The First Soundwalk

On Wednesday the 10th, I went on my first soundwalk around my neighborhood. Before I started the walk I did a few exercise to help me start listening better. First I stood with my eyes closed in a covered area for a few minutes and just listened and tried to identify the sounds around me. This helped me become aware of many sounds that I would not have heard with my eyes open becuase when you look at something your vision helps to focus your ears on what you are looking at. Then I listened with my eyes opened but with my ears plugged to see how that effected what I heard.

The final thing I did before starting my soundwalk was to sit and listen for an extended periode of time while drawing everything I heard around me. You can view the map I drew on the bottom left. I was sitting in an open area between buildings where people were walking through so there was a lot of varied sounds to listen too.

During the soundwalk I tried to write down everything I heard, which is a lot harder than it sounds. Sometimes there were so many sounds that I couldn't write them all down and then there was the challenge of writing and walking at the same time. Here are some questions that I have answered in reflection to my soundwalk.

Were you able to find places and spaces where you could really listen?
For the most part yes. Some places indoors were overwhelming with the amount of voices and the street noises were dominant many times. A little off the road and in a small patch of woods were really good for listening.

Was it possible to move without making a sound?
No, especially since I was writing while walking. The pen on paper was always making sound but I didn’t hear my own body that much though I think those sounds got drowned out by the other noises around me.

What happened when you plugged your ears, and then unplugged them?
With my ears plugged the higher pitched sounds were almost completely gone but the low rumblings of cars and buses and some talking could still be hear but not as clear. With my ears unplugged there was a much wider range of high and low sounds to listen to.

In your sound log exercise, what types of sounds were you able to hear? List them.
You can view my notes of everything I heard on the soundwalk above.

Were you able to differentiate between sounds that had a recognizable source and those sounds you could not place?
For the most part yes. It was sometimes hard to differentiate and once or twice I paused to try to understand what I was hearing.

Human sounds? Mechanical sounds? Natural sounds?
Human sounds were the easiest to identify while mechanical were probably the hardest, however there were some mysterious natural sounds produced by animals or insects that I did not know.


Were you able to detect subtleties in the everpresent drone?
Instead of just generalizing all car noises as “traffic” I actually listened to the different sounds cars make and there were a lot. The screech of brakes, the creaking of turning, the hiss of exhaust…

Extremely close sounds? Sounds coming from very far away?
The subtleties defiantly came out in closer sounds, but there were a few that were detectable far away.

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)?
Wind play a very dominant role in making sounds outside. It rustled the leaves and the pages of my notebook, it was always blowing past my ears, it also found places to whistle through in buildings.

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.?
On this soundwalk I did not explore too much on how I could interact to make the sounds but more just listened to the sounds that I overlook each day. I did notice some sounds that I didn’t realize that I made like when I held the door open my fingertips made a small squeak sound as they slid across the door.

Do you feel you have a new understanding or appreciation of the sounds of our contemporary landscape/cityscape?
Definatly, I heard so many sounds that I had never heard before just because I wasn’t listening, it was defiantly surprising and entertaining.

How do you think your soundwalk experience will affect your practice as a media artist, if at all?
As a media artist, the soundwalk has shown me how many sounds there are to be used right around us just in our daily locations.