Kristin Becker's DTC Classes at WSU

For my interview I decided to talk to my dad about his experience with the advancement of technology. My dad is an architect and uses computers every single day. Much of his career is focused on designing commercial buildings by using programs such as AutoCAD and Revit. By conversing with him about not only the advances in technology, but as well as how they have impacted his career and how technology continues to shape the workforce.

When recording this interview, I faced a few challenges. It was hard to create questions prior to talking with my dad due to the fact I was unaware of where the conversation would lead. It was difficult for me to conversate, instead of reading off a series of questions. However, despite these set backs I was able to produce an oral history interview I am proud of and that covers all important topics.

Some aspects of my interview surprised me. For instance, I had assumed a majority of the interview we would discuss how the advancement of technology has shaped his career. However, I was pleased that a mix of topics were discussed. Such as; childhood computers, games, and emerging programs within his field. I was also surprised with how little I knew about his career and the many difficulties that come with a job in the technology industry. By adapting to the times, I was impressed with my dad’s ability to grow and continue to learn new programs and ideas.

Editing my audio recording was one of the most difficult challenges I have faced this semester. I went into this project with absolutely no background knowledge of audio. Trying to figure out how exactly to work and navigate Adobe Audition was frustrating, but after a few YouTube videos I was able to edit my recording at a beginner level. Another challenge I faced was reducing the length of my recording. I believe my draft was around 10 minuets long and it was almost impossible I get it under 6 minuets! Everything seamed so important. However, I am satisfied in my outcome and was able to produce a well developed interview.

For my oral history project, I interviewed my grandmother Donita Basinger, a retired nurse and medical case worker. I was lucky enough to have a very articulate and open interview subject. Over the course of the interview, we covered not only the ten constructed questions from my proposal, but also a number of topics and issues that Donita herself brought up. I thoroughly enjoyed the interview process and loved sitting down and taking time to listen about my grandparent’s livelihood and perspective. She was thrilled to participate and excited to share her experiences. In the beginning, we covered the differences in patient care and medical procedures over the years, demonstrating not only the changes in surgeries and treatment, but also the day-to-day changes for taking patient vitals and checking up on them. After this, the prominent theme that emerged was a discussion of a loss of soft care skills amidst the technologically advancing atmosphere of the modern medical field. She compared they type of care received in juxtaposed environments, differences seen when she began her career versus now, and offered her advice to combat these issues. Not included in the five minute clip is some content relating more ethical issues within modern medicine as well as the difficulties my grandmother had in adapting to new technologies. She touches on some great points within the pieces that I chose not to include, but I found it best to stick to the concise theme of soft care skills in comparison to hard technical skill as this idea emerged in many parts of the 28 minute recording. Before this project, I had no experience with audio editing whatsoever. Yet, I feel like I made good use of the basic tools in adobe audition, such as the razor, the move tool, the fade function, and the audio level adjustment. This project is representative of significant growth in my knowledge of both recording technology as well as audio editing technology.

For this assignment, I had chosen to focus on creating a soundscape audio output. The original plan was to solely focus on New York City and the sounds pertaining to that. But after getting to New York City, I realized that most of the audio I could record were all pertaining to huge crowds and people. All I could hear were people talking and cars driving past me. Therefore for this soundscape I decided to a little more broad and make it focusing on audio from my whole semester of being in Washington State University while also focusing on New York City.

For this assignment, I really like the transitions of each audio. Although the audio was really short and was truly just a snippet of what I was trying to express, the transition from one specific audio to another audio flowed through really well. I also liked the final outcome of the project because the audio really gives the listener a feel as though they are at a specific football game at Washington State University or they are at Rockefeller Center listening to the Christmas music being played at Saks Fifth Avenue building.

The most important struggle I had was to definitely find audio that was specific to New York City. As mentioned earlier, I had to widen my plan because of how noisy a city like New York is. It also made me realize that ambience plays a very crucial role because without the noises of people talking or chit-chatting, the ambience of the place cannot be set. Overall, I really learnt a lot about how soundscapes work and how a soundscape can possibly accurately reflect a certain location or venue. Also I learnt that ambient sounds and background noises are important aspects of storytelling in any movie or video because those are the sounds that truly set the tone and mood of a specific story.

