In my paper, I want to talk about how the significance of sound is represented by the texts “Living with music” by Ralph Ellison and, “The Soundscape” by R. Murray Schafer. Although sometimes people want quietness and no sound, sound is important and it greatly impacts our environment and us, by affecting how we interpret things, acting as a method of taking in information, and many more ways. I want to use how examples from “The Soundscape” to show how sound impacts the environment around us. Also, to show how sounds should be appreciated. For example, he speaks about how due to so much noise around us, we don’t discern them and “listen.” Also, I want to use “Living with Music” to show the beauty of sounds.

Ralph Ellison describes that in his NYC apartment building, music has put him in a dilemma. For example, while the sound of his neighbor disturbs him, he also cannot complain about it due to him being the same when he was younger. By the first sentence, “In those days it was either live with music or die with noise…,” he means that during those days, it was either enjoy the music, take it in and admire it, or consider the music as just an annoying noise and let it disrupt your peace. Schafer and Ellison both seem to be of the same opinion that sounds are something all around us.

1. The difference between hearing and listening is that while listening, you are actively taking in the information or meaning of what you’re hearing. But if only hearing and not listening as well, one isn’t taking in or trying to understanding the meaning or information of what is being heard. People can simply hear a noise without putting any thought to it, or actually try to understand what they’re hearing. Perhaps if one thinks something they’re hearing has valuable information or meaning, they might listen to it. Structural features can inform how we listen, because our personal biases and so on might effect how we’re taking in the information or understanding the meaning behind it.
2. Schafer and Krukowski discuss the relationship between sound and space by speaking about how sound is something always around us, weather we realize it or not. Sound of one’s breath, environment, such as birds, people talking, traffic, etc. Sound is in the air.

Berger claims that the white press used photos of black people succumbing to white people to gain a sympathetic and revolutionary feeling out of them. He claims photographs used by the white press fed white superiority. I agree. These photographs gave white people reassurance that their power is not threatened. It gave them a false feeling that they are the ones in power to choose to treat black people equally or not.

1. Berger claims that advertising inspires dreams within consumers. Consumers see an advertisement and see a standard of life, making it feel like that is what they should aspire to achieve. This is significant because it can shape many people’s goals, seeing publicity and thinking they should achieve exactly that.
2. The differences behind the theme of oil paintings vs publicity is important because it shows the difference between the purpose of the both. It shows that publicity images are produced to specifically target dreams and cause certain feelings within people.
3. One dream Berger mentioned was “the dream of a faraway place.” Publicity related to this uses imagery to manipulate consumers in many ways. By showing the feelings of the people within the images, etc. For example, an advertisement for a vacation might show people very comfortably relaxing while seeming extremely pleased, smiling, etc. This inspires a dream within the consumer by making them feel the desire for that setting.

Berger argued that Renaissance paintings objectified women. Representation of women today is different. Some representation of women are objectified in the same way as Renaissance paintings, however immense amount of representations of women today are not objectified. Women are in almost every industry, magazine production, media, etc. Women also speak up against something they do not like as a large group over social media, etc. Berger argued that sexuality played a role in Renaissance paintings of women. However, today, while sexuality does play a role in some representations of women, sexuality does not play a role in a vast amount of representations of women.

1. According to Graff and Birkenstein, writers should think in an “entering the conversation” way in their writing. The advantages of this model is, one, that it doesn’t leave readers confused as to why the writer mentioning whatever it is. Secondly, if readers have an opposing question or argument, it will be addressed, further strengthening the writers argument. In this way, the argument will not be weak, considering the writer is taking counter arguments into consideration and is aware of them.
2. The smarthistory videos claim that looking at artwork helps analyze others situations. I partly agree and disagree. I agree because by looking at the details of an artwork, you can try to grasp a theme. For example, if someone is laughing, the background looks bright, etc. one might be able to assume it’s a happy situation. Also, artwork can tell about the time period or overall setting. However, I disagree in a way regarding the claim that artwork helps police, nurses, etc. In one video, for instance, they gave the example of diagnosing a patient based on if they had rashes or not. I feel in these examples, artwork isn’t important. One can tell if someone has rashes based on real life experiences, even if they have never seen artwork before. In this video, most examples do not really require artwork, and instead can easily be figured out through one’s own experiences, etc. However, I do agree that by looking at art of diagrams, etc., doctors, nurses and police can learn a lot.