ABOUT THE SOUND
About The Music
Claudia approached a friend of hers, Gordon Clarke, about making some bed music for the show and what she got was a a unique combination of beats and animal noises that have become a hallmark for the show.
Gordon Clarke is con_sol, a Kingston based electronic poet who tries and occasionally succeeds in blending improvised hypnotic beats with self indulgent stream of conscience poetry. He explains his thinking behind the music for The Animal Turn:
"For the Animal Turn, I thought I’d let the animals speak their own lyrics. In the theme you can hear cows, pigs, goats, rabbits, camels and more expressing themselves in their own unique ways. I wanted to highlight the sometimes surprising musicality and rhythm of animal vocalists by layering them over a melody and a beat. I think animals clearly have a lot to say. It’s just up to us to take the time to listen.”
- Gordon Clarke
You can find Gordon (con_sol) on Bandcamp.
Podcast Recording
Claudia has no formal training in the art of recording but has been teaching herself some of the ins and outs of how to pay attention to what an episode sounds like. She was originally the host of the Beyond Canada Podcast, a podcast that explored the contributions of international research at Queen's university, where she received some rudimentary introductions to how to use Reaper and record in a studio. When she started The Animal Turn Podcast, and there was a looming pandemic, she had to quickly learn how to record from a distance.
She continues to learn...
Here are some of the details of how she records and what instruments and software she uses:
Recording Platform: Zencastr
Editing Platform: Reaper
Hosting Platform: Buzzsprout
Microphone: Originally the H2N and now the BlueYeti
Headphones: Philips SHP1900
Other: Popfilters, pillows, and blankets
"I have learnt a great deal about sound in the process of making this podcast. Good sound is really difficult to attain and in almost every episode I make mistakes. There are so many sounds you don't think about in your day to day - the bing of a phone, the vibration of a fan - when you record these are amplified and distracting. Not to mention the difficulty with regulating how soft or loud voices are and how to blend music and speech. I think this podcast will also be a project of learning about sound for me, and of - hopefully - constant improvement ”
Claudia recording one of her first episodes for The Animal Turn in what she calls her 'Blanket Fort Studios'
Sound Editing
Since August 2022, Claudia has had additional help with the Sound Editing. Christaan Menz joined the team as a fellow and has taken on the task of sound editing the episodes. Claudia and Christiaan are attuned to different aspects of the episodes and working together has helped to make the how sound and flow much more smoothly. Learn more about other Animal Turn fellow on The Team page.
"Through sound editing The Animal Turn I've learned a lot about the interaction between human and animal worlds, and how we're more similar than most realise. In terms of the sound editing itself, whether it's music or podcasts, I find small, well thought out changes often bring more satisfying results for listener experience.”
- Christaan Menz
ABOUT THE VISUALS
About The Logo
Claudia met Jeremy John while cycling through China with her husband, Oliver. They became firm friends and ended up cycling with each other through the Mongolian Steppe. Jeremy is a gifted photographer and digital designer so Claudia knew exactly who to talk to when she wanted a logo for her show! Because Claudia's thesis is on cows she knew she wanted cows in the logo. The rest is Jeremy's genius. Check out Jeremy's awesome website and Instagram account.
"Few things have made me more happy than a recent video of a cow playing with a bouncy ball, uncannily similar to a puppy. For the logo, I wanted to capture some of this playful and joyous energy, which I achieved with the final, carefree, skipping character that also acts as a speech bubble. Also, the laurels imply that this now emancipated cow, is finally being listened to.”
- Jeremy John
About The Artwork
Claudia met Rebecca Shen through her fellowship with the Animal Turn Podcast. She is now an official member of the Animal Turn team as Assistant Content Producer and Designer. Trained as a landscape architect, Rebecca is interested in the intersection of animals, design, and the built environment. She first began listening to the Animal Turn Podcast while she was graduate student in design, and it was through the podcast when she was exposed to a plethora of animal studies themes. Rebecca and Claudia then bonded over their mutual interest in animal-human relations and their research about cows and their geographies.
Since joining the podcast, Rebecca has illustrated all the animals featured in The Animal Highlight, and the artwork now features as the cover art for the episodes. You can check out some of Rebecca's other design work on her website.
"The Animal Highlight, the sister podcast of the Animal Turn, spotlights animals and tells aspects of their incredible capabilities and rich lives. In order to 'highlight' these animals further, I wanted them each to have their own drawn portraits, giving a sense of individuality and dignity. In addition, drawing animals is a wonderful way to get to know them by representing their form, features, textures, and even expressions."
- Rebecca Shen
"Art and Visuals are an important way of getting to know animals and of seeing them. The podcast is an auditory platform and often requires listeners imagination and attentiveness in a different way to how visual art makes animals seen, or thought about. It was important for me that there were animals on every page. In the end, I chose these illustrations because of their aesthetic appeal but also because of the sometimes transgressive ways animals are depicted. Art has the potential to creatively challenge the human-animal divide in really interesting ways. ”
- Claudia Hirtenfelder
