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Sunday, February 15, 2009
soundwalk response
1. Were you able to find places and spaces where you could really listen?
That really depends on how one defines "really listen". When I was taking acting courses I learned a meditative technique that taught me how to listen. You would sit perfectly still and silent, then you would listen very carefully to yourself (breathing, quieting thoughts, heartbeat). After you have heard all you can within yourself you move on to the people/things immediately next to you. After you have heard all the sounds they have made you move on to listen to the people beyond them, then the people on the other end of the room, then the people outside the room, then the people down the hall, and so on. The whole process of listening to everything takes usually 15 to 20 minutes, seeing as there are no conversations or loud noises that interrupt the process. Seeing as we spent only about 3 minutes at each stop and there were so many louder/disruptive noises, I don't think I caught as much as I could have.
2. Was it possible to move without making a sound?
That really depended on how quickly we were called to move. While traveling from point to point there were lots of general moving noises (footfalls, jacket shuffling, backpack zipping, etc.); which was why I only recorded sounds where we stopped.
3. What happened when you plugged your ears, and then unplugged them?
When I tried this it made me loose track of what level of sound I was listening for. But it did help isolate deep bass, which continued (of course) with its vibrations.
4. What types of sounds were you able to hear? List them.
Most of the sounds were mechanical, from cars to ventilation systems to things like vending machines. The only non-man made sound I could hear was the occasional gust of wind through the trees, but that was only once and quite faint. In addition to this I heard a few pieces on conversation along with general noises made by walking.
5. Were you able to differentiate between sounds that had a recognizable source and those sounds you could not place?
For the most part, yes. But there was one point in the walk when I thought I heard the sound of a skateboard falling. I turned to see that it was instead someone just stumbling over a piece of wood.
6. Were you able to differentiate human, mechanical, and natural sounds?
Yes, although sometimes the noises of some people's jacket's fabric sounded a little like wind. Other than that the type of sound was pretty distinct.
7. Were you able to detect subtleties, changes, or variations in the everpresent drone?
The deep bass encountered in the parking garage had a vibrato to it, but that could just be the source echoing onto itself. Most of the loud, constant hums found there had a definite pulse to them. And there was something mechanical that emitted a loud, high pitched "e" sound that slowly increased in frequency.
8. Extremely close sounds? Sounds coming from very far away?
I could hear the fabric of my clothes rubbing when I had to move to let someone past me or pull my arms in for whatever reason. The sound of writing wasn't quite as loud as I expected it to be, I guess not too many people used pencil. The sound of the tree in the breeze I heard while in the loading dock; and seeing as how it wasn't very windy and the trees closest to me weren't very tall, I'm guessing that the sound must have traveled from one of the trees close to the main road.
9. Were you able to intervene in the urban landscape and create your own sounds by knocking on a resonant piece of metal, activating wind chimes, etc.?
I tried not to do this too much, but my high heels did end up making quite a bit of noise as I walked. If I find a surface I deem interesting (marble, odd woods, cobblestone, sand, etc.) I do tend to play with the sound by walking across it at a strange pace in heels; but I only had concrete and tile to play with here, so I didn't do much.
10. Do you feel you have a new understanding or appreciation of the sounds of our contemporary landscape/cityscape?
Last semester I spent at a university in the middle of nowhere. If you walked alone during off hours all you could hear was wind and your own feet. There were train tracks next to my dorm, and when the train passed the noise was so deafening it drowns out your own thoughts. Through the silence it was like a knife being driven into your senses over and over again. The university was small, and there was no place within it to get away from the sound of the train. It was like being punched in the temporal lobe every time it passed by my window, which overlooked the tracks. When I returned to the city and began to reflect at my time at the small university I asked myself what was driving me mad: the train or the silence that surrounds it.
11. How do you think your soundwalk experience will affect your practice as a media artist, if at all?
It reminded me of something one of my music teachers once told me. He said "music is to be compared the the silence it conquers". This is true with all sound, maddening or beautiful. The majority of sensory input we use to function in our everyday lives comes from what we see. Our sense of smell is tied strongest to memory. However, there are few things that stir people such as sound- or the absence thereof.
That really depends on how one defines "really listen". When I was taking acting courses I learned a meditative technique that taught me how to listen. You would sit perfectly still and silent, then you would listen very carefully to yourself (breathing, quieting thoughts, heartbeat). After you have heard all you can within yourself you move on to the people/things immediately next to you. After you have heard all the sounds they have made you move on to listen to the people beyond them, then the people on the other end of the room, then the people outside the room, then the people down the hall, and so on. The whole process of listening to everything takes usually 15 to 20 minutes, seeing as there are no conversations or loud noises that interrupt the process. Seeing as we spent only about 3 minutes at each stop and there were so many louder/disruptive noises, I don't think I caught as much as I could have.
