporated more progressive metal elements into their songs.  To compare it to a more well known group, primary lyricist, Tony Kakko, has said that he has drawn inspiration from the epic rock ballads of Queen.  One of my favorite things about Sonata Arctica’s songs is that they tell a story with both their lyrics and the accompanying music.  It tends to so vivid that I can perfectly picture the characters and places in my mind.  This can lead to the inspiration to create my own characters and themes in my head for my own works.  Another thing is the use of tension and release in their songs.  For example, in the above song “Deathaura”, the melody starts out slow and easy, only to jump into the high-tension metal music.  Then once that is built up enough, the music then quickly shifts back to a slow and easy sound.  Other songs include “My Dream’s But a Drop of Fuel for a Nightmare”, “Black Sheep”, and “Wolf  & Raven”.

~Shadow of the Colossus~

I’ve been an avid videogame player for my whole life, but one of my absolute, all time favorites is the game Shadow of the Colossus (2005), by Team Ico for the Playstation 2. Shadow of the Colossus is a game about the protagonist, Wander, striving to bring a girl, Mono, back to life by defeating beasts known simply as the Colossi.  What sets this game apart is that there are no dungeons to explore, no other characters, no enemies, no levels, and no items.  There is simply the character, armed with a bow and sword, his horse and the 16 colossi he needs to defeat.  This game acts as an inspiration to me because of how much the game accomplishes with such a minimal approach to the adventure game style.  I especially love the contrast between Wander and the Colossi.  When they are called the Colossi, it is no joke.  Each colossi, save one, is a towering beast of epic proportions, composed of both inorganic and organic material and the player must scale each of the beasts to find a point, indicated with a glowing blue mark, to kill it.  Lumbering and powerful, each colossus is itself like a dungeon or puzzle that needs to be figured out.  All the elements of the game, as professed by designer Fumito Ueda, were used to create a sense of the “lonely hero”. I greatly admire Ueda’s design abilities.

~Wen-M~

While I don’t normally draw inspiration from the works of other artists (I don’t want to be a copycat), I can certainly be influenced by their style.  One specific artist is Wen-M, a deviant art artist who does work for the tabletop role-playing game Anima: Beyond Fantasy.  I’m a big RPG nerd and this sort of stuff has always tickled my fancy.  It’s my hope one day to be able to do design work for a fantasy RPG, though more in the videogame area than tabletop.  What I really love about Wen-M’s work though, as seen in the spear designs above, is his ability to take objects that are fundamentally simple (see: spear), but make them so very different from one another.  I truly envy his detailed artistry in just about all of his works.  It’s not just his RPG item art that I admire; he also has a whole gallery of beautifully intricate and detailed monster and character designs.  Each artwork sets the character against an appropriate single color backdrop as a way to draw the eye to the character and it works wonderfully. Just seeing his artwork fuels my drive to create my own characters, to aspire to the same level as him.  As such, I always check back every once in a while to see if he has put out anything new.

Reasons

Why did I sign up for the 8-10 AM lab section?  To be honest, I wasn't paying all that much attention to the lab section time when I was registering for the course.  I just made sure to find a section that wasn't full and, since I have no other classes on Fridays, I didn't particularly care about when my lab section would be.  Despite it's early meeting time, the 8-10 AM section seems to be a fairly convenient section as it gets done early, leaving the rest of the day open to do other class work, recreation, etc.