Radio Chthulucene 87.9 FM

And with that the project is a wrap! I do still have to swing by campus sometime before I leave for home to pick up my radio though.

I think that while this project was a slow start for me, I actually ended up having a good time with it! Initially I was floundering greatly on what to do, but given the many in-class examples, as well as being able to draw inspiration from my classmates, I was able to end the quarter with a project I was quite pleased with and that I had fun putting together. My radio station was a mix of personal thoughts, selected songs, and selected news titles that aimed to explore increasing digitality and its pros and cons through the lens of music (through Spotify). I tried to tie in the translanguaging theme of our course by illustrating how music could transcend language barriers and how it could be used to form meaningful connections.

To form my project I had to figure out how to create and edit audio files, which fortunately did not take too long. When choosing my songs I tried to have them relate to the section of personal thought they were playing, even if only tangentially. All that was relatively simple, though, and I would say the most challenging part of the project was figuring out where to put it. As mentioned in one of my earlier blog posts, my top choice locations were woefully outlet-less. I was, though, quite pleased with where my radio ended up located as I felt its spot next to The Guardian was quite fitting for the themes; it is an organization for writing, it is near KSDT (a radio that plays a diverse range of music and genres!), and best of all the spot was quite secluded. 

When it came to the actual time of exhibition, I was worried that the radio would not work as it should, and when I could not figure out how to test it on my own I went to office hours! It was fortunate that I did, for it turns out there were in fact some issues that needed to be troubleshooted for smooth sailing. After, I set up my radio and it worked swimmingly! I was also a bit worried that because my radio was outdoors and on the floor that it might be accidentally thrown away or blown away by any particularly strong gust of wind. To remedy those issues I tapped a Radio Cthuluscene poster above the radio, taped a note to the radio stating its purpose and permissions, and taped the radio down with several strips of tape. The times I did go to check on its well being, it has remained unaltered.

While I think my project did well in taking advantage of being in a radio format—the selection of songs and the layer, I felt, sounded quite nice when broadcasted—I think it could have done more to incorporate themes of translanguaging. Were I to do some rewriting I would delve deeper into how music transcends language, being almost a language of its own, and my personal journey with language and how that is reflected in the music I listen to. In the future I think it might be fun to figure out how to create a medley of Jacky Cheung songs rather than having them placed side by side with rather jarring transitions (unfortunately I am no sound tech so that was the best I could do).