Expressive Arts and Culture Blog Post #4

Within small groups we were tasked with selecting either a scene from a movie or a picture, which we felt we held an interest in or even an emotive connection to. We were made aware that the item we selected would be used as stimulus for our composing task later that day.

Within my group we felt very drawn toward silent films as we thought the total absence of sound would give us full freedom of expression when it came to composing audio.

We first considered Charlie Chaplin films as an option, and although we all found the imagery used within these strikingly compelling and expressive, we felt more drawn towards Walt Disney’s early work.  Specifically, a short film entitled ‘The Haunted House’, released as part of his early 1920’s ‘Mickey Mouse’ series.  We all had a common interest in Disney cartoons through a shared childhood experience of them being integral to our learning and development, leading to us engaging with them for leisure and enjoyment as adults.

Using BBC Soundscapes or the Garage band application, we were able to scout and select sound effects which we felt would create the best auditory experience when played alongside the Mickey Mouse scene.  All sounds we had selected were compiled into a custom soundscape where we were then able to place the sounds in specific order and alter aspects of each individual sound (volume speed duration etc) to best enhance the end product.

When using BBC Soundscapes during this task my group noted how much choice we were presented with when searching for a particular sound.  For example when we searched for ‘Thunder’ sounds we came across at least 15 variants of thunder all slightly differing from the last.  All in all this was an excellent resource which I look forward to implementing in my future practice.

Exploring this modern method of composing was an eye-opening experience for everyone in our group.  Although we all had varied experiences of Musical studies within primary and secondary school, none of us had encountered this type of music technology before.  Upon first look we expected the composing tools (BBC Soundscapes, Garage band) to be quite complex and overwhelming to the senses, however the layout of the resources was very user friendly and easy to navigate.

As a group we reflected on how children today are more digitally literate, and how the embracing and integrating of technology within their learning experiences may allow them to be more confident when first using tools and resources such as BBC Soundscapes and Garage band.  Through this reflection we recognised our responsibility as practitioners to stay up to date with the current tech/devices and ensure we are as knowledgeable about them as the children will be.  An example of where I have upheld this responsibility this year, is by joining and becoming familiar with twitter and creating multiple Glow blogs.  The reason I choose to engage with these two platforms is that for many parents/guardians they are the primary source of information regarding school events and important news, so I feel this will help me keep up to date with how parent-teacher relationships are currently being facilitated.  By having done this I have also met area 2.1.1 of the GTCS’s refreshed standards which details my responsibility as a student to ‘demonstrate knowledge and understanding of; digital technologies to support learning.’ (GTCS, 2021).

Attached below is my groups finished product.

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