I was very interested in the audio clips and how they seemed to represent an audio collage of elements that were layered and built over time to create an image in the mind. Many messages were conveyed and the evolving of media, the necessity of understanding these changes, and using the mediums of communication we’ve developed over time seemed to be several overarching themes throughout the audio pieces and the text. The main speaker in the audio clips seemed to be breaking down a valuable and vital form of media, printing words, and taking it back to the basic human function of writing. Words are strung together to create meaning as whole, but they are first strung together. The linear connectivity makes words into static symbols that are first arranged in a line before they hold meaning. I was intrigued by the layered voices and clips of music because I felt that there was a message being conveyed through those pieces even when they were covering up some of the speaking. As humans, we tend to try to listen to one thing or the other, and listening to several things at one time can be extremely overstimulating. This overlapping of different pieces seemed to create different planes or places in time for the listener. The media is the message was a clear idea to me in the way writing and printing was described because it made me think of print more visually rather than conceptually. The physical existence of the print began as more of a visual piece, then followed by meaning in the text.

I also enjoyed how the artist was described as pointing out things that society doesn’t want to acknowledge. The understanding of cultural change is only possible because the ways media changes and influences our environments. The concept that the things we create are only extensions of ourselves and our qualities makes the dynamic of our work very reflective and interesting to look at. This is what the pieces meant by us shaping our tools so that they may shape us. Often, we are unaware of how reflective we are of ourselves in the things we create. Sometimes, we are the medium and we are able to create based on the things we know and acknowledge in the world that others refuse to see. I enjoyed the audio and visual collage and saw it as a representation of harmony, which helped me think about the second project and gave me some new ideas.