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Project III: Research

By March 30, 2008June 17th, 2015Uncategorized

After looking over some infographic categories, I concluded TIME would best suit my icon set because most of the people I know that participated in this subculture are feeling the side effects right now. The list I will deal with refers to the eight icons that I’ve created in the last step. In the category of time, I brainstormed three options

  1. Date of Invention
  2. How long objects last in one night (drugs/music etc)
  3. Usage of objects over a period of time

After deciding these three options, I did internet research to dig up as much information as I could. I then copied all of the information and resource to a word document for my notes. Then completing my list, I ruled out the first two bullet points and realized I can get first hand accounts for the consequences of the club scene after a period of time.

Although at the time MDMA (ecstasy) gets your spirits up and helps you dance all night, there are some repercussions after a period of time. Recent research indicates heavy MDMA use causes persistent memory problems in humans.
Psychological effects can include

  • confusion
  • depression
  • sleep problems
  • anxiety
  • paranoia

Physical effects can include

  • muscle tension
  • involuntary teeth-clenching
  • nausea
  • blurred vision
  • faintness
  • chills or sweating

mdma source

Headphones the risk of hearing damage from headphones is higher than with loudspeakers, even at comparable volumes, due to the close coupling of the transducers to the ears. As a result, they are often used at higher volumes in order to drown out noise from the user’s surroundings, which increases the risk of hearing-loss.

physical effects include

  • Ringing or buzzing in the ears
  • Difficulty in understanding speech
  • Slight muffling of sounds
  • Difficulty understanding speech in noisy places or places with poor acoustics

headphone source

Turntable Since there is physical contact between needle and the vinyl mass, after some time, the grooves grow larger and start having dents which will sabotage the quality of the signal. Other than having problems with the turntable itself, the records themselves are hard to keep in good condition. If you don’t take good care of your records, you may experience

  • soft material is easily scratched
  • dust and scratches cause audio clicks and pops
  • needle may skip over a series of grooves
  • cause the needle to skip backwards, creating a “locked groove”
  • warped by heat, improper storage, or manufacturing defects

turntable source 1
source 2

Reel to Reel in this case, the use of magnetic tape for the reel to reel recorder doesn’t have negative connotations. Many artists of all genres prefer analog tape’s “musical”, “natural” and especially “warm” sound. Due to harmonic distortion, bass can thicken up, creating the illusion of a fuller sounding mix. . In addition, high end can be slightly compressed, which is more natural to the human ear. Some other pro’s to using reel to reel over time are

  • tape can accommodate multiple parallel tracks
  • greater flexibility (performance remixed long after originally recorded)

Although these bring some good points about using tape, there are some drawbacks such as

  • a recording on magnetic audio tape is linear
  • jumping from spot to spot to edit is time consuming and destructive

reel source

Glowsticks although used in elaborate dances and to help trip off mdma, the lights seem like a harmless toy. A closer look at the chemicals inside may cause problems if broken open. The ingredients include hydrogen peroxide, and phenol is produced as a by-product. If in contact with skin may cause

  • skin irritation
  • vomiting
  • nausea

glowstick source

Dancing like the reel too reel, the effects of dancing seem to help, even after a lasting period of time. Dancing may cause boost in moral and confidence but other scientific studies say it also benefits your brain.

  • helps prevent dementia
  • beneficial challenge to the brain
  • burns fat
  • causes heart rate to rise

dance source