Audio Essay Project Proposal

• http://www.npr.org/player/embed/463599687/463599761

My topic is the Red Sand Project, and it aims to draw attention to human trafficking by putting the red sand in cracks of sidewalks. It symbolizes the people sold into the slavery come from fragile and cracked backgrounds, and the red symbolizes urgency.

I might do a little interview or game with some people and ask them what they think of when they hear certain words, such as “red” or “slavery.” I could get friends and housemates to be recorded. This game technique was used in the podcast I listened to for class Tuesday. It helped get the audience more involved. They would change a letter in a movie title.

I could also tell my participants the idea of the project and get their reactions and see if they were aware of the human trafficking happening around us. One of my friends lives in Toledo, which is a major area for human trafficking because of the water ways and I-75.

I’m going to need to do more research about human trafficking and maybe find some strong facts that would be shocking to listeners. I will look on the Miami University Libraries website and try to find some scholarly sources with accurate information.

I thought it was gross there is a mosquito factory in Brazil and I was interested to learn about the religion that was so extreme the followers don’t even walk on the grass. The woman speaking, Sonia Shah, was so upset and guilty for killing a mosquito as a girl. I like that when they talk about a factory, they use factory sounds. When they talk about genes and cells, they use robot and technology noises.  The background music is light and not very distracting, but adds a lot of depth to the podcast. Without the music and sound effects it would be less dramatic and effective. To emphasize the waiting period after releasing the male mosquitos, the podcast was silent.

The McKee article helped me to think about the music and what it could mean. I enjoyed the addition of music in the required podcast, but as I was listening to the background noises I thought to myself, “how was I going to find similar sounds?” It fit perfectly, but seems like one of those things that are hard to do on your own. The McKee article gave me a little bit of guidance on that.

It was interesting that the McKee article also talked about the silence, which I thought was unique in the listening (I listened before I read). “We can now hear sounds, we can also now hear silences.” That line stuck out to me. We wouldn’t normally consider silence being heard, but rather a lack of things to hear.

DeVoss and Platt

I never knew that a small retouch for two photos could cost $1,500. That is insane to me because I’m sure the original photo was perfectly fine, especially when it features beautiful women. Not to mention the effort by expert hair stylists and make up artists that was put into getting the model ready for the shoot. If the whole photo is going to be retouched, why bother with extensive time in the make up chair.

Also unbelievable to me was the fact that Redbook thought it would be easier to find two photos of Julia Roberts and mix them through editing, rather than just hire her for a photo shoot. It seems easier to me to have her come in, smile for the camera and call it a day.

Something I found funny about the Harry Potter advertisements is that the 3d version showed Hermione’s breasts larger than the 2d version.

Photoshop scandals are pretty common it seems. People try to exaggerate and over do it when it is unnecessary. Target got caught editing their swimsuit models a few years ago. They got a lot of heat for exaggerating the thigh gap. The editing was not double checked because you could tell the photoshopper messed up. There was a square where her swimsuit bottoms were. Also, they tried to make her torso look smaller but it wasn’t a smooth edit there either.

Aerie recently came out with a campaign to not retouch the girls in their merchandise. It seemed very successful. They held events and made the brand seem approachable for “real girls.” It had the comfort factor that brands such as Victoria Secret lack.

Visual-Textual Project Rough Draft

“The Red Sand Project is an activist artwork by Molly Gochman, a NYC-based artist.”

The purpose of this visual text is to inspire people to get involved with the Red Sand Project to end modern day slavery. People all over the world are joining the movement to raise awareness for human trafficking by putting red sand in the cracks of sidewalks. The cracks symbolize the fact that most people sold into the slavery come from cracked homes or are overlooked for vulnerabilities that lead to exploitation. The red symbolizes urgency as human trafficking needs to stop and needs awareness.

I chose to use black and white to contrast with the red. I liked the idea of the sidewalk disappearing around the curve to symbolize that this could continue. The bold and capitalized letters were used to draw attention to certain words and emphasize them. The place of publication could be a flyer in the academic buildings as well as on social media and the caption could host more information.

The hashtag was necessary to include because that’s how the movement is done. People are supposed to take a picture and post it on social media with the hashtag. I wanted to include the website to lead the audience to more information. It would be hard to explain the project in a few words on a visual like this. I tried to keep it simple because too much going on would take away from the project.

I pulled this photo off of Google, I hope it’s okay.