Reflection

Assign: Thursday, September 30

Due: Thursday, October 7

Assignment Policies

All assignments are partner assignments. Please make sure to review the policies and guidelines about discussing assignments with those other than your partner. Assignments are usually, but not always, a combination of paper and coded exercises. Please make two submissions (one for paper exercises and one for coded exercises) to Gradescope. Paper exercises are marked with HW to indicate a handwritten question and C to indicate a coded question. Paper submissions can receive an extra 2% bonus if they are typed. Please visit the tools section of the website for more information.

Preparation for Guest Speaker Rachel Rome

On Wednesday, October 13 at 4:30PM we will have a guest speaker, Rachel Rome, who will be discussing her works as it relates to SuperCollider, data sonification, and social justice. In preparation for that talk, please read the following article by her discussing one of her works “Overmorrow.” The link to the article can be found here, which is the drive containing the other supplementary materials for the class.

Note: This paper and musical work deal with police shootings and gun violence.

Short Reflection

Please submit on Gradescope a short reflection on the paper and Professor Rome’s piece(s). Note that a link to the piece can be found at the top of the article. In your reflection, please address one or any of the following questions.

• Data sonification is the process by which a data set is realized into sound. Professor Wood takes data on American gun violence and presents that data through video projections and percussion. What did you think about hearing the data through sound? Was it an effective medium? Did it make you reflect on American gun violence in a way that would have been different if you had simply looked at the data?

• Professor Rome is open about the fact that she is addressing violence perperated against Black bodies and others as a white feminist. On her site for the piece, she quotes Hari Ziyad who states that “White artists ‘showing the world’ Black suffering in an artistic statement would necessitate a look in the mirror, not at the Black bodies on the ground.” Do you think it is appropriate for white artists to produce art centered on black suffering? Is that act a capitalization on Black death? How should white artists continue to be allies for movements like Black Lives Matter through a medium like sound or music?

• On a larger level, what is the role of sound and music in addressing societal and political issues? In what ways can sound and music be an effective medium for change? What are some examples of works that you enjoy that have caused you to revisit or perhaps made a lasting impact on your own notions and preconceptions? What about the music itself caused you to feel this way?

Deliverables

Please submit a 1-2 page double-spaced reflection address any or all of the questions above. Your submission should be uploaded to Gradescope. Your reflection will be incorporated into your overall grade for the next problem set “In C”. Also note that you do not need to fill out the feedback form linked below. The feedback form will be required when you submit “In C”.

Submission

Feedback

When you are finished with the problem set, please fill out the form linked here to provide feedback on how long the problem set took you and how difficult you found it. Note that you must fill out this form to receive credit for the problem set.

Submission Guidelines

All assignments in this course are submitted through Gradescope. There are two kinds of assignments in this course: paper assignments and code assignments. Both are submitted to Gradescope. Most assignments are a mix of code and paper assignments. Each question or question part will be marked either “code” or “paper” to indicate which kind of question it is. For paper assignments, note that typed answers will receive a small additional bonus of 2%.