For this assignment, I had to create a story and read it. So I decided to think about a story prompt that my character would come up with and put it into an AI generator. to get an idea of a story. I then edited it to make it seem more natural and like a children’s story. I then put the final product in a text-to-voice generator and selected a feminine voice.
Author Archives: Leila
A morning in Marie’s life☀️✨
🎙️Mic Check 🎙️
Behind the Creation:
Mic checks 1…2…1…2… is this thing on? This was a really fun assignment where I created a radio bumper for ds106. For this, I briefly listened to the radio station and instantly decided on a lofi inspired background audio to match the “vibe” of the radio channel. While I wanted to focus on matching the vibe of the radio station, I wanted to make my radio bumper unique. Something that was uniquely inspired by my experiences. I started off by recording the audio bit of my voice which took three tries and thenI headed over to free audio.com and instantly searched for key words like lofi, radio bumper, Mellow beats, outro, intro, and other things of that nature.
I found some hip hop type intro sounds to stack on top of each other and even took a snippet of someone else’s podcast intro and added that to the beginning of the audio. I then trimmed my voice recording and added the reverb sound effect to give it a radio feel. Then I adjusted the intro sounds accordingly and added some lofi beats to the background. I then added the outro bit which is like a power down sound and began to edit out unwanted sounds and arranging the snippets into ways that went together cohesively. After I was done I realized that something was missing. I found a bit on free audio which said “Well on this show did you expect anything else?” which I felt was a great touch to add right after my voice. Then it was radio ready so I uploaded it… also I can’t figure out how to allow downloads, so if you want to use it I’ll send you the file, just ask!
⛈️BRain StoRM⛈️
I think it would be cool to create a show where a bunch of skeptical characters come together to create a show talking about nonsense stories related to AI. Like a panel of characters that would be very techno-pessimistic like my character Marie and the characters all sit down in a podcast like setting and review reddit stories of problems with AI and technology and put in their two cents with of course some disagreements along the way. Maybe even an inventor that is very techno-optimistic and would contribute to a good conversation and arguments for the technological side.
I think that Marie would be very anti-technologist because of how her husband passed (which is undisclosed for the moment and will be revealed at a later time). She also is a manager of a call center and corporate keeps trying to force an AI pre-screen for her customers to determine which department would best benefit them, but it will cost many workers their jobs and livelihoods. She would at the same time be open to learning more about different perspectives while holding strong to her beliefs. She is okay with technology (like the Daleks) in movies like Dr. Who but not in real life. I think her character would be very respectful of other characters point of views while adding very monotone jokes in the dialogue and provide stories that she has in her life. She may however provide some flat responses from time to time or get flustered when her point of view is proven wrong to much. I think that it will be very exciting to see how this comes to fruition in the coming weeks.
✍🏼Week of 2/5 – 2/9✍🏼
Let’s talk about it. This week forced me to get out of my comfort zone and experiment with audio storytelling. I was interested in starting my very own podcast previously but I didn’t really know where to start. This whole week was a learning experience that I did not take lightly. I am also trying a new format! Instead of trying to put together my whole week into one blog post and tell you a short creative process that leaves a lot out I am going to imbed the posts below so you can click them directly! I also added the creative process in each of the posts so you can see them individually as well as a whole. Update: I see that the posts don’t show fully, so I’ll adjust and add the creative process passage below it as a caption.
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Assignments from this week 
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I was really intimidated by this project and using a new audio editing service, but I still wanted the outcome to be something I could be proud of. I didn’t want something that sounded like it was put together in three or less seconds and then tossed to the side, and instead something that would put you in a dream-like state as we discussed earlier this week in the videos we watched. I first started by compiling a list of sounds that I would normally hear on a bus or on a train like bags rustling, the train moving, low chatter. Then I added some other sounds that would give you the since of being frightened or tense like the creepy voice, and the beating heart. I was actually hanging out with someone towards the end of my editing which admittedly was time consuming, and they said that even they got tense listening to it and compared my audio to some of the horror movie sounds. A problem that I ran into was the fact that the audios, even though they were placed properly to be cohesive, were way too long for this assignment with a cap of 90 seconds. So, I had to meticulously go through each audio and adjust it to fit right and cut out unnecessary bits. I am really proud of the product and all in all this took me about a hour and a half to complete!
BRain StoRM
Mic Check I found some hip hop type intro sounds to stack on top of each other and even took a snippet of someone else’s podcast intro and added that to the beginning of the audio. I then trimmed my voice recording and added the reverb sound effect to give it a radio feel. Then I adjusted the intro sounds accordingly and added some lofi beats to the background. I then added the outro bit which is like a power down sound and began to edit out unwanted sounds and arranging the snippets into ways that went together cohesively. After I was done I realized that something was missing. I found a bit on free audio which said “Well on this show did you expect anything else?” which I felt was a great touch to add right after my voice. Then it was radio ready so I uploaded it… also I can’t figure out how to allow downloads, so if you want to use it I’ll send you the file, just ask!
Assignments from the bank 
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Daily Creates:
In summary, this whole week I spent a long time figuring out what works best for me when creating audio projects. I learned that it is easier to brainstorm, compile, and then work in bits and pieces to make my life easier. While there were many upsides to this week there were also downsides, I had problems finding audio pieces that I wanted, and also scheduling out enough time to do these because of how time consuming they are. I also had problems with the software and learning how to segment play time and how to switch the orders of audio, but I quickly learned how to do so.
