Jane Barrager

TW: Screaming

For this assignment, I wanted to combine image and sound in a referential way, but also to tell a new story. At first, I wanted to find an unsettling photo and pair it with some kind of spooky music, but that still felt a little too on the nose. My next thought was to pair some kind of nature imagery with human sounds (for example, a flock of flamingos and crowd noises). I decided to combine an image of penguins and the sounds of marching footsteps. It would be a bit of a spoof on the March of the Penguins documentary from about two decades ago.

As penguins typically waddle to their destinations, I found the mental imagery of penguin soldiers to be quite humorous. As I thought about the idea, I began to imagine what these penguins would be fighting for. Enraged by the activities of the human population, this Antarctic army would rise up to stop humans from contributing to climate change. Here, you can see the “invasion” pictured. The image itself reminded me of historical imagery of D-day and the soldiers storming the beaches of Normandy. By pairing it with this audio, you too can imagine the penguins charging into battle.

Hot Sizzling by Mike Koenig is licensed under CC 3.0 Deed

Food is an easy way to get to know others. For this week’s assignment, I wanted to combine two things I love: peppers and the sound they make when hitting a hot pan.

In my family, peppers are critical. My father grows his own hot peppers – and shares as many as he eats – and my mother-in-law is Korean, so most everything she cooks involves some kind of pepper (typically involving gochujang, a red pepper paste popular in many Korean dishes).

I liked the image because I could already hear it in my head, even though it is water (instead of oil droplets). When combined with the sizzling sound, it transforms into a combination that makes me hungry!

TWs: explicit content, trauma, violence and death, war tactics, and graphic content.

I have a particular interest in World War I. Even though I am an historian of African history, World War I is one of my other historical interests. Did you know that five million horses died during World War I? Machine guns were strapped to the back of horses before tanks were invented. World War I was a social, political, and technological turning point for the entire world.

This image is a recreation of the Battle of Passchendaele, also called the Third Battle of Ypres, that occurred in 1917 during World War I. This was one of the most horrific battles of the First World War, with Flanders getting record amounts of rain that year, turning the battlefield into toxic mud-filled shell holes.

I paired this image with a powerful song from 2Pac. He started this song with a Shakespeare quote about cowards and soldiers. In this song, Tupac rapped about the senseless violence he experienced. He recognized that his life was fragile, and accepting death was a harsh necessity in his life. He wondered what heaven would be like, as a person who lived the “thug life”.

The themes in this song of senseless violence, the fragility of life, living with so much death, and the feeling that you’ve done wrong mirror experiences felt by soldiers in WWI, particularly those that fought on the front lines. In some areas of the front, soldiers were constantly barraged for months at a time. Soldiers at Passchendaele dealt with not only illness-inducing conditions, but also artillery shelling, poison gas, and mud that drowned and killed their friends. Tupac’s songs illustrate how he practically lived in a war zone; the soldiers at Passchendale in 1917 did, too. The meaning of the song, as well as the meaning of the image, have been both slightly augmented and enhanced.

One soldier that lived through the Battle of Passchendaele wrote poems about his experience. The way humans deal with trauma through art is timeless and universal.

I died in hell — They called it Passchendaele.

Memorial Tablet by Siegfried Sassoon is licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)

“Waltz Primordial ” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

When I was in college as an undergrad, I spent a semester in London. During that time, I did some research into the King Arthur legends and became kind of obsessed with them. I was lucky enough to get to visit and explore some Arthurian sites in the U.K., including Glastonbury Tor. The hill itself (the tor) is rumored to be the mythical site of Avalon, while the tall tower is the ruin of an old church that used to stand atop the hill.

For some reason, Glastonbury really spoke to me in a way that I haven’t experienced anyplace else. I felt at peace and like I was meant to be there. It’s hard to explain but even all these years later, I remember this trip with such fondness. It was a moment in time I will treasure always. I even have a tattoo of the wrought-iron design that decorates the Chalice Well, another sacred site in Glastonbury (the Grail was supposedly hidden there).

Music has a way of weaving itself into my memories. During my road trip to Glastonbury with my professor and housemates, I was listening to a lot of acoustic and alternative rock on my Walkman — this was 1994! I remember listening extensively to Stone Temple Pilots, and even saw them in a small club in London. This audio clip I found has a similar sound and feel that brings me back to that time.

