Radio Chthulucene 87.9 FM

I was a little confused as to what I was supposed to learn or “get” from this week’s readings/listenings, but after hearing what Mr. Werman had to say about the general form of news via just audio had given me a lot more insight into the different elements and considerations that go into making something that’ll be only consumed through our ears. Although the concepts and techniques he had mentioned weren’t completely foreign to me, I was still surprised by how active of a process it was to select the perfect moments to set up his story from everything him and his crew recorded from their experiences. I think the topic/idea that I was interested the most from what he had discussed today was the idea that “radio doesn’t suggest images” – how it’s the “theater of the mind”. Funny enough, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard of the term “theater of the mind” as that’s what the technique is called when running a Dungeons and Dragons (or other TTRPG) games without a physical board or representation of events occurring.

It gives me even more consideration as to how I will shape my final project in the end. Although I already knew that the project would be audio based, it really drives home that facet of the project. Although I don’t know how well I’ll be able to mechanically implement sounds that aren’t just my or other people’s voices, I’ll definitely make sure to consider how my final project would differ if I could solely use written/visual stimuli versus a solely audio-based experience. Similar to the difference between writing and performing your work or even talking about it out loud, I think I’ve definitely learned different ways to improve the overall experience of the project: from making the overall story simpler, to utilizing silence and pauses to enhance emotion.