When I was a child, one of my fondest memories was going to the North Carolina Zoo. I had an obsession with Rhinos and wanted to see them in person. I was obsessed because, for some reason, I took their near extinction by human hands very personally. Like it was my or my family’s fault somehow. So I wanted to go and apologize to them in person. I spent the entire day begging my family to take us there so I could apologize to them. They pretended to understand. Eventually, we got there, and I was mesmerized. At that moment, I was taken out of the zoo and into the wild, where I could see them in their natural habitat. Of course, I knew this was a zoo and an enclosure made to resemble the wild, but in my mind, at that moment, it was nature. I gave them a heartfelt apology on behalf of the human race and then went about my day.
I was drawn to this image because I wanted rhinos in the wild without humans nearby to simulate what I felt. For the audio, I liked the sound of crowds because visually, I felt like I was in the wild, but you cannot escape the sounds of the crowded zoo surrounding you. To simulate the experience that I felt.
The image that I chose is that of a baby doll, peacefully sleeping in a shop window in Rotherham, England. One would have to look twice to notice that it’s not an actual real baby, but instead a toy doll. One immediate giveaway is the price tag attached at it’s hip. As a father of a four year old daughter, there are “sleeping” babies scattered about in every room of our house. Most days there is nap time where the dolls are carefully put in their “bed”, tucked in, before they drift off to sleep while listening to a calming classical Spotify playlist. I’m interested in how dolls can sometimes “come to life”, and acquire human-like qualities. The doll seems to not be concerned with the day to day commotion outside of the shop’s window.
I feel that the audio clip of someone snoring adds to the whimsical, playful attitude of the doll, while adding a real, human like aspect to the photograph. It reminds me of the many nap sessions that we have in our house and how in my daughter’s eyes, her dolls are much more than lifeless playthings. They have names, personalities, likes and dislikes, etc. They are her friends, sisters, and brothers, who all hold a seemingly important position in our family.
The photo by flickr user budak reminded me of a time in my youth where I began to learn about all the different types of animals and plants that lived around the world from the Discovery Channel. This particular image of the Four-lined tree frog seemed particularly enticing due to its vivid detail and the photographer’s point of view toward it. After adding the music created by Leo Granqvist (sector9000), I believe that it enhanced the photo by helping it to seem much more than a picture but to also place the viewer in the presence of the frog and its environment.
Who doesn’t love a good nap, where you wake up feeling refreshed, energized, and ready to finish off the day strong? A restful nap can make all the difference in how the rest of the day goes. And what better way to learn how to get in a little snooze than from the master. Red pandas – these amazing creatures are the best teachers on how to nap. If they are not munching on their favorite foods of bamboo and fruit or clambering through the forest, you can find them lounging in a nearby tree in the most comfy position possible. What can be learned from them? A nap can be taken any time, any where, and any way.
I chose this picture because of my love for red pandas. I stumbled across them a few years ago and fell in love with their awkward cuteness and hilarious personality. They are an endangered species and are currently protected from poachers who kill them for their fur. While I was scrolling through pictures of red pandas, I found this one which epitomizes their laid back personality, napping in their natural habitat. And what better audio pairing than relaxing music to help you fall into that zone for a perfect nap.
You look through a window of an arcade as they are starting to open. Through that window you see a new game that you haven’t played before in all of its glory. You hear the beeps, bloops, and music that are starting up to get you excited. As you turn around, you got your best friend with you that has a pocketful of quarters that he got from doing chores for allowance. You think to yourself… this is the best day of your life.
I love the arcade and seeing the photo from “Old Video Games at the Manitou Arcade” by ilovemypit makes me want to go back. Seeing the variety of games in that photo makes me think of that moment in life from 1997. The audio of, “retro last level video game loop” by emceeciscokid, provides that sound like I was just in the arcade. The audio aides the photo like the photo is alive and you are about to embark on a fun adventure at one of those machines.
If you were to visit Austin, you’d most likely find yourself crossing the South Congress Bridge to reach one destination or another. Between the months of March and September, you would be met with hundreds of people flocking to this same bridge, Lady Bird Lake below, and the surrounding Ann and Roy Hike-and-Bike Trail. Without much knowledge of the city, you might question whether or not the live music capital of the world was about to put on a grand show, but in actuality, hundreds of people are about to spend their night waiting for the world’s largest urban bat colony to fly out and begin their nightly feast of bloodsucking mosquitoes.
Comprised of primarily female bats and their newborn pups, the colony communicates to one another using chirping noises similar to the ones heard in the selected Australian Bat South Australia audio. Digifishmusic’s recording enhances buhny’s photo by helping put into perspective a portion of the ambience one would experience when gathering around the guano infested bridge during a warm Texas sunset.
