Soundwalk Response

Hello again. I recently went on a soundwalk with a few other fellow artists. Here was a brief Q & A that I answered in Soundwalking Quarterly. (Full disclosure: There is no such magazine).

• Were you able to find places and spaces where you could really listen?

Yes. I was in the Downer Forrest near the UW Milwaukee campus. I picked a spot right next to a tree, and planted down, away from almost everyone. It was very peaceful.

• Was it possible to move without making a sound?

Yes, it was. I wear Chuck Taylor's, baby.

• What happened when you plugged your ears, and then unplugged them?

Upon unplugging my ears, every sound I heard was about four or five times more vivid. It was an extremely interesting juxtaposition.

• In your sound log exercise, what types of sounds were you able to hear? List them.

I heard the booming sound of a plane engine echoing through the forrest. Then, the drone of a cricket's call bathed the soft songs of birds. Car tires screeched on hot asphalt in the distant... almost an entire world away. A locust above hummed a minimalistic tune, as wind blew quietely through the trees. That's when a power tool ripped it's way through the forrest, to remind me where I was... deep, I know.

• Were you able to differentiate between sounds that had a recognizable source and those sounds you could not place?

Yes, after unplugging my ears, sounds were incredibly easy to differentiate.

• Human sounds? Mechanical sounds? Natural sounds?

All of the above, baby. But, for the most part, it was nature sounds, as I was in the woods.

• Were you able to detect subtleties in the everpresent drone?

Yes, the hum of the insects in the forrest were easy to pick apart.

• Extremely close sounds? Sounds coming from very far away?

I was actually more interested in the sounds coming from far away. It was kind of refreshing to hear those sounds.

• What kinds of wind effects were you able to detect (for example, the leaves of trees don't make sounds until they are activated by the wind)?

Honestly, the leaves were really the only wind sounds I could detect, save for when the wind blew past my hair and my ears.

• 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.?

No. We were told specifically not to manipulate the sounds of nature for this exercise.

• Do you feel you have a new understanding or appreciation of the sounds of our contemporary landscape/cityscape?

I have come to notice the intricate sounds of my landscape at a different and more powerful level.

• How do you think your soundwalk experience will affect your practice as a media artist, if at all?

For the time being, I will continue these experiments, because I find them incredibly interesting. And I'm broke, and walking around for the fun of it is very, very cheap.

More to come later.