Show's Over Folks!
This will be my final post for semester 1. That is not to say that this is my final post. In fact, whether or not this blog continues to be up for assessment, I will endeavour to keep it updated. I believe having a blog, especially one which is shared amongst my fellow music tech students, is a fantastic idea. Through the blogger I have been able to see what other students have been up to, what their opinions are on many topics, as well as post and receive comments. I believe it make the course more transparent, which is a great thing. I was particularly relived to find that some opinions I have held to myself are shared by some of my colleagues.David Grice’s class this semester has been valuable source of information for me. Having someone in the industry with practical hands on knowledge of how it works out there. After all, it is all well and good to sit in class and have all the technicalities written up on the whiteboard, but this doesn’t prepare you for the practicalities of actually finding a job in the field. If I wanted to build and run my own studio, where do I start? How much does it cost to set up? What essential equipment do I need> how much can I expect to earn? Are there opportunities in SA or do I need to relocate? These are the questions which are not discussed in my degree, but are perhaps the most pertinent when it comes to my long-term livelihood in the industry. David, being someone from the industry, not, to borrow a phrase from Mark Carroll, living in an ivory tower (aka the Shultz building!), has been most helpful in addressing some of these questions. I have not even mentioned how helpful his tuition on recording techniques have been. I have heard a rumour that he won’t be lecturing next semester which is a damn shame, as I found his class most engaging and relevant to my interests.
Creative computing has been great this year. Max is an extremely powerful program, of which I have only been scratching the surface. It can be a brain drain at times, however it is most satisfying when a patch finally does what you want it to! I am looking forward to implementing more MSP based patches next semester.
Forum has also been engaging(sometimes not!) this semester. Obviously it is a new thing for EMU and I believe there has been a learning curve for both students and lecturers. Having artist talks has been excellent, including the post grad students. Highlights for myself were the Milkcrate project by Seb Tomczak and Gordon Monro’s presentation of his brainwave recording, most interesting indeed. David Harris’s part of the lecture has had it’s ups and downs for me. While I find some of the piece’s he plays interesting there are many which I find extremely irritating. The reason I find it irritating is not because the sound is unpleasant, albeit quite often it is, but because quite often I fail to see the relevance to the rest of my studies. It seems to me rather tan being a forum where works and ideas about music technology are presented, it is more of a listening session of David’s private collection. I believe a forum should be just that, a forum where everyone has an opportunity to present a work or idea, whether it is their own or someone else’s, to the class and have an open discussion about it. I know that I personally have come across some interesting music in the past six months that has far more relevance to music technology that many of the compositions that David has played for us this year. I believe that is we can pool our knowledge and experiences, surly this would me more beneficial that only hearing from one person week in week out? whilst David Harris is most knowledgeable in a variety of genres, I do think that the music he play’s is subjective to his tastes and does not reflect the interests of the class. Week 12’s forum was much better. Finally some input from other students! Stephen Whittington commented on his disappointment that more people didn’t volunteer, If I had have known there were invitations I would most definitely have volunteered.
posted by Daniel Murtagh @ 14:44
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