The voice tells a specific story along a very linear sequence. The tone is soft and descriptive evoking feelings of determination and passion. The lyrics in the music also tell a story but the addition of the music and its mood, emotions are felt and maybe some memories are recalled. The power of music to dig deeper than words is evident in the range and depth of the sounds and the tone of the piece. The sound effects on the other hand carry no words at all and the addition of these is useful allowing the user ‘space’ and the ability to ‘feel’ with no descriptive narrative of what to feel. The abstract nature of sounds on their own gives a broader and deeper field of experience.
The six videos by themselves are sequential in presentation, i.e. frame 2 comes after frame 1 and the story is told in a linear fashion. When you add choices to add sound and music to the narrative as I have done here the user is able to choose at will which experiential direction to go in first and not only that but can layer sounds one on top of the other to make the experience even deeper. This kind of communication is more simultaneous.
The user or participant of the interface is able to discover different parts of the story line by switching different combinations of sounds, music and story on or off. This ability gives much more depth to the narrative than say just having a straight story with narration and music playing automatically with no choices whatsoever.
As the designer of the interface the range of choice and depth of narrative is as deep and flexible as I want it to go. The possibilities are endless and I have the control of where I want to take the user. The users ability to control what’s going on is only as limited as I allow it.
Here are a couple of screen shots of the animation in use:
Tom the way you organized your sounds is very successful.
ReplyDeleteThe overall feel of your narrative is peaceful, with a few exceptions, the laughing baby was very loud and piercing, and I can't seem to discover a direct relationship of a happy baby and planting seeds. Also the teenager doesn't quite relate in my mind either.
I love the poetry. Your voice reminds me of a well done book-on-tape and the poem definitely helps tell a narrative.
The sound of the crow was a good idea. Overall your narrative seems relaxing and peaceful, but the addition of a crow freaks me out. I have an "I wanna protect my lettuce" feeling.
The 3rd sound is a little unclear, but it sounds like running water.
Overall the look of your interface is inviting since it give the idea of getting outside and have the sun on you or this case on the subject. You also gave a clean look towards the whole interface as well. I do feel that the subject could have worn completely gray or different solid color shirt because I getting a different connotation from the graphics, but I do like the overlaying box with the transparency because it gives me the idea where to look. I understood your concept through listening to all your components, which gave me the idea of nourishing a plant and it will give back to you. Your icons are done well enough to understand what they represent. There is one button under sound that plays nothing, which I get the idea of waiting same with the clock ticking. Your soundmark was a nice break, but wonder if it connects with your idea of theme. I enjoyed the break points of your videos, it gave a chance to explore what could be combined.
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