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Audio Project



Synopsis

This task was to create an interavtive audio story. As such we decided to make a story that follows the footsetps of a refugee journey from Syria to Elngland. The listener is able to hear different points of the journey by clicking on different pins of the map.

Concept and Theme

This project was inspired by a merge of multiple ideas from the collaborators. They wanted to look at footsteps and language but at the same time tell a story. From this, 'In Her Shoes' was born. The idea was to show how language changes perception through the journey of a refugee. While the map shows where the Journey begins, within the audio there is no mention of the starting point. This was intentional as the main part of the project is the audio and we did not want the story to be tied to an individual or a specific situation but rather just give our interpretation of being an asylum seeker.

The project is set up to allow you to listen to only one part of the journey at a time. This way when you are listening in a certain location you are fully immersed in this location and not moving to another location at your own will, just as a refugee can stay in a certain location indefinitely.
At the same time, we have not restrained the order of the journey as we want you the viewer to be able to dissect the journey by seeing it as a whole but also seeing it in fragments as often we are exposed to refugees lives out of context. This format allows the listener to compare the journey when in chronological order as opposed to when out of sequence.

Thought progression

We had a number of ideas starting off. These files can be found in the onedrive attached. Fortunately we were able to combine all our ideas and also mostly stick to our orignial wire frame. The most difficult process was getting the images to work as buttons to triggor music. Fortunately we received help from a friend and in the end we got it to work. The challenge that we could not fix due to time constraints was to make the buttons appear in a specific order. However in the end we thought that this was not something we should prioritze as we thought it beneficial to have the listener be able to here the files out of sequence if they wished to change their perception of the journey.

Allocation of tasks

We tried to split the tasks equally but much of it got overlapped over the two weeks.
We did most of the recording together over the weekend. We then split the tasks into audio and visual. I editted the audio files while Diya worked on the Journey page to which the audio files were added. Initially we wanted a dotted line to carry the journey through. I worked on the basic code to achieve this but after assessing the size of the map and marking out our priorities we decided to eliminate this aspect. After editting the audio files I created the home and about pages and we completed it and added all the finishing touches together.

Reflection

Looking back on the process, I am pleased at the fact that we executed the core of the project. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Diya as we were able to collaborate and communicate easily.
Having a clear timeline of work and prioritizing of nice to have and need to have made the job move smoothly. Still, having stuck to the core of the story, I think it has come out pretty well.

Aceess to Google Drive with progress of sketches and ideas