- Were you able to find places and spaces where you could really
listen?
Yes, always. It just took a second to become attuned to the sensation, to the act of listening for every sound, not just one sound in particular.
2. Was it possible to move without making a sound?
Not this time.
3. What happened when you plugged your ears, and then unplugged them?
I could hear what a vacuum sounds like: a very distinct ‘whooosh!’. Much more fun on an aviation machine (ya know, a whirly-bird) than on ground level, though.
4. What types of sounds were you able to hear? List them.
Many voices, blending in an out of eachother.
Many footsteps.
Elevator doors opening.
A book closing.
A car honking.
The last drops of a drink being sipped.
Music from a piano.
Music from speakers.
Bowling pins being knocked over.
Billiard balls breaking (brilliantly, but bouncing bashfully…get it?)
Pages ruffling.
And omnipresent white noise.
5. Were you able to differentiate between sounds that had a
recognizable source and those sounds you could not place?
Yes.
6. Were you able to differentiate human, mechanical, and natural sounds?
Yes
7. Were you able to detect subtleties, changes, or variations in the
everpresent drone?
Yes
8. Extremely close sounds? Sounds coming from very far away?
The distance of sounds was often difficult to distinguish. A car might’ve been easy (a car is on a street. And therefore further away than the man I can see talking), but most sounds I could only measure in terms of their simplest and recognizable qualities (special relativity not counted amongst them).
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.?
Not this time.
10. Do you feel you have a new understanding or appreciation of the
sounds of our contemporary landscape/cityscape?
Not this time.
11. How do you think your soundwalk experience will affect your
practice as a media artist, if at all?
Listening versus comprehending? That’s goddamn important, I’d sure say. It’s easy to be interested in how people process words and the how the various aural qualities of the spoken word can be interpreted, but I like to think that these soundwalks might open me up the possibilities of the natural and artificial soundscape.
