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[28 Nov 2010|10:12pm] |
Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
Jon Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven
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[28 Oct 2008|09:42am] |
- decibel -
- log(x)=y
- lowest sound human ear can hear - 1/trillionth acoustic Watt
- loudest - 1 acoustic Watt - threshold of pain - dB=10log(1,000,000,000,000) = 120 dB greater than threshold of hearing
- notation for levels of relative power of sound in base ten
- unit of relative power - bel
- Hz - cycles per second, representation of frequencies
- speed of sound - 1180 ft/sec at sea level
- surround sound
- 5.1 - six speakers - (L)(C)(sub)(R)
- 7.1 - 8 speakers - add (ML) & (MR)
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[14 Oct 2008|10:35am] |
- loudspeakers - similar to motor
- set motion to air equal to electric frequencies
- Hz - cycles/second
- speaker
- membrane, motor, box to house both
- Three kinds
- cone
- horn/driver
- electrostatic
- crossover network
- divide sound to different bandwidths by Hz, for amplification
- cluster
- arrays
- time alignment - offset time sound travels to prevent slapecho effect
- amplification - use of a small current to control a large current
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| 11 Sept 2008 - THEA283 - Text Analysis |
[11 Sep 2008|09:41am] |
- Hamlet - due 23 Sept
- Plot Summary
- 1-3 page summary of the plot
- Character Summary
- List of the characters with brief description
- Diagram
- shows connections between characters, with arrows indicating relationships (i.e., from Hamlet to ghost is an arrow for "son" & from ghost to Hamlet is an arrow for "father")
- Answer the following questions:
- What human values are explored?
- What aspects of life and behavior does the play examine?
- What is the point of the play?
- What dominant images appear in the play?
- What are the dominant themes of the play?
- How does time affect the characters and their situations?
- What are the spatial limits of the scenic environment?
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| 10 Sep 2008 - HIST465 Notes - Jefferson and the "Empire of Liberty" |
[10 Sep 2008|11:11am] |
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- Jefferson abandons small government ideals for expansionist dreams, greatly increases executive powers
- Louisiana - French ceded to Spain, which gave it back to Napoleon
- Spanish were allowing American settlers to flow into LA; officials weren't sure that France would do the same
- Napoleon wants to reassert French power in the Caribbean, recapture Haiti (and use New Orleans as a launching point for this campaign)
- Jefferson initially in favor of French pacification of Haiti - doesn't want precedent of a successful slave revolt to take hold - but hesitant about extreme French power in new world, especially what French might do to Mississippi navigation rights
- writes Livingston in Paris: "The day French takes New Orleans, we must marry ourselves to the British"
- January 1803 - Jefferson empowers James Monroe to go to Europe to assist Robert Livingston in negotiations for New Orleans, with an offer of 10 million dollars, despite lack of Constitutional backing of this power
- At the time, Americans believe New Orleans includes Spanish west Florida
- Jefferson is authorized by Congress to call up 80k militiamen to prepare to fight someone in New Orleans
- In the meantime, the Caribbean isn't going well at the same time Napoleon decides to restart the European war - this convinces him he wants to sell LA
- Talleyrand approaches Monroe - won't sell New Orleans for 10 million, but will sell all of LA for 15 million
- Napoleon understood he was making the US into a power - hoping for an ally in his neverending war against Britain - over 800 sq mi for 15 million - doubles the size of the US
- Not everyone in Congress approved of Louisiana Purchase - Federalists complained of Jefferson's usurping of executive power
- Some also squabbled about including mixed-race citizens
- Treaty ratified 24-7
- Boundaries with West Florida are undefined- Jefferson sends troops in 1804, claiming territory for US
- Spain would continue to claim something was fishy with deal, that US had purchased stolen goods
- Quickly after ratification of treaty, Jefferson begins plans to explore - Lewis and Clark
- L&C go all the way to Oregon Territory, which isn't clearly American but also claimed by British
- Zebulon Pike - 1806-07, traveled into Spanish Territory, discovered Pike's Peak in Colorado
- Aaron Burr - shoots Hamilton, goes on the lam, starts to raise money and troops to try and found an independent nation, is finally caught and brought back to stand trial for treason, is acquitted
- John Jacob Astor and the American Fur Company - envisions a line of forts along L&C line to guard fur empire against British/Spanish/Indian interference
- Jefferson - was naturalist, wanted to know what was in territory to help build agrarian civilization - vision of the West as engine of American political system
- Settlers would develop the West and themselves as republican citizens
- "If the Indians did not willingly abandon traditional ways, take up the plow, and melt into the white population, they would be banished beyond the frontier."
