I've been looking listening through some of the audio work from last semester in order to put together some materials for next week's workshop and the Computers and Writing conference. It seems worthwhile to collect some of the examples and a few reflections on the work we did taking playlists and turning them into narrative listcasts. The process involves first putting together a playlist with the intent of creating a narrative through the sequencing of the songs. In the initial assignment, we annotate the playlists with explication or additional narration to help complete the story. For the audio extension of the assignment, we take the list of songs and the annotations and turn them into song samples with recorded voice to tell the story through sound, thus the listcast.

In reflection, I can see that this is a very difficult assignment. Yes, there are issues related to using Audacity with multiple tracks--some crashing and visual overload. But more tough is figuring out how to observe copyright and integrate the snippets of songs into a larger narrative. We used (mostly) a 30 second rule in line with the amount of music legally offered in samples from online music stores. Limiting the song excerpts to 30 seconds makes using the music to tell the story challenging. On top of this, we have the option of reading lyrics into the listcast. Here the impulse is to sing the lyrics, but in retrospect it seems worth exploring other ways of reading. The lyrics work better, I think, when they are read anew, twisted to match the mood of the listcast. On top of this we had the option of weaving in the author's own voice. Here there are some technical hurdles that make getting good sound a challenge, but more than that it takes a good while to develop a microphone presence, to find a recorded voice one can feel comfortable with.

Finally, there is the story. This is in many ways comforting, because we return to the perennial quest to find something to say and then find a way to express that something--nothing new under the sun. My own listcast drifted until I went outside with paper and pen and wrote poetry with a good snow melt flowing down the stream of consciousness. The audio work can easily become random stitching, but instead needs to contribute to a more specific weave. The assignment, then, is one of narration and insight delivery, and that makes it tough. I list below my sample listcast and a few others that I have culled from the class.

A playlist considering the missing days in the Easter story, Three Days Dead (Daniel Anderson)

A playlist exploring archetypes of martyrdom , The Hanged Man (Jenny Bridgers)

A playlist based on the Dicken's novel Great Expectations, Kip's Aching Heart (Kara Spencer)

A playlist exploring how songs themselves have beginings, middles, and endings, Short Stories, Various Endings (Lauren Frohne)