TUTORIAL PAGES MMST 12016
This
page contains introductory information about tutorials for MMST 12016
and the initial fortnight's tutorial.
TUTORIAL PARTICIPATION AND ASSESSMENT
Tutorials
are just one teaching and learning component of interaction inbetween
students and, between students and teachers. The other components are
the lectures and the workshops. Tutorial participation accounts for 10%
of your overall mark.
This
documentation supercedes the information in the MMST12016 Course Profile
about tutorial participation.
There
will be 6 x participatory tutorials posted online via the tutorial pages
interface. They are contrived according to a bi-weekly schedule, and are
numbered 1-6. There will be a 7th, final tutorial, but this, Tutorial
#7, will address any questions, or clarify any 'grey areas', that have
arisen throughout the course and will not require assessable participation.
The
material on this page is the first of the fortnightly tutes. A tutorial
consists of a mix of three components:
-
a
compilation of focus questions, this is questions designed to promote
discussion and comment from students, derived from the material presented
over two, weekly, online lectures and their associated readings
-
technical
questions and/or exercises derived from the fortnight's weekly workshops
-
comments,
notes and discussion questions from the tutor regarding aspects not
specifically covered in either the lectures or the workshops and,
in some cases, clarifying significant aspects of the relationship
between theory and practice of digital audio production and contemporary
culture.
Each
student is expected to participate, on a fortnightly basis in the tutorials.
Do not be alarmed at the amount of material presented in each tutorial.
No one is expected to answer every question or respond to every exercise
each fortnight. The material is presented as a large body of material,
diverse enough to stimulate interest and independent research, so that
each student is sure to be able to select from the extended list, AT LEAST
ONE ITEM in any given fortnight- it can be a focus question or an activity,
in which they wish to participate by responding to it.
Participation
The
way that all students participate, whether on-campus or by distance, is
to select an item from the range of activities, read the associated suggested
material and answer a focus question, or undertake a suggested exercise,
and then post a response, either to the forum or to the "etutes" upload
device. The expectation is to complete at least one of these activities
each fortnight, on an ongoing basis. Keep your own record of each participation
event. On-campus students may or may not have time allocated in the class
time for this purpose, according to the local schedule. Whether or not
this happens, they must still participate on-line and thus share at least
one response with the whole-course student body per fortnight.
Assessment
Assessment
of tutorial participation will be both quantitative and qualitative.
Quantity of participation:
Up to 8 marks
will be awarded, at the rate of 2 marks per documented response. This
comprises the quantitative assessment of tutorial participation. In other
words, to gain the full allocation of 8 marks you must document that you
have participated in at least 4 fortnightly tutorials. Only one item per
fortnightly tute will be counted, so you need to keep up this activity
throughout the term to gain the full compliment of available marks.
Quality of
submissions:
A further 2
marks are available to be awarded depending on whether or not the marker
considers that the overall contribution to the tutorials by the student
has been of a standard appropriate for an advanced level university course.
Timing of
submission for tutorial assessment and format of submissions:
The assessment
of tutorial participation will take place in association with assessment
of Assignment 3, the final assessment item for the term. To be eligible
for marking in this regard, the student will submit to the marker evidence,
in the form of print-outs of forum postings, or print-outs of confirmation
of uploading to the etutes page.
Further Study and Preparatory Exercises
The
requirements outlined above are minimum requirements. All of the lectures,
readings and tutorial focus questions and activities have been designed
to provide a rich learning experience in this exciting field. Beyond the
minimum requirements, you are encouraged to undertake as many of the activities
as your available time affords. Make the most of the resources.
On occasions
there will be things do do which will better prepare you in advance for
tackling workshop and assessment tasks [for example, in the tute below,
there is an exercise that will help you to prepare for the field recording
workshop in week 3]. Try to tackle a theoretically focused question addition
to such items. However, beyond achieving what will give you the grades
you need, how much you take on is up to each individual.
TUTORIAL 1 MMST 12016
Overview
of options
This
fortnight's tutorial consists of 3 sets of options for participation:
- discussion options regarding Lecture 1
- discussion options regarding Lecture 2
- narrative writing activity in preparation for the Workshop 03 field
recording session. *It is recommended that you undertake this option
regardless of assessment, in preparation for your field recording. And,
if you choose to submit it, it will also be acceptable toward the quantity
for Tutorial participation.
Discussion options
regarding Lecture 1:
From sources other than film, for example your
daily life or a multimedia product with which you are familiar, provide
an example of:
- Causal
Listening
- Semantic
Listening
- Reduced
Listening.
In
what way is semantic listening similar to reading; that is, reading a
written text? In what ways is it different?
Which
of Chion's terms, as described on the filmsound.org site, are relevant
to multimedia? Which are primarily relevant to cinema?
Look
at the assignments that have been set for this course. Speculate on one
sound or audio source that you might be use (you do not have to use it
when the time comes to do the assignment). Describe the nature and purpose
of the sound using Chion's modes of listening and terminology of sound.
Discussion options
regarding Lecture 2:
Can
you think of some examples of positive and negative representation that
exist in contemporary media? List some of the effects of such examples.
Do
you think that nineteenth century anthropologists and explorers had the
right to take artefacts (including their own photographs and sound recordings)
from indigenous peoples for display in Western museums? What might be
some of the effects of de-contextualising elements of another culture?
Narrative
writing activity in preparation for the Workshop 03 field recording session.
The
following is a short passage that Martin wrote about a scene from his
past. This is an example of how you may prepare a narrative by writing
it up before you go out on location to field record. Notice how many sounds
are in the narrative.
- Fish
Chips Seagulls and Winkles
Yesterday I went down to the harbour it was full of old timber and a
hundred years of barnacles. They hung from 5 inches thick the bollards.
The water lapped at the side of the wharf making the
boats bob up and down like so many corks, all in a row, chains and ships
rigging clinked and clanged as they
chimed in the breeze.
You could always count on old Mary she had a winkle boiler just next
to the jetty “two penth” I’d say and she’d wrap
a good handful in today’s newspaper and handed it over with a new tooth
pick just for me.
Just then a ships bell rang out, the fishing fleet were
back in the harbour, followed by an army of sea gulls, the sound was
defining like a thousand voices trying to speak all at once.
They seemed to go on forever. I was swamped by fifty of the hungry things,
all hovering for any scraps they could find. In the distance I could
hear waves crash in onto the rocks. A storm was brewing
that’s for sure.
I eventually reached a café “here how about me, I sound so continental
don’t I “. Fisherman’s wharf was full of Englishmen and their
fish and chips.
Still I’m a little partial to the odd one myself. It was fun sitting
on the side throwing hot chips at the gulls. Some kid came running towards
me and bowled me over. “Watch it,” “ kids “ “ I’ll never, ever.
“
“ Well maybe some time”
The End
Write your own
small story based on your past, or an interesting place where you live.
Be sure to highlight the opportunities for sounds that arise in the narrative.
Doing this serves a number of purposes: it enables you to visualise a
structure for a soundscape; it forces you to think in advance about the
sorts of sounds that you will look for on location; the highlighted items
will enable you to easily make a "shopping list" of sounds so
that when you are concentrating on recording you don't forget any of the
opportunities that you preconceived.
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