- Louisiana would be a front for American liberty
- First War with the "Barbary Pirates" 1801-05 - Jefferson realizes American commerce is necessary, and determined to protect it; 1801 - longstanding tensions finally erupt in full out war; 1803 - USS Philadelphia is run aground in Tripoli, surrenders; 1804 - Decatur leads a daring raid, burn the ship
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| 04 Sep 08 - THEA283 Notes - Sound Design Process |
[04 Sep 2008|09:39am] |
- Read the script - script analysis
- Director's concept
- Time frame, location, etc
- Meeting between director and all designers
- Association of ideas with sound
- Devising an auditory concept
- Devising a verbal concept
- words that describe where you're going with the sound design
- Charting the play by scenes
- Plotting a tension curve
- Graph with tension level on Y-axis, length of the play on X-axis
- Mark sounds added to tension curve
- Cataloging the required sounds
- Find the sounds with which to work
- Making a tentative cue list and outline of sounds
- Cue list - chart:
| Act/Scene | Cue # | Page | Cue name | Description of sound | | II.1 | 1 | p.2 | alarm | electronic alarm clock |
- Go over equipment available
- Time constraints and schedules
- when things need to be ready for rehearsals, etc.
- Initial experiments
- Finding/purchasing sounds
- Planning the playback system
- knowing what system and equipment you'll have to use
- Building the auditory environment - placement of speakers, etc.
- Rehearsals/tech process
- try music/cues as early as possible
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| 02 Sep 08 - THEA283 notes part 2 - Psychoacoustics |
[02 Sep 2008|10:05am] |
- Interrelationship of visual and auditory space
- humans follow source of sound with sight
- sight is limited
- sound is faster in detection and localization - also spherical
- both ears necessary for detection of depth and direction
- Derivation of direction
- perceptionally, sound reaches from one of four primary directions: left, right, front, or rear
- direct front or back reaches both ears at same time
- sound from the back has difference
- from the sides, the ear on the same side hears clearly, the other ear suffers from obvious distortion
- brain can triangulate location of sound using both ears
- most triangulation on the horizontal axis due to placement of ears
- Environmental ambiance
- environment affects perception and nature of sound
- boundaries provide echoes away from listener
- direct sound reaches listener before reflected sound
- reflected sound can reach ears as quickly as 3 milliseconds after direct sound
- Psychoacoustic illusions
- perception is not solely result of stimulus reaching ears or eyes
- brain also affects by using knowledge of body position, etc.
- loudness illusion
- increase in perceived intensity leads to change in perception of loudness
- Phase & Time illusions
- putting a delay on one speaker - Hass effect - leads to perceived change in location of sound
- delaying amplified sound in theater, so that the actors are not overshadowed and don't sound overamplified
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| THEA283 Notes 02 Sep 08 - The Human Ear - a quick lesson in how we hear |
[02 Sep 2008|09:45am] |
- The Human Ear - three main parts
- Outer Ear
- Middle Ear
- Inner Ear
- How does it work?
- Airborne vibrations are collected in the external ear and have to be conveyed to the fluid of the inner ear without losing energy
- Accomplished by the middle ear which matches the acoustic properties of air to the more dense fluid of the inner ear
- Next, vibrations must have access to sensory cells of inner ear which are bathed in fluid, which is encased in bone, and potentially incompressible
- there has to be one opening in the inner ear for vibrations to enter and another to act as release valve
- base of the stapes rocks in and out against the oval window - entrance for vibrations
- vibrations go from scala vestibuli to scala media to scala tympani to round window (release valve)
- different frequencies cause different movements of basilar membrane (floor of the scala media)
- greater the displacement, greater the stimulation
- In less medical terms
- Sound pressure waves collected by outer ear, converted to mechanical energy in the inner ear, reverted to pressure by inner ear, turned into impulses interpreted by brain
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