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Chinese-uniformed Americans from Unit Two and Chinese guerrillas from Column Four display captured weapons and equipment after ambushing a Japanese unit in Hunan Province in December 1944. (Courtesy Dr Charles H. Miles)
Photo and caption featured in World War II US Navy Special Warfare Units (Elite Book 203) by Eugene Liptak
Content Aware GIF using raw footage
After using this technique on my raw footage, I’ve come to the conclusion that this isn’t the direction I want to head in. Whilst the technique makes the output trippy, broken and malfunction-esque in style, I feel it doesn’t quite look as well as I had originally envisioned; it has a strange, pulsing look to the footage which I cannot seem to get rid of using the technique, therefore I will pursue a video route for my final piece, as using Premiere Pro is more flexible and easier to create the effect I’m looking for.
DATABENDING
Upon reading up on the chosen Glitch Art aesthetic I want my time-based media to have, I came across this technique of “data bending”. This involves opening the image in a Hex Editor or any code-writing software and altering the code that makes up the file.
This process requires lots of experimentation to achieve the effect you are looking for.
The images presented here are experiments I did using a screenshot of Twitter. The code was altered by copying and pasting Shakespeare’s sonnets into the code.
The process does not work very well for videos and GIFs as they are quite a lossy format and sometimes the file output is nothing at all, therefore I may have to glitch every frame of my time based media before I compile it into a whole piece.
Project report
I started my arts award by learning a new practice of music production. A for that allows me to create something from scratch and experiment and discover new ways to make music. Within my local community I learned about the opportunities available to engage with others with the same interest. The sessions I facilitated gave me access to learning about the process needed to present a workshop or session with people. The planning to get the product delivered as best as it can be. Giving me a detailed understanding of how a workshop comes about and the necessary tasks needed to do.
I learned through facilitating how leaders worked within their role in a session. They were good communicators and were able to deliver lessons that were engaging and were easy to understand. And crafted in mind of people growing more established in their understanding of the subject. I want to gain more experience with how to be able to communicate in a way that is best in helping participants learn and understand. I saw that they had a passionate interest in learning themselves and the openness of not appearing as a scholar of the topic but a student appealed to attendees because it led to an energy of discovery and sharing amongst each other. I want to be able to also overcome any issues with maybe not understanding the issue myself if someone is struggling and want to gain experience with problem solving with the participant.
The leaders were also my mentors and so I could explore what I had observed in conversations and talk about the new things and ideas they were learning about. Najia spoke about being passionate about Deep listening from a meditative front and wanting to learn more about other aspects in deep listening as it goes into electronic music. Hannah spoke about the different mediums she learned she could use, different practices of the idea that she had, for a site specific work, how she sees the vacancy of knowledge of one topic to be something that invites curiosity and exploration.. She saw everything as a path in experimenting and finding new ways and forms.
My attendance of UnBamed brought forward the discussion of the term and the categorisation of the minority in mainly creative industries and how that limits the diversity of that industry. The limitations of women in the technical side of music and especially women of colour as it is a topic that affects me and my path in this industry daily. The large aspect of access to spaces where minorities could explore and learn engineering or music production feeds into the lack of representation in the industry.
The music Production courses done by YWMP proved that spaces where people can creatively learn and develop are needed as it fosters confidence in community in an industry where there is little representation of women in music production and this also gives people access to supportive spaces to grow in.
I have overall gained the skill of music making. I know understand how to create a sound piece and have also developed in leading workshops, from my experience facilitating i learned the planning and preparation needed to make a workshop, and learned how to best communicate with others to plan and to participants to make sure they have the best experience, knowing to check in on their progress and giving them the information they will need to come to the sessions. How to ask for their consent in adding them to a group chat to taking pictures of the sessions and how to record all that happens in the sessions.
So my preparation skills have improved a lot and I have a better understanding of how a workshop comes together. I feel more confident at being able to prepare for sessions either one off or multiple. Having experience in the role of being a facilitator I was able to understand what was the role of a leader and could take one the position with a better understanding and made sure to communicate what I needed for my workshop and plan accordingly.
Thinking about my workshop teaching Ableton, My goal was to just introduce the idea of music production to people and to give access to others who may not have ever had the opportunity to try. I hadn’t factored this in until looking at the pictures of the workshop. But not only did the workshop introduce music production software to people who weren’t experienced in music production but I realised that the attendees have been interacting with me as a workshop leader. Idea of a Black woman doing music production may not be the most common idea or something that people envision when they think of what a music producer looked like. Just by doing the session and interacting with them that idea may have changed or has been challenged to thinking of the space and industry being not only for one type of person.
That does make a change in what people believe they can do as well. I have had a tendency to believe that if I don't see someone representing me in a space, from a sports or book club I can join, an industry I want to work in. If I don't see women in that space I then see the space as being designed only for men. If I don't see black people in the space or black women I believe the opportunity is not for me.