Although I no longer live in Austin, the two years my husband and I spent in the city were life giving. Lady Bird Lake, renamed after Lady Bird Johnson, is not only the home to the South Congress bridge, but it memorializes our time not only growing academically, but also growing as a family.
When I embarked on this assignment, I knew immediately that I wanted to find a premodern manuscript image to use, because I have a background in European medieval history and love book history. Fortunately for all of us, there are thousands of digitized manuscripts online, and many of the holding institutions enter the scans into the public domain or share them under Creative Commons licenses.
While looking through the holdings of the Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland, I came across the fabulous gentleman pictured. Our bold knight is the frontispiece of a lengthy chronicle about the convocation of the Swiss Confederacy and the subsequent Burgundian Wars (1474-77). He seems paused mid-motion, as if he heard a sound, so I searched for a Creative Commons sound effect that might suit that mood. I settled on a short piece of modern music played on French horn, which is rallying and optimistic but also, to my ear, clearly excerpted from a larger work.
Ho-nee-um Pond by Richard Hurdgives the viewer the feeling of a long cold winter. The image almost makes you feel cold just looking at it. I enjoy landscape images but this one gave me pause. I appreciate the glistening appearance of the lake and all the degrees of grey and white this image has. It gives the impression of being alone in a vast quietness, with nothing around for miles.
Jet Fueled Vixen by Kevin MacLeod caught my attention because of the intensity and momentum of the music. With the harsh sound of the track it can feel almost sinister. Giving a feeling that it belongs in a movie right before the big scene starts.
While the picture gives a cold but serene feeling, adding music with the image changes what one perceives. It almost tells a story…
The storm has passed and there is no sound but your own breathing, something is coming. The snow muffles the sound of who or what is coming from beyond the trees. Crisp cold air chaps the skin as the cold seeps up the legs. The realization hits, you are alone and something is coming.
Without a sense of intrigue, the world feels dull. Maybe that’s what draws some of us to mystery novels and true crime. Myself, I love to create stories full of drama and twists of all kinds. I have always been drawn to works of all kinds that draw up my interest in the mystical and fantastic and inspire me to craft stories surrounding them. It is no different with these two works.
Ben Watkin‘s photo, “Cat,” captures a cat looking into the distance from below, the lighting and blur in the background creating a sense of melancholy and mystery while Hans Zimmerman‘s song, “Rainy Mystery,” creates an ambiance that feels like the background music for a drama. These two works join to create an unwritten dramatic story that is up to the viewer to compose. Overall, they are a good example of how two separate works can inspire and draw up our own creative ways of interpreting and shifting our surroundings into fiction. On their own, the former is just a photo of a cat and the latter is just a musical piece, but together they join and weave a dramatic story.
Just two weeks ago, I found myself staring at a playground located directly on top of a bomb shelter. The juxtaposition of this scene struck me. The playground was a representation of innocence, childhood, youthful joy, and life, Yet, it sat atop a building that represented fear, death, threat, and destruction. This playground was located in an Israeli community only a couple of miles outside of the Gaza strip, right between two lands that hate one another. I got to see this when I visited Israel over New Year’s. I was reminded of this when I saw the photo above.
When I imagine that same photo in my hometown, happy feelings arise. It brings nostalgia as I remember my childhood, dreams of the future for the kids playing, and peace as I look at the sunset. Yet, when I remember a similar playground in Israel, I feel sad, angry, and anxious. This is because context matters. The context for the Israeli children I met was a playground located a mile away from people who wish you were not there, in a political climate of tension that has been building for years, and in a town where you only have 8 seconds between when the alarms go off and a bomb hits. I grow sad to think that these kids might not make it to be an adult and angry at the lack of peace in the world. I remember one man sharing how his house doesn’t have doors so his children can easily run when a bomb alarm goes off, and I do not feel the same peace as I look at the sunset in that photo.
Those feelings of fear, stress and sorrow are the same feelings that arise when I look at the picture above of innocent children playing paired with the sound of sirens and bombs in the background. It is a pairing that feels like it should not exist, yet unfortunately, it does. Yet, this does not take away the beauty of the image or diminish the joy of the children in that photo. Instead, it highlights the strength and bravery that so many people have to continue living their lives despite the danger around them. The ability to find joy amidst a world of conflict. It is truly beautiful to see a sunset and children playing with hope for a better future rather than fear of the present.
I remember the tour guide saying, “I often ask myself why I have not left yet, but then my children tell me that this is their home and they don’t want to leave. And that is why I choose to stay.”