2. Was it possible to move without making a sound?
That really depended on how quickly we were called to move. While traveling from point to point there were lots of general moving noises (footfalls, jacket shuffling, backpack zipping, etc.); which was why I only recorded sounds where we stopped.
3. What happened when you plugged your ears, and then unplugged them?
When I tried this it made me loose track of what level of sound I was listening for. But it did help isolate deep bass, which continued (of course) with its vibrations.
4. What types of sounds were you able to hear? List them.
Most of the sounds were mechanical, from cars to ventilation systems to things like vending machines. The only non-man made sound I could hear was the occasional gust of wind through the trees, but that was only once and quite faint. In addition to this I heard a few pieces on conversation along with general noises made by walking.
5. Were you able to differentiate between sounds that had a recognizable source and those sounds you could not place?
For the most part, yes. But there was one point in the walk when I thought I heard the sound of a skateboard falling. I turned to see that it was instead someone just stumbling over a piece of wood.
6. Were you able to differentiate human, mechanical, and natural sounds?
Yes, although sometimes the noises of some people's jacket's fabric sounded a little like wind. Other than that the type of sound was pretty distinct.
7. Were you able to detect subtleties, changes, or variations in the everpresent drone?
The deep bass encountered in the parking garage had a vibrato to it, but that could just be the source echoing onto itself. Most of the loud, constant hums found there had a definite pulse to them. And there was something mechanical that emitted a loud, high pitched "e" sound that slowly increased in frequency.
8. Extremely close sounds? Sounds coming from very far away?
I could hear the fabric of my clothes rubbing when I had to move to let someone past me or pull my arms in for whatever reason. The sound of writing wasn't quite as loud as I expected it to be, I guess not too many people used pencil. The sound of the tree in the breeze I heard while in the loading dock; and seeing as how it wasn't very windy and the trees closest to me weren't very tall, I'm guessing that the sound must have traveled from one of the trees close to the main road.
9. Were you able to intervene in the urban landscape and create your own sounds by knocking on a resonant piece of metal, activating wind chimes, etc.?
I tried not to do this too much, but my high heels did end up making quite a bit of noise as I walked. If I find a surface I deem interesting (marble, odd woods, cobblestone, sand, etc.) I do tend to play with the sound by walking across it at a strange pace in heels; but I only had concrete and tile to play with here, so I didn't do much.
10. Do you feel you have a new understanding or appreciation of the sounds of our contemporary landscape/cityscape?
Last semester I spent at a university in the middle of nowhere. If you walked alone during off hours all you could hear was wind and your own feet. There were train tracks next to my dorm, and when the train passed the noise was so deafening it drowns out your own thoughts. Through the silence it was like a knife being driven into your senses over and over again. The university was small, and there was no place within it to get away from the sound of the train. It was like being punched in the temporal lobe every time it passed by my window, which overlooked the tracks. When I returned to the city and began to reflect at my time at the small university I asked myself what was driving me mad: the train or the silence that surrounds it.
11. How do you think your soundwalk experience will affect your practice as a media artist, if at all?
It reminded me of something one of my music teachers once told me. He said "music is to be compared the the silence it conquers". This is true with all sound, maddening or beautiful. The majority of sensory input we use to function in our everyday lives comes from what we see. Our sense of smell is tied strongest to memory. However, there are few things that stir people such as sound- or the absence thereof.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Drift walks
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These are the routes I have planned for my drift walks. I wanted to explore the environment around the theatres and in the third ward.
Drift one will be a one-way route from Pere Marquette Park to Cathedral Square (no backing up and re-tracing). On this walk I will explore the theatres, as previously mentioned, as well as the riverwalk, the bridges, and the few streets between the theatres and the parks.
Drift two covers less distance, but more steps are re-traced. I start outside of MIAD (or whatever building it was that I presumed to be MIAD on the map) and walk to the fountain in the park across the street. I will then cross the street, continue north a block, cross the street, go north a block, cross the street, go south a block, cross the street, go south a block, cross to the park, go around the east side of the park, cross the street, and then retrace my steps to the original starting point. The North/Cross pattern (and, in affect the South/Cross pattern) can be done indefinately, I just mapped out the two blocks I'm requiring myself to cover with this pattern.
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