So the way is heavily focused on the exploration of what can be created by the individual and to not limit it only to one scope, I learned a lot from the leadership sessions with Tandem about how sharing is something and making something together provides a middle ground for people who may be different, to share in a task and a goal is something that quickly bonds people .
In being a session facilitator I learned so much about creating a good space for a workshop. And how that doesn’t mean a location but a supportive environment with a clear and open attitude to interacting with the participants and offering support. While also being conscious of the structure of time keeping, deadlines and procedure. All of which seem very rigid but I learned that this is the foundation for trust in sessions. With the idea of time keeping, it is keeping to the word and being considerate of others time. To remind the participants of a deadline is to also check in on them and offer to support them if they are having any issues with the sessions. To have a structure that even goes to photo taking is to make sure that the participant is comfortable enough to let me know when they are not comfortable with pictures or they are not comfortable with singing.
To know this as a leader means that the sessions proceed with the participants feeling more comfortable which means they are more confident in getting involved in the sessions.
When seeing diverse representation it also matters I believe to know that as a leader, I am not just only showing what I can do as an artist. But as a teacher I am helping people learn about production to be artists themself or do what they want and to make what they want with the skills they learn.
The workshop for me seemed to be a success as I managed to have people engage with the software and make songs. In the future I will make sure to collect feedback better and maybe that will be better done in a different structured workshop. I also this that I need to gain more knowledge of Ableton as the workshop was built on my understanding of the software and there may be something that i discover can be a tool that would help in learning music production for people who are beginners so I will continue to learn music production so I can be better informed on it as my workshop was only a simple introduction if there was more time in the workshop or it was more structures as to say that people sign up and join for the 2 hours I would have had to have a more formal structure and would have to guide the music making in accordance to the time limit to have the separate songs. But the event was a perfect fit for the workshop as people who were attending were moving from each station wanting to try things out and to make something and so they had that goal coming into my station.
LINK TO EVIDENCE USED
I was asked to also host the event's performance that would happen later in the evening.
My setup went well, I was able to place the laptops and their needed hardware on the table and have room on the side for the microphone and guitar. The station was constantly active with people working with the music software. Each laptop had people work on it. I never had an overflow where people had to wait luckily and so it seemed like people naturally flowed from my station to the next afterwards.
I was constantly introducing the workshop to people, and so I grew more and more efficient with explaining what workshop was and what Ableton is. I was able to improve on that skill of communication and when helping people working on their music. I realised that by checking in with someone, I should let them know that i am just checking to see f they need any help. and then instead of immediately leaving if they say they are okay, If i take interest in what they are working on, I ask if i can listen or what they have discovered. I can encourage them and also if they did actually have any issues they are able to share it with more as they feel more comfortable. and from there I can assist them and give advice. When I am done and can move on I let them know that they can call me if they have any issues and that I will come back to check in again or listen to how their vocals or samples sound. this means that they know that I am available to help and they can call on and that I will be back to check in as well so that their hurdles didn’t completely stop their creativity.
Many people were excited with the songs they made and looked forward to sharing it with their friends and to show what they had made.
What I didn’t factor in was the age of the people who would come to the workshop. I had people as young as 6 join and they all seemed to happily take on playing with the midi keyboard and singing into the mic.
I think that I made the right choice in having the songs recorded and sent as attendees then were able to strive towards making something and having it complete. As i realised without that target many people would have just played with the guitar or the midi and had thought nothing much of what the software did or what they had learned.
The feedback was all collected on a wall where attendees could write on post notes to share. I have transcribed them and the second came from the event runners YWMP.
LINK TO EVIDENCE USED
Manage the project
I have decided to teach music production instead of just making music or speaking as a musician because I don’t have an interest in that really, my interest in music comes from the sessions I had and what I learned. Through the process of my arts award I have learned that. I truly didn’t mind the genre of music or felt compelled to sing. But what inspires me is actually learning and making the songs. And that is what I want to share and help others learn about.
I think being still new to the software and not being an expert means that I can relate to how someone feels and find the task more closely. And I think engaging with them with that open and reassuring attitude will help encourage them.
I have 2 hours for the workshop and the first planing that needs to be done is the time it will take to set up and to clear up as well as the station will be needed for another workshop immediately afterwards and so I will need to plan to end the workshop earlier to have time to pack up. In the two hours the variable is the amount of people who will join and interact with the software. And the amount of time the individual has with the workshop is dependent on them but i aim to make sure that they have more time to interact and engage with making music with instructions and me teaching. So I will try to have short descriptions that are also demonstrated. Ie. i show the process of using a launchpad midi by also playing with the Launchpad.
This will also help keep the participant focused on the software. I will remind them to let me know when they are ready to record and then I can explain how Ableton recording works as we do it.
If there are any emergency situations I can alert a member of staff who will be stationed around the venue and this will help with the workshop continuing on as others can come assist with any issue.
LINK TO EVIDENCE USED
Set up plan
Equipment set-up
