Moon Graffiti by The Truth Podcast did an amazing job with the into sounds creating an immersive audio as if I was there to hear all the sounds from the moon landing. All the audio they used came together amazingly to create a story. This is a great way to use only audio to create a story. The eerie sound effects did a great job of creating an atmosphere of the unknown
Category Archives: audioreflection
Audio Reflection
Listening to Moon Graffiti was such an immersive experience. The audio was done so well that I could picture everything happening, almost like I was right there. It wasnât just about hearing the story, it was about feeling it. The way sound effects and shifts in audio were used made the whole thing come alive.
Iâve always found it interesting how our senses connect to memory. A certain smell or song can instantly take us back to a specific moment in our lives. I think that plays a big role in audio storytelling too. Sound taps into something deeper, linking memory and imagination. In Moon Graffiti, little details like the crackling radio, the odd silence of space, and even the astronautsâ breathing made the story feel real. Those sounds didnât just tell me what was happening they made me feel the isolation, the tension, and the weight of the moment.
Abumrad talks about how sound isnât just something we hear, it’s something we experience. He mentions this idea of âco-Authorization,â where the listener actively builds the story in their mind based on sound. Moon Graffiti does exactly that. it lets the sounds guide us, so we create the picture ourselves.
This technique isnât just in audio storytelling we see it in movies and TV shows. A horror scene wouldnât be as scary without creaky floors or distant whispers, and a dramatic moment wouldnât hit as hard without the right music in the background. Sound shapes mood, builds atmosphere, and pulls us in.
The Dreamlike State of Storytelling
The two biggest takeaways I got from Jad Abumrad’s videos were Co-Auhorization and creating a connection to the story. Abumrad says the lack of pictures in forces listeners to use their imagination. By telling a story, he is painting the picture, but by listeners using their imagination, we are holding the brush; this is called co-authorship. He is telling the story and I am illustrating it, and in turn adding a few details in myself. Additionally, in order to create co-authorship, a storyteller needs to be able to create a dream like state to connect the listener to the story. If a story is interesting enough, it will immerse the listener into the story where they can add their own takes. Sound in a story is like seasoning on a dish, too little is bland and the listener becomes bored, but too much is overpowering and overwhelms the listener. In Moon Graffiti, the effect that made their voices sound like they were coming through walkie-talkies helps remind the reader that the story takes place in 1969. The sad, quiet, monotone song that plays while the astronauts are putting down a memorial, knowing that they will have to be memorialized too, and sooner than they thought, adds an eerie depressing tone to the story that makes your heart break for these men. Abumrad said in his video that co-authorization creates empathy, and that definetly rings true in this podcast. Because I am illustrating the story, it makes me feel like I am in there shoes, like I have two hours left to live with little to no hope of surviving. It makes the listener sad, but it also helps put into perspective how amazing and impressive it is that, in real life, they were able to put men on the moon and get them back unharmed. Knowing what could have been the outcome, I am so happy that these astronauts were able to achieve this dangerous feat and still return back to Earth. In summary, I found it very interesting how Jad Abumrad emphasized the role of imagination and creating a connection with the audience, it gave me a lot to think about when it comes to crafting a compelling narrative.
Moon Graffiti
Audio storytelling is quite unique. When you have no visual to look at you pay more attention to what the people are saying and how they speak as well. Whereas, when you have a visual, you have more to see, leaving you with more distractions. Audio storytelling also allows you to envision and create your own interpretation of the scene based off of the audio.
The Moon Graffiti audio started off with the most intense scene. Captivating us listeners into the story. The whole time I was listening to it, there was an eerie feeling because of the background music they had added. At 7:08, when Buzz said “Neil, you gotta see this”, the eerie music even intensified. There was even a slight pause after Buzz called Neil’s name, adding more drama to the story.
I could also envision myself in space from this audio. As if I was an astronaut speaking through a radio to a colleague. You could hear the emptiness of space, their muffled voices, and movements as if you were there.
Shoot for the Moon â âMoon Graffitiâ
In Moon Graffiti, written and produced by Jonathan Mitchell, is a fictional retelling of the moon landing where Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong crashed and became stranded. Matt Evans and Ed Herbstman played the two astronats. The story is inspired by the speech written for Nixon by William Saffire in the event that Aldrin and Armstrong didn’t survive the journey. After crashing on the moon, they realize they are stranded and spend their last two hours unable to do anything about their impending deaths. They try to place the flag, discuss the future of space travel, and kill time before their oxygen runs out.
Audio is used very well in this. From the cracking of their radio systems to scientific equipment beeping to sand flying through the air after a kick, every one of the many layers of audio creates a rich atmosphere. I tried to listen to the background as much as possible. They used long humming, static, and beeping at tense moments and kept the background clear during the calmer moments. The techniques were very simple, but effective. I started listening without looking at the description, so I had no clue what was about to happen. In the first ten seconds, I was able to understand that these men were in some sort of space-related emergency.
I enjoyed this more than I expected to. I havenât listened to many things like this, but found it very compelling. I had a clear image of everything going on without description. They did a great job on this and I may have to listen to more.
Below is a link to the story. Some sections I found particularly interesting are at 2:48, 8:08, and 11:35. These are places where I found the sound editing particularly impactful and detailed. Specifically the footsteps at 2:48, the flag sounds at 8:08, and the breathing and background noise at 11:35.
