Kristin Becker's DTC Classes at WSU

I was excited when this project was introduced to us. I love story time! I decided to interview my grandpa, John Miller, as retired U.S. Army veteran that worked with communication technology and electronics. I could hear the excitement in his voice when I called him to ask if I could interview him about the technology he’s worked with for so many years. When I got home, we interviewed in his bedroom, which has lots of furniture to cushion the sound and the room also has low ceilings, at about 8.5 feet which helps prevent echo and delivered a crisp, quality recording. When I started to interview him, his eyes got so big and he had a smile on his face, he was excited to share his knowledge with me.

The focus of our interview was based on the advancement of communication technology in both, the military and civilian life. Some themes I noticed within our topic were spy technology, space communications, phones, and radios (military and civilian).

My grandpa talked about his experience with communication and how he used to use it. Each step forward in technological advancement kept him on his toes and learning. He eventually started teaching about the communication technology to the military after he had retired from the U.S. Army. We spoke about the boundless potential of technology and that it can go as far as what the human can take it to, there are no limits!

We had a fun interview, although there were some distractions that kept us from getting too deep into the topic; we were interviewing on Thanksgiving Day, in which my grandpa cooks all the food for our family of 8. We kept conversation flowing, but I was mostly focusing on asking questions because I didn’t understand what he was saying enough, so I would just comment on how fascinating it is, how knowledgeable he is, and those sort of comments. I was surprised by the lack of knowledge I have in technology after listening to him go on about it. I sure learned a lot, like that we got spy satellites out there, and that communications can go any distance without any obstructions between each line.

I decided to edit the interview to be organized by starting in my grandpa’s younger years, then continue to talk about the evolution of technology as he aged. I started with his knowledge on communication technology, the limits, how communication technology got to the point it’s at today, and what we should expect in the future from communication technology, and technology as a whole. It seemed to flow the best and the topics transitioned to the next one fairly naturally, more than some of the other audio I had. I also cut out all the extended silences, pauses, and hesitations.

The first audio story that I listened to was one by Jenna Walker, who interviewed her grandmother about her experiences transitioning from writing by hand and using a typewriter to using more modern technology, such as computer keyboards. Her grandmother touches upon the fact that she majored in art during her college years, although it seems like she has a personal interest in writing, as she mentioned classes that she was taking on the subject. I found it interesting how she related both typewriters and modern keyboards to her career and interests and how useful these types of technology were to these aspects of her life. One thing that I think I would have enjoyed hearing about further during this audio story would have been the interviewee’s experiences with other types of keyboards, such as those used within smartphone interfaces, if she interacts with this technology. I feel that this piece demonstrates the concept of oral history fairly well, because it collects the experience of the interviewee, who belongs to a different generation than both the interviewer and the target audience, with a specific type of technology both in the past and present.

The second audio story that I listened to belonged to Brianna Esqueda, who interviewed a researcher studying genetics about the technology used in her studies and work. I found it particularly interesting that the interview addressed future possibilities and implications of the research and technology that is focused upon. I think for this project, I would be interested to find out how the interviewee’s experiences using this technology have changed over time, and perhaps whether her younger self would ever have expected the advancements that the technology in her field has made, or whether her aspirations have changed with the evolution of technology. Even though the interviewee sounds fairly young, I think that perhaps technology in her field might be advancing so quickly that she might still be able to make comparisons about it over time.

The third audio story that I listened to belonged to Christian Solovey, who interviewed the DJ known as Tommy Gunz. I found the choice of interviewee to be quite interesting, as it seemed to be very easy to narrow down specific themes, such as music, and technology that a specific group of people involved in the music industry are familiar with. This piece also appears to be a good example of oral history, because the interviewee has intimate experience with specific types of technology used for his work, and the interviewer asks a set of questions that entices information from the interviewee about his experiences through time.

The first interview I visited was Seth Muck’s. I enjoyed listening to it in class for a few reasons – first of all, the audio quality was high albiet for a dip in the middle. Other than a slight audio foible the interview was compelling and high quality with an interesting contrast between generations. I’m Seth’s age, so hearing someone three years younger was rather startling. Blockbuster and Limewire have been dead for a while but I spent a large chunk of my childhood using both. I think the discussion about music was interesting as well, especially as both interviewer and interviewee dislike modern electric music. This theme was complimented well by the smooth intro and outro, belonging alongside any jazz album. While this is a more recent oral history taken from someone young I think it’s a great example of the versatility of the medium.

