Eden’s Story

The last few years have been tumultuous times for LGBTQI+ rights internationally. From same sex marriage being passed in various countries, to numerous attacks on LGBTQI+ people and their safe spaces, the community has suffered some incredible highs and some devastating lows. In Australia, 47% of trans men and 37% of trans females reported experiences of verbal abuse in 2012, and have significantly higher rates of both physical and non physical abuse than any other person, be them within the LGBT community or not. This places transgender people as some of the most threatened minorities in Australia.

Revenge Porn. What now?

Revenge Porn, the non consensual sharing of sexual and intimate images of a person, has been on a drastic increase in the last year both in Australia and across the globe.

In a recent study conducted by La Trobe University and RMIT, it was discovered that as many as 1 in 5 Australians will be victims of revenge porn in their lifetime. Just last month yet another case of revenge porn was widely reported in the media.

woRLd Magazine

The following pieces were produced as stories for a fictional magazine pitched and planned by myself, targeted at young female readers, interested in travel, culture and lifestyle.

woRLd Magazine is a travel, art and lifestyle magazine for the young, discerning modern woman. With regular features about travel, living, culture, arts and photography, the woRLd Magazine reader is independent, has ambition and a desire to see the world. woRLd Magazine is, at it’s core, a travel magazine, so the woRLd reader turns to us to gather inspiration, tips, tricks and motivation to get out and experience the world and tick things off her bucket list. She wants to live life to the fullest and won’t settle for second best. woRLd Magazine will aim to be a sanctuary from everyday life, and serve as a place of inspiration and motivation to get out and experience the world around us. At woRLd Magazine we will aim to connect with our audience by using a conversational, and sometimes colloquial tone.

Not Just a Teacher. A Friend.

“The way you have an influence, and you see them grow” Mrs Mihopoulos and I on my last day of year 6

The childish screams of joy fill the playground as children run past, brandishing imaginary swords, wands, and any number of weapons their imaginations can conjure. Sandra Mihopoulos is on lunch duty and calls out a warning to the children to play nice. “The little devils” she chuckles, looking on as they run off, immersed in whatever make believe land they’ve entered for the afternoon.

Critique of ‘Her Place Within Pages’ by Ashleigh Field

‘Her Place Within Pages’ by Ashleigh Field has and excellent use of ambient sound that really helps to effectively illustrate the words of the subject, Brianna Van Zyl. I really liked the way that the piece was introduced with just her voice and then led into the rest of the audio with the sounds of pages being flipped. This effect helped to effectively create a real sense of place and conjured an image in my mind.

Ashleigh Field utilised ambient sound in credibly effectively, and the timing of the combination between ambient and interview was done incredibly well. One part I feel was done exceptionally well was when Brianna mentions the way that books can bring a silence to the sounds of the world around you. Field did an excellent job of layering ambient sounds of traffic and voices and waves crashing on a beach as Brianna listed them in her interview. The sudden cutting of all these sounds helped to further the narrative of the piece as well as perfectly accompanying Brianna’s words.

The underlying musical track, I feel was chosen perfectly for the piece. It has a driving beat and the staccato instrumentation of the piece really pulls the story along. This is especially effective as Brianna talks about how books can take you places and show you the world just by reading them.

Overall I feel that ‘Her Place Within Pages’ by Ashleigh Field was an incredibly well done audio piece. Field utilised ambient and musical tracks incredibly well and helped to fit them perfectly with what her subject was saying.

Father Reflection

For assessment 1 I chose my father as my subject. His connection to his craft as a musician and percussionist is one that has always fascinated me. By interviewing him for assessment 1, I really want to portray his passion for his job, starting back at where it started as a young boy, to now how he feels as an adult when he performs. For the ambient sounds I am using recordings of a rehearsal for the show he’s working on at the moment. The upbeat nature of the piece I feel helps to communicate his passion, but also how he feels nervous and anxious when he performs. There are also some clips of the sounds of dad packing up his gear. This is an important part of being a musician, and for a percussionist is it often a long and involved process of correctly storing all the instruments. The inclusion of this clip not only works well with the section in which dad talks about packing up, but I feel that it helps to add to the overall soundscape of what it is to be a percussionist.

Lake Ambience

The location I chose for this module was my local lake and park. I recorded my walk there, which involves going along a major road, the sounds of the park and the water features, as well as a section of the walk that walks under a bridge with major traffic. This park has so many different sound scapes with sections of high sound and sections of near silence. I wanted to try to portray these differences as best I could. The park is also a very popular place for people to spend their evenings walking dogs and taking their children to the play equipment. I wanted to use the audio I recorded to depict some of the serenity and peacefulness that can be found at the lake itself and juxtapose it with the high traffic audio of some of its surrounding areas. Some of the difficulties I encountered were in attempting to capture the serenity of the area there were many parts of audio where you couldn’t hear anything at all as I was recording a section of the walk that was so quiet, nothing could be picked up by my equipment.

Ayla

What’s Hidden? Secret Musicians

What do you think of when you hear the word “musician”? Perhaps a super cool guitar shredding, chain smoking, leather jacket wearing rock star? Or a hard hitting powerful vocalist? Someone who loves the limelight and desires attention, maybe?

What about a medical physicist? Or a quiet spoken, shy, unassuming guy?

Probably not.

But for Andrew Howie and Michael Chow, that’s exactly who they are.

Tightrope Music

My dad has always supported me in doing what I want to do and pursuing my dreams. There’s a good reason for this. As a young man, David Manuel made the decision to pursue music professionally, and he never looked back. Now 52, he’s having one of his most successful years yet, doing what he loves. As a multi-instrumentalist, playing everything percussion, from the drums, to glockenspiel, timpani, maracas and bongos, David does what he loves every day he goes to work. He’s been all around the world, and has always felt at home behind his instruments.