Whew. Looking at the two articles, I was initially, and still am partially confused at the connection between the two. The first article, “Acoustic Cyberspace” by Erik Davis seemed to be more or less directed toward the subject matter of the class while “Land Ho!” by Megan Nordstrom was a helpful guide to what the subject content of English 121B would be. Davis really went through a lot of material I thought, but then again, English isn’t my best subject. I caught the gist that he thought sonic culture and soundscapes put people into a completely different environment than “Renaissance” perspective. It was pretty interesting how he brought in the example of radio to prove his point, but overall I found it difficult to stay on track with his argument.

In Nordstrom’s article, I thought it was a cute, carefree tone which helped keep my attention. She made a point of laying out the key information and keeping it simple- I was able to focus in more on the article than the first, but maybe that was because of the background color being bright and cheery.

The quotes from the two articles, beginning with Erik Davis’:

” Music and sound are tremendously powerful forces for organizing affect; their power to structure subjectivity, in the here and now and over time, makes them an incredibly productive language, one capable of overcoming the linear grids implied by text.”

The tone seems to be slightly more formal, using larger, more articulated word choice.  It basically says that music has more influence than text in the way that it creates an entirely different environment for the listener.  In relation to the study of sound, it really summarizes the importance of sound and its influence which makes it a key subject to study.

From Nordstrom’s article I found the following quote important:

“By serving community-based organizations, students are able to connect with the community and demonstrate the ability to put their academic studies in the context of the real-world.”

In comparison to the entire article, this quote is quite formal.  The sentence is brief but full of information about the class, providing a concise and accurate portrayal of what students can take away from the class.  So in relation to the study of sound, the article shows insight into how students will be able to incorporate what they’ve learned about sound into their service learning opportunities.

Throughout my high school career, I was a student who was up to their waist in “service learning.”  If there was tutoring to be done, I did it- I loved to volunteer, but the main project I completed was helping design and implement a freshman orientation program at my high school.  Starting my sophomore year, a group of students and myself got together and designed a program to help the transition of eighth grade students into the high school atmosphere.  We had to figure out what methods would be the most effective and when we decided on using peer mentors, we had to recruit and train around 150 students at the high school.  From the starting point to when I graduated the program had gone through some good and bad times.  It was tough trying to keep a program of that size effective but at the same time you were able to see the impact.  Overall I think the experience was helpful to my personal development and I believe it will help with my service learning in 121B.  In the orientation program I was able to interact and act as a mediator between students and staff at the school, so I think it’ll be helpful working in the Boys and Girls Club.

In this person’s play-list, the list of songs/sounds appeared to be in a sequential order as though you’re going through their day. At the beginning, the person is running to class, then talking with friends, doing school work and then going to the IMA. A lot of the sounds were ringtones, I would say they express how social this person is. I would think that other rap and R&B songs would fit in well with this soundtrack. I assume the person is really social, lives on south campus because they eat at Eleven 01 and that they talk a lot on their cell phone.