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Main concept #1: What is an "affordance"?
Main concept #1: What is an "affordance"?
Watch the video to learn more. Write down your own definition of the term "affordance"
Activity #1
Activity #1
Using the items below, brainstorm the affordances and limitations of these technologies for the purposes of playing music.
To do this:
Take out a sheet of paper or a blank document
Create 4 columns to match the headings below.
Divide those into 2 subheadings within each category for "affordance" and "limitations"
List out all of the possible "affordances" and "limitations" for each of the 4 technological objects. (Note: for hybrid devices such as the iPhone, focus specifically on the iPhone's affordances as a music playing device.)
Spend about 30 - 45 minutes on this activity. If you have any of these items in your own home, we recommend that you experiment with the physical objects, play with them, listen out loud, try to break them or use them in unexpected ways. This will help you better understand the affordances and limitations.
Phonograph
Radio
CD Player
iPhone
Questions to consider:
What does each piece of music-playing technology enable?
What are the limitations of each music playing technology?
Be sure to consider topics such as:
portability, sound quality, format through which one listens (record, CD, digital file)
Are these technologies designed for individual or collective use?
Do these technologies inform one's habits of consumption? Purchasing music, pirating music, subscribing to music libraries
Do these modes of consumption inform one's perception and approach to listening? The role of the album versus the playlist, for example.
Main concept #2: the Rhetorical situation through TikTok Case Study
Main concept #2: the Rhetorical situation through TikTok Case Study
The Rhetorical Situation
The Rhetorical Situation
A key aspect of writing and analysis, the rhetorical situation helps us understand how "texts" come to be. Review this brief article to learn more about the fundamental aspects of the rhetorical situation.
Affordances in visual social media
Affordances in visual social media
Watch the embedded video to learn more about affordances and the rhetorical situation of social media content on TikTok
Activity #2
Activity #2
Based on the above video and the diagram of the Rhetorical Situation, analyze the one or two examples shared in the "theatrical affordances in visual social media." The video focuses on theatricality. It discusses audience, imitation, and suspense.
Using the rhetorical situation framework, choose one of the seven categories to deepen the analysis shared in the Theatrical Affordances" video. For example, who is the audience of the first TikTok shared in her talk which dramatizes comically the process of colonization in the African subcontinent? Or, what is the context for the second video that ironically critiques the fine-dining industry?
The elements of the rhetorical situation are: writer, audience, purpose, exigence, subject, context, genre
Main concept #3: affordances in application
Main concept #3: affordances in application
Extended technique
Extended technique
Extended technique is a term that refers to creative ways of “extending” the uses of a particular instrument or tool. As defined by Matthew Burtner: “Extended techniques, as may be inferred, require the performer to use an instrument in a manner outside of traditionally established norms.” “Making Noise: Extended Techniques after Experimentalism” New Music USA, 2005
Browse the videos below and think about how these examples creatively extend the affordances of their respective formats.
Clockwise from left: 'scratch' project by Nick Zammuto. Zammuto creates syncopated rhythms by cutting into LP records; Vox video focused on J Dilla's use of the MPC3000 to pioneer beatmaking and the hip-hop drumming. "Thursday Afternoon," by Brian Eno. Brian Eno leveraged the affordances of the CD format, specifically its ability to loop once the CD reached the last track in order to create this ambient 60 min-length song.
Brian Eno:
Brian Eno:
“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.”
“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.”
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