Creating Audio Narratives Critique Criteria:

 

For this project student are responsible for creating a listening experience for the audience. Some students may decide to work with ready-made material such as published stories and poems, while some students may want to create original material. Both methods are perfectly acceptable for this project, but consider the amount of additional time and creativity that has been invested to create a 100% original work.

 

When you’re editing sound, you must use your ears to design with. How is that different from other kinds of design? How is it the same in some ways?

 

Structure - How the work is organized as a complete composition:

Ideas, voices, and sounds pass by our ears one by one, and then they’re gone. It is a linear experience. Once a listener gets confused, the forward momentum of the information flow outpaces their ability to comprehend what’s happening.

• What are the components of the piece?

• Consider how these components are organized — from the very beginning.

• Was there a narrative arc? Does the structure of the piece make sense?

• Are we interested? Did you tune out or get bored? If so, at what point? Why?

• Is the pacing too fast, too slow? Can we follow along?

• When was I confused?

• Were certain parts of the piece hard to hear or distracting?

• Does tension build through the piece? How was that achieved? 

• How much attention has been paid to craftsmanship? How did attention to craft (or lack there of) help or hurt the piece?

 

Interpretation - How the work makes you think or feel:

• Did the piece make you smile, laugh, wonder, empathize – where did it take you?

• What are the expressive qualities of the work (i.e., funny, mysterious, irreverent, playful)?

• Describe the style of the piece. What choices did the artist make to give the work this quality?

• Did the piece make you feel weird? Were their discordant moments? (i.e. sound that doesn’t match the mood or environment created in the piece.)

• Is there a question driving the listener forward?

• How did the piece move us emotionally? Intellectually?

 

Evaluation - Present your opinion of the work's success or failure:

• What is the strongest or most original aspect of the work?

• Did the piece make you smile, laugh, wonder – where did it take you?

• What qualities of the work make you feel it is a success or failure?

• What could be done to improve the piece?