I walked into this class on the first day thinking I was going to learn about all the old people technology and its relevance to modern technology, but I was surprised to find out what the Digital Past is really about. It is music based and I am far from being one to understand the abstractedness of the art of music. I was even more freaked out learning that I had to produce my own song when I can barely function the basic tasks on my laptop which was why I avoided IT. However, after the first few days, the readings and the videos assigned got me interested into the technical stuff behind music and sound. The very first lesson was about compressed sound and I was clueless even after rereading and re-watching the assignments. Then class came around and after the class discussions about what it is and what makes it “terrible” sound, I was able to understand the concept of compressed sound. Being able to hear the different types of music was also helpful. I could really hear that modern music doesn’t vary in range since the quieter sounds are being leveled with the louder sounds. Compressed sounds has never been an occurring concept to be, although, I do notice on occasion how the loudness of modern music stays on one plane no matter how high or low I turn the volume.
I also found it interesting that the theories of realism and idealism came up in this class because I’ve learned about it in philosophy and didn’t think it could be applied anywhere else. Therefore, knowing it could also be applied to learning concepts in history is really fascinating.
Class on Monday the 29th of January was more of what I was expecting with all the first inventions that made living back then a little easier. I didn’t find briefing over each invention very attention grasping, whereas if they were to be applied to real life scenarios like how families or the military benefited from the inventions.