We had a blast launching Paperphone at the Arnold Schonberg Building at UCLA in May. Jonathan and I introduced the project. The audience participated by asking astute questions that intersected audio technology and new forms of scholarly communication. Following the three demo-presentations, the event concluded by a workshop on Paperphone led by Jonathan.

Jonathan Zorn, leading the workshop

I presented a portion of my “Sounds of Racial Melancholia” paper, exploring the relationship between the concept of melancholia expressed by Asian American indie rock musicians and spatial effects such as reverb and echo.

Alexandra Lippman performed “Mixtape of the City,” a live sound essay by playfully mixing and narrating field recordings she has done in Rio de Janeiro. [An extended version of this sound essay is posted on the Sound Ethnography blog]. Jam

Artist James Raymond performed an experimental sound piece playing back loops of samples that were created using Paperphone.

These three very diverse approaches to using Paperphone demonstrated a wide range of possibilities of implementing this live audio app. We invite interested users to share their experiences and documentation of Paperphone.