Moon Graffiti â Eerie yet Captivating
This short story was unexpectedly gripping for the entirety of the 10 minutes. The conversation between Armstrong and Aldrin signifies uncharted territory, as this was the first time man stepped foot on the moon. The entire story has an underlying mysterious backtrack, until the middle where sometimes just their voices and breathing fill the audio. Sound effects are also littered into the story, and even if these sounds aren’t accurate to what can be heard in space, it adds to the suspense and gravity of the situation.
I am personally very afraid of space, and anything of the unknown. It’s the feeling of knowing that there are things out there that are unknown to us, or potentially too advanced for the human mind to grasp. The “fear of missing out” or FOMO is also a reason why I fear the unknown, as eventually man may be able to conquer space and comprehend all of the mysteries in our galaxy, but I’ll never be around to witness this.
But the nature of the unknown and the fear that future civilizations will have to conquer gives me comfort at times. At least I won’t have to face these uncharted territories myself, all at the cost of my FOMO inside of my tombstone.
Moon Graffiti
The first minute of “Moon Graffiti” was brilliant and made me think it was going to be a short sci-fi audio story. Once the context was provided for the basis of the story, I found this idea fascinating. Like the hosts pointed out, I never even considered the possibility of the moon landing not succeeding and the president having to give a speech afterwards.
It may seem odd, but I recently went to a concert where the theme was interdimensional space travel. The band would have audio clips between sets with very similar space noises to “Moon Graffiti”. I did not realize it then, but those soundbites really put everyone in the venue in a collective “dream state” that Jad Abumrad was discussing in the YouTube video.
Sound is critical to any story whether it’s a podcast, movie, or concert. Oftentimes, certain sounds are very recognizable, giving the listener a clear picture of the story’s setting. However, certain sounds also have the ability to bring people to places they’ve never been, like the moon. Most likely, anyone listening to the podcast has never been to the moon or to space, but the sounds are commonly used in movies taking place in space and sound like what we would expect this place we’ve never been to to sound like.
Not only are there beeps and boops that give the listener an idea of the setting, but also sounds meant to elicit specific emotions. The increasing volume of sounds used to build suspense comes to mind from the podcast. The eeriness of the scene is also emphasized by certain sounds frequently used in space-themed movies.
âMoon Graffitiâ: Sounds and their ability to help us create mental schemas
Moon Graffiti was absolutely insane to me. It was intense and it had me locked in listening the entire time. The reason for that: the sound production. Their ability to maneuver and transition the sound helped me feel like I was there because there are no images, whereas images presented with sound do the opposite, they trigger cues visually and we correspond them to what we know that image sounds like. Jad Abumrad had a cool way of explaining it how we are the ones holding the paintbrush not him. Its honestly beautiful to see. It’s the manipulation of perception at its finest and a good exemplar of sensual learning. It’s a recognition process of memory that happens when we hear certain sounds that creates empathy for the listener as it enables one to actually place themself in a similar experience.
thinking about sounds
This week our audio learning journeys led us to this assignment that teaches us about the art of audio storytelling. We had two videos: Radiolab’s Jad Abumrad: How Radio Creates Empathy and Digital Shamanism and Old-Fashioned, Newfangled Storytelling Magic with a podcast example to apply this new knowledge to called Moon Graffiti.
The two videos both talked about audio storytelling in a way I had never imagined before. A co-authorship between the narrator and the listener formed the lack of visual media. As the narrator provides cues and details of the story the listener must paint their own picture in their mind of what is happening. The connection formed between the two leads to something that feels more personal and draws people in. Though this form of storytelling uses technology, it has been an art form for years where people would gather around to hear a story from its narrator.
While listening to the podcast I experienced this co-imagining as the narrator took me through the story. In the beginning, we are thrown immediately into the story and we donât know if this is real audio, where they are, or what they’re doing. We as the listener must fill in this information ourselves as the best we can. Then as the narrator slowly sets the scene we enter the âcollective dream stateâ that lets us experience the story that is being told.
The usage of sound effects and ambient background noise is what makes this modern form of storytelling come together. The cues these sounds contain let the listener paint the picture with a little more help. The haunting music varies in intensity to match the moment, grainy voices as they speak through the comm system, the sounds of their ship flying by, the flag being planted in the ground, and the camera flashing. All of these combine to pull the listener into their world.
The podcast format of the story feels to me like it is better in some ways than a video. A part of my confusion from the start of the episode was how much of what weâre hearing is real. While this particular episode was all voiced by their team, it very well could have been a mix of real audio used with additional dialogue done by them to fill in the gaps and the listener wouldnât be able to tell the difference. It leaves the narrator in complete control of how to create their storiesâ reality in a way so that at least for the duration of the episode, the listener can believe that this is all real audio from the two astronauts’ final moments.
Audio Reflection
The use of audio in this storytelling experience was captivating and immersive. Starting with the audio allowed for immediate engagement with the story, and the introduction of a narrator after the crash added depth. The background sounds, like the beeping of the spaceship and the buzzing noise of space, enhanced the sense of being in the moment. The meticulous attention to these audio elements highlighted the thoughtfulness behind the storytelling process. Even without prior knowledge of the technical details, the audio effectively conveyed the narrative. This experience underscores the potential of audio storytelling to engage listeners, even those who typically rely on visuals. It prompts consideration for incorporating similar techniques in audio books to enhance their appeal and appreciation. This, also, enhances the feeling of immersion. A major example of this in a modern setting is podcasting. More people are becoming intrigued by storytelling without visuals.