CS 640K Fall 2023-Sound, Aurality, and Power

First, how can we apply Innis' understanding of orality and speech to the performance of Grant Mazzy, the host of the radio show in Pontypool? Second, think about the plague of Pontypool in terms of Harold Innis’ analysis of ancient empires and media forms. Is the vector of infection of the language virus in Pontypool an example of time bias or space bias?   I will be attempting to answer both these questions together since I feel they are closely related. While talking about orality and speech, Harold Innis mentions how orality is based on culture. He also mentions that “the characteristics of media will influence the type of empire that employs them.” So, speech as a form of communication influences the environment in which it works. With this in mind, let’s remember that traditions were passed down orally through generations. In the case of Pontypool, the host, Grant Mazzy, discovers that viruses are being transmitted through language and media channels. This demonstrates...

  How can we apply Innis’ understanding of orality and speech to the performance of Grant Mazzy, the host of the radio show in Pontypool? Innis’ understanding of orality and speech can be applied to Mazzy’s role in contributing to an ‘oral culture’ in a mediatized world. As most communication networks are cut off amidst the chaos in Pontypool, and we as listeners are limited to hearing this story, we are required to rely on the spoken word. Mazzy’s character is forced to keep talking despite what is happening around him, using the very weapon that's fueling this apocalypse: the English language. The reliance on orality raises a critical discussion on its potential dangers as it speaks to Innis’ notion of oral traditions’ resistance to the emergence of “monopolies of knowledge”, as discussed in seminar. With this being said, Mazzy personifies Innis’ understanding of orality given his role in storytelling, oral variability, and trust in the spoken word.  Radio, telephone and el...

" Think about the plague of Pontypool in terms of Harold Innis' analysis of ancient empires and media forms. Is the vector of infection of the language virus in Pontypool an example of time bias or space bias? " In his discussion of ancient empires and media forms, Innis outlines what he thought were durable media and what were non-durable media. In doing so, the table demonstrates that anything electronic has a tendency to be space-biased rather than time-biased. From my understanding, this is because electronic media can be created, shared, and experienced with no space constraint; it can be transported anywhere. Time-biased media, as explained by Innis, is meant to last over time but does not have the power to reach a large audience (it does not take up space). Given this distinction between both biases, it becomes clear that the language virus in Pontypool is an example of space bias. Whether through radio, telephone, or direct speech, the infection is being carried t...

  Radio, telephone, and electronic amplification play an important part in sustaining the virus. How can these mediums be understood as mediatized forms of orality? Pontypool is regarding a emergency event impacting the population of Pontypool. The show takes place entirely within a radio booth where the host Grant Mazzy investigates through calls ins and affiliated producers. Slowly as chaos continues to be heard to the listener, we discover that the virus is spreading through language, specifically English language, and can spread in person or over analogue and digital means such as cell phones and radio. While the subject of this show within a show speaks volumes regarding the power and transmissibility of sound it relates greatly to Couldry and Hepp’s History as Waves of Mediazation. At the core Couldry and Hepp argues that the media environment can be largely defined through its evolution in profound waves of mechanical, electric, and digital (Couldry & Hepp, 2015). Mechan...

Hi everyone,  I would like to expand upon our discussion of PontyPool by answering the second question –   Think about the plague of Pontypool in terms of Harold Innis’ analysis of ancient empires and media forms. Is the vector of infection of the language virus in Pontypool an example of time bias or space bias?    This brings me back to the day in the lecture when we exhausted the discussion of time and space, which is a common topic for communication scholars, but even that day in the lecture, we brought up Innis’ bias on time and space. He says,  The medium of communication has an important influence on the dissemination over time and space… According to its characteristics (it) may be better suited to the dissemination of knowledge over time than over space, particularly if the medium is heavy and durable and not suited to transportation… or to the dissemination of knowledge over space than over time, particularly if the medium is light and easily transpor...

  Opera Redux Reduced:  Truncated Tradition and the Female Protagonist Child    October 8, 2023   by Lara Solnicki     Recently, a friend sent me this video.      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9PQ7qPkluM&t=5s   It is a performance of the famed (or clichéd) Giacomo Puccini aria O Mio Babbino Caro from the one act opera, Gianni Schicchi (1918). Most of us will recognize this aria, yet this performance is by an 11 year old soprano, the 2013 winner of Holland's Got Talent , Amira Willighagen . The concert took place in Venice, Italy in 2015, and features an unnamed orchestra under the baton of André Rieu.     Few would argue she can sing and is astonishingly self possessed for her age, not to mention very comfortable in front of the large crowd. She integrates hand gestures into her performance. Her face is expressive, yet consider the story and words that she is singing. The English translation of the Italian li...