What do pugs and trains have in common? They sound EXACTLY the same!

My sister has two adorable pugs with just the sweetest personalities but, and I can not state this enough, they are LOUD. And I don’t mean because they bark or anything, I mean because they breathe. That’s it. They could be doing literally nothing at all and I swear, it sounds like a train going through the room. Now they’re more than cute enough to make up for the noise – or at least they are until it’s time to sleep and then it becomes nearly impossible to drown them out. It’s gotten to the point that when I visit my sister I have to be in an entirely different room from the pugs with the door firmly closed  to have any chance of peace. 

That’s exactly the sentiment I wanted to convey by combining this image of a cute but looming pug with the sounds of a steam engine at work because no matter how many times I explain it, I don’t think people really get it. It’s not until you have both the image and sound together (or you’re visiting my sister’s house) that you can really understand the strangeness of a small, cute dog making more noise than a locomotive. I listened to so many train sounds to find just the right one and I think I nailed it – just play it on loop while trying to go to sleep and you’ll have the full experience! 

The combination of image and audio together definitely transformed the individual meaning of both to help illustrate a subjective feeling that can be hard to explain or understand. Because I can assure you, my sister doesn’t feel the same way about her pugs as I do. But if I show her this, she might just get it!

Fence on Elm Street by Paul VanDerWerf is licensed under CC-BY 2.0

Car Crash by YleArkisto is licensed under CC-BY 3.0

When you see a home with white picket fence, you’re probably imagining the big happy family living inside. You might even imagine some kids playing in this yard or dogs running around protected by the safety of the fence. At least that is what a fence is supposed to provide- safety, protection, and boundaries.

My mind, however, always goes to the poor house at the end of the street where I grew up. Their white picket fence was always being knocked down by cars going too fast around the bend. In just a few seconds, the idea of a fence being protection is shattered. The fence had to be repaired almost every year.

The Fence on Elm Street by Paul VanDerWerf has a slightly dreary underlying tone to the image as the grass and trees are practically all dead. Even with the sad wintry photo, you might still imagine a happy family inside curled up by a fire with hot cocoa. This photo paired with the audio Car Crash by YleArkisto gives what could still be happy and uplifting imagery of a house with a white picket fence, a more serious and negative tone. The sound of a speeding car trying to come to a stop, followed by a crash tells the story of the white picket fence that I knew growing up.

Good day! My name is Sharon Frazier and I am from Indiana. My husband and I moved to Middleburg, Florida, five years ago. We decided that we had enough of the -30 degree weather and snow 12+ inches high, so we left that behind and have never looked back. My husband and I have six children and eleven grandchildren together. We also have two fur babies; Silvie the cat and Coco the dog

Upon our move here to Florida, I had obtained a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and had begun working on my master’s in Library Science. I had 12 more classes to take and on December 15, 2023, I received my master’s in Library Science with a concentration in Information Specialty. I currently work at Jacksonville University Swisher Library, where I am the Access Resource Coordinator. I am the person responsible for submitting Interlibrary Loan requests to other lenders in hopes to find resource materials, for patrons, that our library does not contain.

During my free time, I enjoy spending time with my youngest granddaughter, crocheting, reading and watching action movies. I also enjoy weekend rides with my husband on his motorcycle and corvette. I hope to gain more information about utilizing digital media personally and professionally. I have already learned something new with this assignment using this media format. I look forward to learning more about this and other types of digital media.

There’s something about the contrast in this photo that I love.

A bright flash of lightning followed by the loud crack of thunder as the storm finally rolls over the horizon and the rain begins to make landfall; children and parents dart for cover and I dart for the window. I’ve always found comfort in the rain and joy in nature’s firework show. The way mother nature roars as the lightening pierces through the dark sky, reminding you how small the world really is.

“The Barn in the Storm” by Trey Ratcliff is a perfect example of life’s contradictions. The dark grey storm in the background and the bright green plants in the foreground; the contrast we face every day in every decision.

I have always found the violin to be a very moving instrument and the usage of it in Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108 – 2. Adagio” by Various Classical Music is no different. The way the song flows from slow moving  segments to faster intense segments reminds me of a storm. One moment its calm, the next the rain is heavy and violent. Which is why I feel it pairs perfectly with the”The Barn in the Storm” by Trey Ratcliff. It pulls you into the moment and creates the atmosphere of a storm.