Community: BARN Media Arts Studio

Context

During COVID recovery, I briefly served as the Media Arts Studio Lead at BARN. One of my main goals was simplifying the podcast recording process to better meet the needs of the typical users. Many of the everyday users were older retired folks (uncomfortable with tech) and teen students (used to very accessible tech). The system largely depended on understanding audio interfaces, and multitrack recording in Logic, which was difficult for many users.

What I Did

After a lot of deliberation and research I swapped out the main interface for something that solved several problems:

• made the recording process tangible (actually touching knobs and faders)
• made it accessible (large easy to understand record, mute buttons)
• allowed for ‘simple’ recording (single stereo file)
• allowed for ‘advanced’ recording (full multitrack experience)

I also developed the new training materials and led several classes on audio education.

Outcome

The system and techniques I set up are still in use today, and gratefully being carried on by BARN’s own Bob Ross.

Lessons Learned

Having a tangible interaction with audio engineering is incredibly powerful when learning. I was used to this, but teaching others basic concepts ‘digitally’ can be hard without a physical representation.