In this first WordPress site post compose a pre-field study well-edited post of 750 words that captures your preconceptions/expectations/anticipations and preparation concerning your spring field study.

On this trip I am leaving with zero expectations. So that my mind is open to all possibilities to how my experience with in these cities will be. Now as a part of my experiences I will be recording, interviewing, sketching and filming, the scapes of the cities as well as its music. My preconceptions are that I will come to California and these Small scale “cities” will all have there own individual concepts and sound. I feel that a lot of the soundscapes with in the cities will be relatively the same, due to the architecture being the same.Though I may not be able to connect certain musical pieces to the sounds of the city, I will have to remember that music is more about taking the sounds and the emotional correlation to that sound and put that sound to an instrument that will then mock that emotional response.
I expect to be questioned on my idea of sound manipulation but its something that most individuals do not see and may have a hard time understanding.(That by using sounds to evoke emotional responses, we can manipulate people into biting the bait, the bait being the slogan or theme that is being presented) I plan on talking to consumers and people of these cities and asking them how this idea makes them feel.
Using the five elements of the city paths, edges, districts, nodes, and monuments, I will direct myself around the cities and there popular areas. By using these elements I expect to find myself talking, listening, and reacting to new surroundings. I can’t wait to meet new people with in these urban ethos’s and compare the sounds that come out of them with my home Olympia Washington.I also want to see the connections and difference with in each city. There seems to be a huge idea of what all cities are like but we don’t hear much about how all of them are different. I want to take what is different from my experience with in these cities and mesh them with the different concepts and sound of Olympia and Seattle. As a multi media artist I will be taking the view of the urban ethos and applying that to my youtube show Blakers, while updating my experiences via twitter, Fascebook, tumblr, and Instegram. While being exposed to this culture and environment, I will try to compose each of my weekly Youtube shows with sounds and music from my soundscape.

So I am taking the idea of the city and placing that on theme parks. Now in order for theme parks to gain a following and have that following consume their products, they will need to draw the attention of many types of people. This means these companies need to be reaching out to a very diverse crowd. As I read and discussed with fellow peers in the first quarter of this program, we discussed that in order for a city to fully be a city that some of the aspects of the city would have to reach out to more people who are multi culturally curious. This to me means for theme parks such as the ones I am studying Disneyland, Six Flags, and universal studios that these organizations have studied diverse techniques within architecture and sound to grab the attention of many different cultures and attract them to these small scale “cities”.The best thing to take away from this experience is to understand how corporations use the soundscape as a way to grab the attention of the people. Ultimately creating a following and a pattern. This pattern is something that many will catch on to and want to be apart off. What I want to take away from this is the ability to find a different pattern that will make my art look and sound great.

Create a week-by-week calendar/itinerary of research work, city exploration, and event attendance.

Week 1
Arrive in Sacramento April 22, Explore For a couple days. Go to art museum Friday 24th. Monday prep for road trip to southern California.

Week 2
Leaving for souther California to DisneyLand Wednesday 29th, Disneyland Thursday and friday. Explore City Saturday. Sunday Return to Sacramento. Explore and rest.

Week 3
Explore Sacramento architecture 6th may, Saturday and sunday the 9th and 10th study of six flag,

Week 4
Wednesday the 13th Travel back down to southern California to Universal studios. Thursday and friday Attend Universal Studios. Come back. to Sacramento Saturday. Come back home tuesdays.

Here’s a sketch of the view out the window of my trailer. The park is right on the sound in a place called Young Cove and there are quite a few pine, cedar, and madrone trees around, which is the only redeeming quality of the situation. Most of the houses on the waterfront are super fancy (a flag can be seen towards the right side). It’s an interesting contrast between the handful of trailers and the neighboring affluence.

Housing update: I’ve found someone else to look for a place with. Hopefully we can find some other people who want to find a house at the beginning of Summer.

Below is a sketch of the home I will be leaving when I head to San José. Since the end of September I’ve been living in a trailer on Young Cove, part of Steamboat Island directly across Eld Inlet from the college. I ended up moving here because over the summer I had endured a debilitating series of events that left me homeless for a few weeks and living in a garage for a month. The trailer itself is not much more pleasant. It leaks. It has ants. It has rats. It’s far from the college and very far from the rest of town. It has quite a nice view out the window, which I will try to sketch and post before I leave. The neighbors aren’t fond of music either, which has made it very difficult to practice.

Anyways, I’m moving out when I go south, and hopefully I’ll be able to arrange something by the time I’m back (the guy who I was going to get a place with bailed out). While in San José, I’ll be staying partly with my dad in the suburban neighborhood of Willow Glen, and partly with my mom in the Santa Cruz Mountains between the south bay and the coast (sketches to come).