Posted on October 19, 2019
Audio takes time.
Many have said, “a picture is worth a thousand words”, but it would take way longer to say or write those words than it did to take that picture. A picture is the capturing of a moment less than a second that lasts metaphorically forever. I imagine that someone could look at a picture over a period of time and realize more details they hadn’t before as time goes on, some of the strengths of a picture
Why am I, a totally blind guy writing about pictures? Because there is also an equivalence for people who can’t see them. I’m guessing many reading this post have pictures of their family and friends, or even of people they’ve just met; for me that’s recordings of those people in my life talking. This is where the similarities differ. Audio unlike a picture only lasts as long as it was originally. I can’t focus on a millisecond of the audio like someone can focus on someone’s face in a picture, and it’s something I think people aren’t realizing at first.
Some times when I ask someone to record, they just say a few words lasting less than 10 seconds, but I find that at least for me, it takes a minute or two before the person’s voice starts to resonate in my mind.
If you have a page of text you can take as long to read it as you want, but if that text were spoken to you faster than your brain could understand it, you would be overwhelmed. . If you only let cheese age for a day, you would probably only still have curdled milk. .
Music is also like this. It may be the only art form that actually exists in time, in the moment when it is heard; no matter when it may have originally been written. Also, if a slow song were sped up, its meaning would be lost and it’s essence destroyed.
Just some thoughts to consider.
Accessibility Insights 