1. According to “the souls of black folk” by Du Bois, he reflects that African-Americans yearn for freedom, equality and their self-affirmation. As the article says that, African-Americans think that their skin color is an innate veil, they look like white people, they also look like black people. From a long time ago, they have been treated unequally. In Du Bois’s writing, African-Americans use music to express their aspirations. These musics are not happy or joyous. He called them “sorrow songs”. The significance of these songs is that they are the precious historical wealth of black people. The slaves of black people speak to the world through these “sorrow songs”. As time went by the melody of songs transmit ideas what the slaves want to express to generations after generations. We don’t know the meaning of the lyrics, but we know the meaning of the melody. When people hear these “sorrow songs”, they feel their sadness and think about the black people culture and history. African-American deserve to be treated fairly.
2. I think “My way is Cloudy” by Dinwiddie Colored Quartet is the most significant. This song is different from what we usually hear, it sounds like something coming out of a phonograph. There is a group of people singing “My way is Cloudy”, which makes me feel like a group of black slaves sing in order to find the joy of like and not to bow to the fate. They sing in a low voice to tell us their sad stories, and loudly yearn for a life of fairness, freedom and happiness. I can’t help thinking about the miserable life of those black slaves, and I also yearn for the real elimination of racial discrimination.

According to the “Power” episode, Damon Krukowski argues that the marginal-the rejected-the repressed might be a key to alternate approaches to art-to society-to power itself. I support his view. As he mentions in the audio, such as bookstores, google search and Apple Music and so on, these things all have a huge amount of data and a lot of things will be marginalized, because nobody can read all the books, search all information what he doesn’t know or listen all the music in the world. Apple Music want to work with the entire universe of available music and it’s employees exposed the music, but no one is listening to everything. It’s impossible and not a human task on human scale. These information are done by computers using algorithms. What’s more, with the development of technology, music is classified by round acoustic similarity in electronic products. We are always recommended some music that right for us based on our context, mood, and where we are, etc. Thus, the music that we don’t hear is like being marginalized. The music we hear that suits us is powerful to us. However, is it there no power in marginalized music? There is no doubt that they are equally powerful, they are not suitable for us, but to others they are not marginalized. All in all, there are so many things in the world that we don’t observe, whether it’s music or something else, that they are called the marginal ,the rejected and the repressed, but they are also a key approach to be power for another people.

1. Though I concede that digital sound blocks our perception of the quality of sound that help us feel intimate, I still insist that the development of digital sound can help people experience intimacy in more ways. As Krukowski says that “unlike the old analog phones, cell phones don’t transmit the full range of sound picked up by their mikes. Instead, they digitally processed that sound. Compressing it to remove whatever engineers have decided is unnecessary data.” “The compression of our voices on the cell phone makes for smaller data packets that are easier to share over digital networks.” Engineers know that these digital sound loss those sonic qualities that feel intimate are not ideal, but their goal is to get basic information and enable us communicate with people all over the world more easily and efficiently. Just like us now, we need to take online courses, digital sound makes it easier for us to communicate on the digital network. Even though these digital sounds may not sound that intimate by processing them differently from real sounds, they allow us to be intimately connected, which is another way of helping us experience intimacy. Krukowski also says that “feeling is build on the sound of voice.” As we know, everyone’s voice is different, and the voice gives others a different feeling. In my opinion, sound is also unique when digitally processed. Therefore, even if the digital sound is removed some kinds of qualities, we can still distinguish the sound of each person’s voice and get different feelings. For example, my accounting professor’s digital voice made me feel closer than my btm’s professor. There is no doubt that they are good professors, but their voice has different frequency and amplitude. I feel very different from them.
2. As the article writes that ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) is a new word to describe the phenomenon of perception, which is characterized by: the stimulation of sight, hearing, touch, smell or perception makes a person produce a unique in the brain, scalp, head or other areas of the body. Although ASMR has a large number of fanatical followers and conflicting evidence to prove the existence of this phenomenon, there are few or even no scientific explanations or experimental data to support it. I knew this new word before I read this article, and I have seen some videos. However, I also feel very clam like author when I watch the videos or hear the videos. I don’t understand this feeling. I think the most interesting and important point about sound of ASMR is that they can make people feel clam, relaxed and comfortable. Even though I don’t have an intracranial orgasm from these sounds, I feel calm, relaxed and comfortable. ASMR’s videos producers use many ways to produce various enjoyable and attractive sounds. What’s more, as the author mentioned, these sounds may also make people feel sleepy. That is interesting.

According to the book, “The Soundscape” by R. Murray Schafer, the author argues that people should seek a way to make environmental acoustics a positive study program. He develops soundscape theory and  makes a lot research to propose that soundscape is composed by sound and landscape. Schafer’s theory of soundscape is extremely useful because it sheds light on the difficult problem of noise. As he argues, the management of noise is not only sound, it also is a environmental concern. When we live in New York City, we tend to think of outdoor sounds as noise, such as the sound of car horns, the sound of ancient subways and all kinds of sounds of people taking. When we only think these sounds as noise, they are regarded as a kind of waste. However, soundscape theory treats sound as a resource. It take advantage of sound from the perspective of environment and so on. When we are in an environment, we should distinguish the sound source and focus on more preferred sounds, and use them to mask the unwanted ones, then reducing some sounds what we unwanted. What’s more, different sounds in different environments will make people produce different emotions. We need to protect and use some kinds of special sounds because they are already embedded in people’s minds. For example, the bell of the end of class, the sound of the subway door will be opened and the sound of police car passing. Soundscape is that people use some specific sounds or create some sounds in some environment to reduce the sound that people do not like. My grandfather is an architect, my hometown’s house is near the highway, so any sounds from the road becomes a sound that we don’t like. Therefore, grandfather planted some bamboos to reduce the noise. We like the sounds of bamboo blown by the wind.