I picked Jenna Walker’s interview at random as I wanted to hear something new. Similar to Seth’s I thought the generational contrast was really stark, it was apparent her Grandmother had lived in a world entirely different from the one we have today for much of her life. The info about the type-writer was like a horror story to me as I do more than my fair share of typing essays. Having to start over because of one error would have crushed my soul and made me change my major long ago. The audio was a little low, but that may have been my headphones. This was an oral history I really enjoyed.

The last interview I listened to was Zach Larson’s. Like most of the interviews the audio quality was good, especially for being done with suboptimal software. The interviewee, Blake Gurney, shed some light on a world before cameras were handheld. As I listened I found myself questioning whether it was better that every moment could be preserved or if something was lost if anything could last forever. Questions like that are, in my opinion, the mark of a good oral history.

When this project was introduced to us I knew exactly who I wanted to talk to. My Grandpa on my mother’s side has been a professional engineer for his entire adult life, working on everything from crash test dummies to quasi-secret government projects. He grew up in California, moving up and down the state throughout his life before settling in Glendora. I’m close with Grandpa so it was easy interviewing him. Conversation flowed easily and I never felt like there were lulls.

I wanted to talk to him about the evolution of technology through his life, especially in regards to surveillance. Grandpa’s dad was a communist leader being monitored by the FBI. Grandpa Steve grew up in the era of McCarthyism where any and everyone was suspected of colluding with the red menace. I thought it would be interesting to see what he thought about modern spying technology i.e. cellphone/web search monitoring considering he grew up in a home that got strange phone calls in the middle of the night.

I edited the small part where Grandpa talked about his father at his request. He was raised not to talk about his father’s political activity, something that has stuck with him into seniority.

I listened to a couple of the post that my peers posted for their final project. The first one was Kaleb Parrish, with this one it was interesting to see how much technology for surgery has changed within the 20 year span. Also, the fact that they both had the same injury and had the same surgery as well, was impressive to see the difference in the technology that changed so quickly. Also, it’s interesting that they improved technology of surgery so quickly and it heals the body better. I feel like this is a good example of oral history because it compares the now to the then and it shows how much different and quickly the world can change.

The next person I listened to was Brandon Bliesner’s post. The first thing I thought was interesting was finding out what a walkman was (a portable music player that played cassette tapes). Also, the difference between a walkman and iPod is impressive. The fact that one needed to have different tapes to play different songs while the iPod had everything on the storage is very impressive. I believe that this was a good example of oral history because just like Kaleb’s post it was the same. Brandon interviewed someone that was older and who was able to compare both a technology that was back in the late 70’s and early 2000’s.

The final person I listened to was, Brianna Esqueda. She had an interesting subject on what the interview was about and how they went about it. Another interesting thing I learned from the interview was that she found someone at WSU to interview and it was about a major issue in the world and is trying to find a cure for cancer. Even though this was a great interview, I don’t believe that this was an oral history. In my opinion she just interviewed someone and asked what they did. However, if she interviewed her for the difference of cancer from the 80’s to now that would be better.

The first project I listened to was done by Kaleb Parrish. In his project, he interviews his Dad as they compare surgeries they both had for the same injuries. To start the audio, his father tells his experiences of when he received the injury and the surgery that followed. This directly relates to technological development due to the technology that was used during both surgeries. As Kaleb received the injury, later on, the technology that was used was much better, which allowed for better healing and less scarring. I believe that this is a great example of oral history because it is comparing two points in time and it makes a valid observation.

For the second, I listened to Milo Larson’s project. I think that the editing of this video was done pretty well. One thing I would have suggested is turning his voice down as it is a little loud at sometimes. Besides that, I thought it was interesting when he said there were only 2 computers for three-thousand students. That’s crazy to think about since at my school there were 5 computer rooms which were almost never full. This is a great example of oral history. During the entire video, Milo’s dad is telling him stories that paint a picture of how technology has advanced to what it is today.

Lastly, I listened to Issaya Sateumsay’s project. It starts off with talking about the brick phone and some advancements after it. She explains that it went from small phones to larger phones up to the big ones we have now. I believe she is spot on with why they are popular, you can use them for so many different things that can help you in so many different ways. With that being said, I’m not sure if I would consider this a good example of an oral history. My reasoning is that phones are very large in society today and during this project, they are mainly talking about phones we have today. I think that if Issaya’s mom was to have talked more about the brick phone, this would have made a great example of an oral history.