Category Archives: Tech Noir

Weekly Summary: Week 11

This week was pretty light. The group that I worked on the radio show with decided to work together for the final. We started brainstorming some ideas but are still very much in the early stages of our product.

I was unable to join the radio show this week to hear the rest of the classes shows because I had games this week that prevented me from being available. My group mates joined and told me that they heard a lot of good things.

Lastly, were my daily creates. The first one I did was for April Fools day. My team lifts at 6am and the upperclassmen decided to show up late and in a different uniform than all the freshman. They started calling us and checking our locations. Later that day they got us back with a water gun ambush. The next daily create I did was the open the door. I thought that when I clicked on the link something was going to happen to the door… but nothing did. I went into canva and created an open door image and placed a unicorn inside because that’s what I wanted to be on the other side of the door. Lastly, I did the ironic name. I google searched ironic names and most of the ones that popped up were silly memes like this one of the sheep that I used.

Overall this week was nice and I can’t wait to see what my group comes up with for the final.

Radio Show Review

I listened to The Opposites Show on Wednesday night on the ds106 radio. I thought the ads were really good, finding myself tuning them out sometimes because I was mistaking them for the real thing. I also liked how the same transitional tune was used throughout to let us know what was going on. The different group members having conversations with each other and with AI was a good way of telling the story. One part that particularly interested me was the warning/alert that got cut off as the radio accepted the returning caller. It added a lot of mystery that I don’t think we’ll get the answers to anytime soon. A critique I have for the show is most of the ads were played in the beginning before tuning in to the show, which makes sense because we have ad segments, but I think it would’ve been better if one ad played in the beginning, probably the one introducing us to the AI algorithmic dating app, and other ads were strategically scattered throughout. Overall, I thought the radio show had good formatting and was fun to listen to!

As for our radio show, Noir News, when I heard it Wednesday night, that was the first time I had heard it in full and not in pieces. Despite having different characters and stories, we were still able to connect them by making news segments from the location where our characters live. For example, I decided to make my news segment from Chicago in about 100 years in the future. This is around the time my character is active in the story. My group member Maddie took all of our sound files and edited them together into one radio show. I appreciated the feedback we got on our show, and I’ve thought of a few ways it could be improved, such as audio mixing or saving the files differently to make things easier to put together. My group is working together again for the final project, so I hope we can continue to make things bigger and better than before.

Voices of DS106

The radio listen was fun. I was able to listen to the fearless femmes podcast which was amazing. My favorite part of the podcast were the ads. They were creative and sounded like professional radio ads. I also enjoyed the variation in topics and the humor they brought to the podcast while watching they were able to actually make me and my roommate laugh a few times as we listened in. It was very interesting to see how this group approached the assignment as me and my group took a totally different route, seeing how they were able to do the assignment so different than us yet so successful make me excited to see what everyone’s final project will look like.

Daily creates

1.   For my first daily creation of the week we were tasked to show what happened when we opened a mysterious door. Behind my door a luxurious high rise was hidden and is a great reminder to not judge a book by its cover. I was inspired for this post while watching a tik tok where the user was in a foreign country and the outside of his house looked simple and it was made of mud, but once he stepped in it was filled with modern commodities and many even commented that the inside of his house was nicer than theirs.

2. For the second daily create of the week we were asked to decipher a  part of the Voynich manuscript. I decided to choose the page that has a sun with a face surrounded by what looks to be either a clock or calendar. Regardless of which I believe they worshiped the sun or at least thought it was living and this was an early attempt at measuring time.

3. For the 3rd and final daily create of the week we were asked to share a photo or name of something ironic and I decided to send the Golden gate bridge. The bridge isn’t golden at all, it’s orange, and the golden GATE bridge doesn’t even have any gates, only toll posts. Maybe the golden gate had to do with the gold rush or something. Now I’m interested in looking into the backstory and naming of the bridge.

Week 11 the calm before the storm.

This week zoomed by quickly. I’ve been super busy as the semester is coming to a close. This week we were responsible for 3 daily creates which I was able to get done in the backend of the week. I was able to decide what was behind my door like the legend of Narnia, became a philosopher and attempted to solve a page of the Voynich manuscript, and to end the week was able to question the origins of the golden gate bridge’s name. The radiolisten was very eye opening and showed just how creative my classmates truly are. Seeing what everyone is capable of has me excited to see everyone’s final project and prepared to bring my A game for my own.