The first interview that I listened to was Timmy Huynh’s. I thought that his topic of e-sports was really interesting because he looked at video games though a lens that I have never thought of before. He asked his interviewee a lot of questions about whether or not he thinks that e-sports could become as popular as regular sports. The interviewee seemed to think that this could be possible in the near future. They even talked about the possibility of e-sports going to an Olympic level which is really crazy to think about, but it is arguably something that could eventually happen because it is something that people are very competitive with.

It seems like this interview focused a lot on what the interviewee thought could happen with e-sports in the future rather than his experiences with video games in the past. I think that this is okay though because he seems to be drawing in past knowledge in order to answer these questions. So, I would argue that this is still a good example of an oral history.

The next interview that I listened to was that of Shawn Stephens. He interviewed a woman named Mei about her experience in the graphic design industry. She shared that she went to a really good college in China and also that she is really interested in fine arts.

I love that this interview focused on graphic design as well as Mei’s cultural background. This was a really cool way to tie in her experiences in China. I think that this interview is definitely a good example of oral history because she draws on past experiences a lot and this fuels the interview.

The last interview that I listened to was Juan Guzman’s. He interviewed his roommate and asked him various questions about music when he was younger. They talked about boom boxes and CD players which were definitely popular in the 90’s.

My only concern with this is that I am not exactly sure if his roommate is from a different generation since he is only 29. However, I think that this still works as an oral history because his roommate is describing technology that has not been popular for at least a decade.

All of these interviews really interesting to listen to. I am glad that I got the opportunity to hear them. I hope that people find my interview to be as interesting as I found theirs to be.

The interview process actually went a lot better for me than I expected it to. I thought that I was going to have to do most of the talking in order to prompt my dad to answer the questions as thoroughly as I wanted him to; however, he was more than happy to elaborate extensively on everything that I asked him. I would say that the interview took on more of a question-and-answer format rather than a conversation, but I think that this is good because I was able to soak up more information that way. I think that things would have gone a lot differently if he was not interested in the topic that we were discussing, and I would have had to do a lot more talking.

I was definitely surprised about some of the things that I learned in the interview. Since I was interviewing my dad, I thought that I would have already known everything that he was going to tell me. However, he told me all about how he had a car phone when he was eighteen or nineteen which is something that I never knew about. I asked him to explain to me what this was and how it worked because this was something that I had actually never even heard of. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to learn something new.

The most prominent theme that surfaced during the interview was communication in relation to technological devices and how it can change a person’s day to day habits. My dad talked a lot about how much time it would take out of his day to stop at a payphone to check his messages which is something that he obviously no longer has to do anymore since he has a cell phone.

When I first conducted this interview, I made sure that it was pretty long and extensive to ensure that I would have enough material to go in and compose a really interesting audio story out of it. After recording the interview and going back and listening to it, I saw a theme emerging. This theme was the progression of cellphones throughout my dad’s life and the ways in which that affected him. I edited out anything that did not match up with this theme and was left with a really great result.

The interview went fairly well the room I held the interview in wasn’t as sound proof as I would’ve liked as the floors were wood and there was a little bit of echo. There was also a weird sound of flapping going on in the room so every now and then there was just a sound out of place. The conversations themselves went well, we were able to keep on track and the interviewee, Nathan Unruh, was able to comfortably talk about the questions I asked. I was even able to give some input of my own sometimes. The most surprising things for me was how much Nathan was able to elaborate on the questions and branching of questions I was able to come up with in response to his answers. Another thing being not too repetitive or stepping in at the right time to not let him overly extend some of his points. The most prominent theme was the rise of eSports, or electronic sports. We were able to talk about its current state and how it may evolve from there and how they may affect physical sports today or how they can compete with those viewing experiences. We also discussed how the games themselves may affect the competition and longevity of professional players, so things as how long a player typically plays competitively for and when and why players retire at such a young age compared to many other things. The reason I chose these sections of the whole interview is because they were the most important and clearest part of the conversations about the actual industry and the technology. Most of the interview was me trying to get Nathan’s background in gaming. We discussed his favorite games and reason he likes games. We were also able to see his personal connections to eSports and thoughts such as if he would partake. The audio story I turned in ended up being his overall view on competitive gaming and how he thinks the variety of games affects the competition. I was able to cut out a lot of the rambling and weird pauses. In the end the audio clip summarizes Nathan’s view on the scene and how developers of games should treat their games for their players.