Justine McDaniel, Audio #1, Campus Soundscape

Reflection:

My favorite thing about this soundscape is that it captures the mood of the day. It was late afternoon when I recorded this and campus was fairly empty. The slower pace of the audio matches that mood. The contrast between the softer sounds, like wind and birdsong, to louder noises, like motors and voices, makes each noise stand out, and that is exactly what I experienced as I took my walk and became increasingly aware of all the sounds there were to hear.

I made a few rookie errors, like not wearing headphones and recording while taking pictures so the sound of the shutter was audible. A lot of the sounds I thought come across clearly ended up sounding like white noise, and I definitely had a problem with noise from my hand holding the recorder. I also wish I had captured a better variety of noises. I recorded quite a bit at the construction site, but in the end much of it came out all sounding the same. As with the photography assignment, I realized that I need to record even more than I think I have to.

Although I could have done some things differently, I think the soundscape represents the natural course of the walk well by moving between softer sounds and louder noises. It captures the atmosphere on campus even though it could have been a little more interesting.