Anxiety on a Train ride
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Listen to my sound effect storytelling assignment below! For this, I tried to create the effect of having anxiety on a train ride and how overstimulating it can be for people with severe anxiety. Please enjoy and give me some tips down below!
Behind the creation:
I was really intimidated by this project and using a new audio editing service, but I still wanted the outcome to be something I could be proud of. I didn’t want something that sounded like it was put together in three or less seconds and then tossed to the side, and instead something that would put you in a dream-like state as we discussed earlier this week in the videos we watched. I first started by compiling a list of sounds that I would normally hear on a bus or on a train like bags rustling, the train moving, low chatter. Then I added some other sounds that would give you the since of being frightened or tense like the creepy voice, and the beating heart. I was actually hanging out with someone towards the end of my editing which admittedly was time consuming, and they said that even they got tense listening to it and compared my audio to some of the horror movie sounds. A problem that I ran into was the fact that the audios, even though they were placed properly to be cohesive, were way too long for this assignment with a cap of 90 seconds. So, I had to meticulously go through each audio and adjust it to fit right and cut out unnecessary bits. I am really proud of the product and all in all this took me about a hour and a half to complete!
Special note: I should have done the radio bumper first! This would have made this whole process easier and the bumper is less complicated! I guess you live and you learn!
The Art of Voice
As an avid true crime podcast listener, I am constantly listening to the radio. I find that it helps me multitask and be able to slow my brain down enough to function. Something about the usage of sound effects, descriptors, and subtle sounds in the background is entrancing. The videos that I watched from Jad Abumrad How Radio Creates Empathy and Digital Shamanism and Old-Fashioned, Newfangled Storytelling Magic really gives insight into how people on the radio create this effect and how I might go about doing this if I were to follow through with creating a podcast of my own like how I have been thinking for the last couple of years.
Abumrad says that it is important for good stories to put you in sort of a dream-like state. The story should be able to be portrayed through the sound waves through different techniques of voice and sound effects. It’s like they are actively painting a picture without surface or medium. The process behind podcasts and radio channels is very detailed oriented and able to grab and keep attention of listeners without being able to use visuals.
Moon Graffiti is an excellent portrayal of this. They were able to take me on an adventure through sounds. I was actually convinced at the end that I was taught history wrong for a second before I read the caption. The sound effects and vocal descriptors made it seem like I was right there with them with my radio dead, and stranded on the moon. The eerie music definitely helped with giving me a fright as well. I would definitely be panicking way more than they did but I guess when you are training to go to space you get familiar with the fact that you may die there.
Week of 1/29/2024- 2/2/2024
I feel like this week was by far the longest and most high-paced that I have had yet in college. Things on campus were breaking left and right and Apogee was acting slower than usual, so doing assignments took longer than expected. On top of this I was also studying for two classes for an Exam and a Quiz with the material being very hard too comprehend but we made it through this week! Lets get into my creative process for this week.
There were three weekly assignments, fairly easy to complete. I didn’t have any problems with the material this week but again I had problems with wifi. By design is my review for the articles that I read at the beginning of the week and the content was really interesting. I even learned some of it in IB Art last year…. thank you, Stu. I learned from the articles that there is a lot that goes into making a simple movie poster. I also happened to watch a video about design from one of the creators I enjoy on youtube called: Animation before computers by the odd1sout. His video was mostly about animation design and how it has developed over the years but please check his video out! The next assignment was Generating Art and is the Middlebury demystifying art assignment. This one was straight forward and honestly there wasn’t much behind completing this. I did answer a question about my subject J. Cole and why I chose him. It was simply because I was listening to his music at the time. The photoblitz was the most fun assignment I created this week. I was watching tv with my boyfriend and dog when I remembered it. I quickly got to work trying to capture photos in my dorm. I like the out come of some. I uploaded my start and end time photos, along with 5 of my best photos. I tried using a gallery photo block to post it.
Next, I completed two visual assignments from the bank as Marie E. Pearl. These are fun to do because I am pretending to be someone I am not and it forces me to think from their point of view. The newspaper article is not funny to me but it would be something that Marie would write to be funny. Also, I chose a quote and scene to complete the other assignment as Marie. You can see these down below! There were only 3 daily assignments that I did this week. For the first daily create that I did I chose and uploaded a gif image of my first job, which was McDonald’s. Daily Create #2 was about what my walk-up song would be and I chose I’m an Albatroz which I have never seen anyone use before and I feel like it would be a new and fresh walk-up song. I can visualize myself walking into a MMA ring with this behind me. The Last daily create, I was tasked with finding a word and image to describe the moment right after a nap from which I chose postdreamhaze. I feel like everything is in a thick haze after a nap and I am left feeling disoriented. Thank you for reading this week’s review!
Work from this Week
Weekly Assignments
Assignments from the bank
Daily assignments
Dorm Blitz
Here are the 5 best photos from my photo blitz.. I tried doing a gallery thing here so please let me know if it doesn’t work!
Everything’s missing!
Read this funny article written by Marie E. Pearl!