Radio Reflection (Week 11)

Hearing our group’s podcast played live on the DGST radio was both nerve-wracking and rewarding. It made me more aware of how important sound design, pacing, and transitions are in shaping how a narrated story is received. I think our podcast came together well overall and I really love Rylie’s take on the cryptic Frank Sinatra themed soundtrack that we used. I do wish we had used one of the commercials I made or at least a real person’s voice for some of our commercials that we used instead of a robotic one—I think it would’ve sounded more natural and relatable. I also think it would’ve been cool to have more of a dialogue with the rest of my group during each story to make the podcast seem more conversational but unfortunately none of our schedules lined up to make it happen.

Best podcasts that come from radio shows

The live interviews with team members from other groups added a fun, real-time energy and it was cool to learn about others’ creative processes around designing their podcast, writing the script, and why they made the choices they did. I thought the variety of commercials groups used were really creative and entertaining—some were genuinely funny. One podcast that stood out used Dr. Oblivion’s voice with added sass and personality, which I thought was a clever and memorable choice. I thought the script and dialogue between the two hosts was well-written and really showcased the personality you would hear in a group podcast, even if the hosts/voices were robotic or AI generated.

To improve the live radio experience, smoother transitions between shows and clearer introductions for each segment would help the audience follow along more easily. Having more interactive features on the radio station would provide a more engaging experience for listeners as well to be able to follow along and add input rather than having to chat on Discord.

Overall, I had a great experience, and it made me want to look into the UMW student-led radio station and see what kind of conversations they are having and the creativity going into that. (I used to pass by the room in the Woodard business building by Vocelli’s but never knew how/when/if they operated)

 

Ds106 radio shows

I absolutely enjoyed creating the podcast with the Fearless Femmes, so i’ve really been looking forward to listening to everyone else’s podcasts. I got a chance to listen to everyone’s podcasts this week but, I didn’t get a chance to listen to my group (The Fearless Femmes) live on the radio because of a time conflict 🙁 but I did hear feedback that people enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed the Days of Crime and Roses podcast. I thought it was a unique and clever way to do the show even though the members weren’t able to meet together. I felt the transitions to the different stories worked really well and the intermissions and bumpers blended well with the show.

The stories were very intriguing and kept me engaged the whole show. This could be because I enjoy watching crime shows in general so listening to it was also enjoyable. Knowing that the group came up with the stories themselves really showed everyone’s creativity and I liked the connections to their course characters.

I thought I think everyone sounded great, the audio was well mixed so I could hear everyone clearly. Another thing that helped with the audio and the overall experience with listening to the show was that the group members really put emphasis in their voice which made the stories sound more exciting instead of monotone.

The only thing I had a hard time with the radio shows was the commentary after they ended. I wasn’t really able to hear the questions being asked and at some points I wasn’t able to hear the groups explain their show. Other than that I feel like everything went smoothly and I really enjoyed this project.

Similar to how excited I was to listen to everyone’s podcasts, I’m excited to see everyone’s trailers and what they do for the final. After listening to everyone’s podcasts I realized how creative this class is, so it should be fun to see what eveyone comes up with.

See you next week!

sincerely, Kristen

Weekly Summary #11: Greater than seven

M. Marshall 4.4

Hello and welcome to another weekly summary. I had a pretty good week, I got to listen in on the radio to hear the radio show my group and me created this week on Wednesday which was super cool. Here is my blog post about that:

Radio Listening

and 3 daily creates!

Day 1: April Fools!

Day 2: Birthday card for van Gogh!

Day 3: Text translation skills

Until next week!

Radio Listening

M. Marshall 4.4

This will be pretty short because I’ve talked a lot about what the actual process looked like in creating the radio show. Getting to hear the product of my work on a radio show was super cool and I felt pretty proud of myself and my group. Getting to talk on the radio was super cool and I felt like a celebrity. I have no idea who was responsible for naming our group (I think it’s Noir News?) but I liked the title and realized that we should have brain stormed that earlier, lol. It was also cool hearing the other group’s, my favorite thing they did was a commercial for a dating app ad (and the algorithm was AI?) it was very funny and I thought it was a fantastic premise. Overall, it was a really cool experience!