blog day7 7.15.09

The first part of today’s lecture was focused on the pro’s and con’s of the inventions and ideas of today. Examples used were bombs, guns and knives, T.V. and internet. All of these can be used to hurt or help depending on the situation and intention. Most people characterize bombs , guns, and knives to be more dangerous and hurtful than T.V. and computers, however, the power and influence one can gain through the T.V. and internet is faster, more hurtful, and more effective than a bomb, knife, gun can be. Our second speaker talked about times where sound and technology come together. For example, there was this instrument cone can play by keeping one’s whole body still and moving only arms, hands, and finers. The notes change with the height of the hands or movement of fingers, and one can play vibrato by shaking one hand. The speaker also talked about editing and creating voices using the computer with programs like auto-tuning, vocoding, and voice synthesis. The last topic was acoustic levitation which used the wavelengths from sounds to lift up a light object into the air.

After the lecture, we visited the anechoic chamber. The walls were all made of layered foam, zigzagging in and out of the wall. The floor was also foam, but we were standing a couple of feet above the floor on wire-mesh. The protruding foam prevented any sound from bouncing around, instead causing them to bounce into each other, and with the door closed, the room was pitch black and silent. My ears were filled with a loud buzzing, which the teacher explained to be the hairs in our ears working. My opened eyes saw spots of faint blue-ish purple light slowly fading everywhere I looked; these were supposedly because of our blood pumping into our eyes. We were each given a role of tape, and once our eyes adjusted to the darkness, we quickly ripped some tape off the role, which caused the roll to light up a fluorescent green.