According to the book, “Seeing through Race” by Martin A. Berger, he claims that newspaper and magazine editors were more likely to use photographs that showed black people as victims rather than as civil rights defenders to promote the civil rights movement. In his view, this situation is because “the media could not assuage the racial anxieties of whites without affecting the depiction of blacks” and some editors believed that such images would maximize the interests of blacks. Berger is surely right about the media uses more photos that blacks as victims to arouse white people’s attention to blacks civil rights protection because, as he may not be aware, recent news have shown that a lot of whites protected for the killing of George Floyd because the media showed some photos that black people as victim. I think that photos showing black people as victims not only attract white people visually, but also promote racial reform in society. These photos make white viewers feel safe. What’s more, they maybe think from the perspective of equality for everyone, rather than the perspective of race first. That will make whites think that blacks who are victims also need to be protected and are equal to them. Therefore, that will make it easier to promote civil rights and racial reform.

1. According to Berger, publicity uses carriers of images and words to stimulate people’s imagination. It shows the lives of those who have made a change to let consumers feel envy. This feeling will cause consumers think that they can make themselves richer in one aspect by consuming. Publicity is significant, not only it is all around us, but also because most people want to be envied and attractive in this society that is called for moving democratic. As Berger says, being envied is a glamour. Publicity is the process of generating glamour. Thus, consumers will be attracted by these various publicity’s images and go to buy more products. The images of publicity will silently affect us imagination and remind us to think about our current situation.
2. Oil painting and publicity photography have some difference. Oil painting is a kind of classical art and used to record the real life of the owner. It doesn’t show glamour that like publicity images, but people who watch these oil painting can feel the superiority of class life. For example, seeing the manor, beauty and carriage in the oil painting, these superiority is what makes people enviable. However, publicity advocates a life style that we desire now. It advertises all kinds of things that it thinks people want but haven’t got yet, like luxury car, luxury package and villa. The biggest difference is that publicity hopes people believe that what they buy is not just a thing but also a way of life. In my opinion, oil painting shows the owner’s wealth and lifestyle. Publicity also uses the images to reveal people’s pursuit of wealth and lifestyle. These differences are important because the eras are different. With the change of times, people who pursue wealth and lifestyle become not only those who can own oil paintings. Publicity photography is a form of marketing, but it uses a similar way with oil painting to give people the image that they can change themselves and pursue their dreams by buying things.
3. Just like Burger’s the third dream- the distant dream. Publicity uses exotic and beautiful scenery pictures to make consumers produce various imaginations, which make them yearn for traveling. People will generate motivation through comparing their current situations with the distant dreams. The images show an unknown world where full fill passions for them, and those are charming. In order to pursue a better way of life, they will work hard to pursue their dreams. In other words, publicity use imagery through adding some elements that can generate glamour in the images to manipulate consumers. For instance, the color magazine which Berger read, author uses pictures of refugees to appeal public sympathy. However, I think it is a way to manipulate consumers. These images not just arouse consumers’ sympathy, but also make them feel superior. Publicity uses their superiority to manipulate consumers to spend for pursuing what they want.

In the video “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger mentions that the image of women has been influenced by the gaze of men from Genesis on. He satires this phenomenon by using European nude paintings of women. In discussion of nude and women, Berger responds a different view that naked body is oneself to be naked, but nudity is to be seen naked by viewers with Kenneth Clack who says that being naked is simply being without clothes and nude is a form of art. At the same time, I believe Clack, I also believe that naked is different from nude.

In European, the nude paintings of women depicts the way of women view their images in a patriarchal society. As Berger says, the behavior of women who are in these nude paintings have no connection to their environments. Their behaviors are to be seeing by peeper or those who view the paintings like us. They consider themselves’ images from the perspective of viewers.What’s more, they will be ashamed by the gaze of men, even they make the move to attract and please men. Nude gradually became a symbol that women are defined beautiful. They are not born to be naked, just because men like to see them naked. In other words, nudity is a cloth that they can not take off and use to create their own image of beauty.

In fact, now the representations of women objectify them in the similar ways as the depicted what Berger argues about women in Renaissance paintings. Women wear different clothes to play different roles in today’s society. We can observe this phenomenon from various mass media. For example, advertisements objectify women from the perspective of the male gaze, and use photos that seduce male sexual feelings to promote the advertisement. Sexy body, ruddy lips, miniskirts and high heels,etc., which enable women to view themselves from the perspective of men and to shape their own image. The unilateral outputting of image advertisement from the media make women set up their aesthetic. It also reflects that women do not control their images in the media, they still determined by the male gaze.

However, I think that sexuality do not play the same role in images of women today as what Berger describes. In this era when more and more people are chasing gender equality, more and more women shape their own image from themselves perspective. They see themselves as more and more important and do not take sexuality as their main motivation. In conclusion, even though the image of women is still affected by the male gaze, their perspective of view themselves is gradually transitioning from the perspective of viewers to their own.