For my first reading response I chose an essay titled On A Clear Day I Can Hear Forever, by Gary Ferrington. This essay was a great choice for me because I absolutely love how he goes into detail about the various sounds he hears from his high rise apartment. Instead of simply saying that he can hear the wind, he relates the sound to how the wind carries storms from the coast and cools the air heated by the hot pavement. I also chose this article because I like how it makes the point that sometimes the best time to listen is when it seems like there is no sound at all.
This essay has a few main points. One of these main points is that an absence of sound is far more impressive the an abundance of sound. The author details how in the winter when kids are not playing and people are not out and about he can hear the Willamette River in the far off distance. These far off sounds are only heard during this time when the normal sounds are nowhere to be found. Another main point of the essay is that not all ambient city sounds are bad. Even though they are abundant, things like cars and the low hum of human conversation can still be interesting.
This essay and the ideas it contains are relevant to my practice as a media artist in many ways. It relates to how I try to completely identify and visualize what I hear. I feel that the author does a good job of showing how this is possible when he goes into detail about how he can identify what train is passing based on the sound it makes. As a media artist, I can see myself trying to do this with many things other than trains. To me, this ability to put an image with a sound is very important. This essay is also relevant to my practice as a media artist because it describes all the sounds in a very detailed manner. The ability to express sounds in words is an amazing skill that is useful to any media artist.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Soundwalk
Q:Were you able to find places and spaces where you could really listen?
A:Yes, Downer Woods was the best place I found that I could really listen.
Q:Was it possible to move without making a sound?
A:No, if I wanted to hear everything I possibly could I had to stay completely still.
Q:What happened when you plugged your ears, and then unplugged them?
A:When I plugged my ears I felt like I could hear less sounds, but the ones that did come through seemed extremely clear. It was easier to concentrate on one single sound with my ears plugged. When I unplugged my ears after having them covered for five minutes I was overwhelmed by the number of sounds I could hear. In contrast to when my ears were plugged, I could hear everything, but it was difficult to pick out certain sounds.
Q:In your sound log exercise, what types of sounds were you able to hear? List them.
A: 1. Loud traffic and car tires screeching on pavement off to my right.
2. Some kind off loud chainsaw or weed wacker just slightly off to my right side. It would start and stop randomly throughout the listening exercise.
3. Birds chirping to my left and right. The ones on the right were louder and more obnoxious.
4. The sound of bugs buzzing seemed to drone on in the background of everything else.
5. I heard a sound off to my left which was difficult to recognize. It sounded like a hammer clanking against a flag pole.
6. Wind rustling through leaves and branches.
Q:Were you able to differentiate between sounds that had a recognizable source and those sounds you could not place?
A:Yes, but there was only one sound I heard that I could not recognize. I could at least take a decent guess at all of the other ones.
Q:Human sounds? Mechanical sounds? Natural sounds?
A:I am certain I heard mechanical and natural sounds. The clanking sound I heard may or may not have been human.
Q:Were you able to detect subtleties in the everpresent drone?
A:Yes, during the exercise I was able to pick apart and analyze the faint sound of bugs buzzing. Normally I would not even notice it.
Q:Extremely close sounds? Sounds coming from very far away?
A:I heard a little of both. The sound of traffic seemed to be very distant, but every once and a while I would hear leaves rustling very close to me.
Q: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)?
A:The only sounds I heard that were a product of the wind were the leaves and branches of trees rustling against each other.
Q: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.?
A:Yes, when I walked across a wooden bridge and on a gravel path I made distinct sounds.
Q:Do you feel you have a new understanding or appreciation of the sounds of our contemporary landscape/cityscape?
A: I know I have a new understanding of the sounds that come from our landscape. It's amazing how many sounds we just tune out on a day to day basis. The soundwalk helped me to appreciate just how vast the range of sounds are in our environment.
Q:How do you think your soundwalk experience will affect your practice as a media artist, if at all?
A:The soundwalk experience taught me that in order to be successful as a media artist I have to be able to stand back and appreciate all of the sounds I can hear, not just the most obvious ones.
A:Yes, Downer Woods was the best place I found that I could really listen.
Q:Was it possible to move without making a sound?
A:No, if I wanted to hear everything I possibly could I had to stay completely still.
Q:What happened when you plugged your ears, and then unplugged them?
A:When I plugged my ears I felt like I could hear less sounds, but the ones that did come through seemed extremely clear. It was easier to concentrate on one single sound with my ears plugged. When I unplugged my ears after having them covered for five minutes I was overwhelmed by the number of sounds I could hear. In contrast to when my ears were plugged, I could hear everything, but it was difficult to pick out certain sounds.
Q:In your sound log exercise, what types of sounds were you able to hear? List them.
A: 1. Loud traffic and car tires screeching on pavement off to my right.
2. Some kind off loud chainsaw or weed wacker just slightly off to my right side. It would start and stop randomly throughout the listening exercise.
3. Birds chirping to my left and right. The ones on the right were louder and more obnoxious.
4. The sound of bugs buzzing seemed to drone on in the background of everything else.
5. I heard a sound off to my left which was difficult to recognize. It sounded like a hammer clanking against a flag pole.
6. Wind rustling through leaves and branches.
Q:Were you able to differentiate between sounds that had a recognizable source and those sounds you could not place?
A:Yes, but there was only one sound I heard that I could not recognize. I could at least take a decent guess at all of the other ones.
Q:Human sounds? Mechanical sounds? Natural sounds?
A:I am certain I heard mechanical and natural sounds. The clanking sound I heard may or may not have been human.
Q:Were you able to detect subtleties in the everpresent drone?
A:Yes, during the exercise I was able to pick apart and analyze the faint sound of bugs buzzing. Normally I would not even notice it.
Q:Extremely close sounds? Sounds coming from very far away?
A:I heard a little of both. The sound of traffic seemed to be very distant, but every once and a while I would hear leaves rustling very close to me.
Q: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)?
A:The only sounds I heard that were a product of the wind were the leaves and branches of trees rustling against each other.
Q: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.?
A:Yes, when I walked across a wooden bridge and on a gravel path I made distinct sounds.
Q:Do you feel you have a new understanding or appreciation of the sounds of our contemporary landscape/cityscape?
A: I know I have a new understanding of the sounds that come from our landscape. It's amazing how many sounds we just tune out on a day to day basis. The soundwalk helped me to appreciate just how vast the range of sounds are in our environment.
Q:How do you think your soundwalk experience will affect your practice as a media artist, if at all?
A:The soundwalk experience taught me that in order to be successful as a media artist I have to be able to stand back and appreciate all of the sounds I can hear, not just the most obvious ones.
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