Sonic Walden

Quieting the Iron Beast

2007-11-26T19:29:00.000-08:00

This photo of Walden's Pond illustrates the nature of sound waves. The pond resonates with transverse and longitudinal sound waves, and the train in the distance (unseen) cuts through the soundscape of the woods hidden behind the pond. As it passes by, its whistle announces its arrival, and just as quickly it fades out of hearing range.

I am all about trains, and Static issue 6 - ‘ALARM’ features a piece by Jonathan Pluskota and myself that extends from my sound work at Walden in Concord, Massachussetts and our recordings and research in the Shawnee National Forest of downstate Illinois, USA. The train has been conceptualizaed as a metaphor for progress, noise, and lost culture. Its whistle is both appealing and revealing to our conflicted views of what is noise and what is culture; and one might consider at what price does one sound displace another. As we look into the future, what happens when technology sheds its noisy entrance, and slips through our soundscapes and landscapes unheard and undetected, might there be a sense of cultural loss. That is only one of the many questions we contemplate in Static. We thank the editors Thomas Mansell, Richard Osborne, and Katherine Hunt for their acceptance of our work:

http://static.londonconsortium.com/index.php

Essay: Quieting the Iron Beast: The Train Whistle as an Alarm

Sound Piece: Trained Alarms: A Salute to the Iron Beast (2:20)

Phylis Johnson, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Radio-Television, MC 6609, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois, USA, 62901, phylisj@yahoo.com

Jonathan Pluskota, Ph.D. student, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois, USA, 62901, jonnyp@siu.edu

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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Kampala Children: Soundscapes of Uganda

2007-11-26T18:39:00.000-08:00

Playing with Sound. July 2007, the Stephen Jota Children's Centre, Kampala, Uganda.

Kampala, Uganda is city rich with sounds, from the rattling of old vans and jeeps weaving around the 3 foot holes in the roads to the inviting marketplace music that extends into the wee hours of the morning.
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What I remember most is the sound of more than 500 children singing in unison school songs and songs of hope for their nation. A week before my birthday, in mid-July 2007, a great part of my trip to Africa was spent in Uganda at the Stephen Jota Children's Centre, a home and school for orphans from the nearby slums. A region ravaged by AIDS, Malaria, and poverty hosts some of the most beautiful smiles and sounds in the world, at least from my sonic range and perspective. As I sort through my audio, it impresses me that the sounds that I remember most are those of the people, particularly the children as they grabbed the microphones to speak into my field recorders. I would rush to put my headphones on their heads, as they listened intently to their own voices in amazement. Each listened with a twisted eyebrow, coinciding with a puzzled and pensive smile, and followed with a shout of glee, all which informed me that they had discovered a new sense of self. I have included a few photos here, by request, for it has taken me much longer to put together my sound piece - from the hours and hours of sound that I recorded. I can still hear their voices, although months and thousands of miles away. Perhaps this summer I will visit them, but this time in my recording studio as I attempt to recreate the sonic love that poured into my field decks. So check back here in a few months to hear what's up with Kampala.

Sound Dinner Revisited

2006-10-29T00:31:00.000-07:00

What's on the menu - a little less bass and a hint of this and that. Here's the sound dinner revisited. Let's see if this version of Sound Dinner is somewhat gentler to your computer speakers. Still some wind rumble with which to contend. See earlier entry for more info on what you are listening to here:

Welcome to Japan!

2006-10-28T15:33:00.001-07:00

A series of Japanese sounds follow...there's birds and traffic from Shibata, Niigata and some "mall" sounds from Toyko - as well as a few surprises. All sounds were recorded by college students on a summer trip.

A typical morning in Shibata. So very quiet. The raw recording was comprised of extremely long stretches of "silence" - 70% silence, 20% wind, 10% birds - this segment represents a fairly accurate representation of nearly 60 seconds of particularly busy activity for the birds during a period of about 20 minutes. I refer to the term "silence" very broadly and loosely here.

Busy Intersection?

2006-10-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

Here's "traffic" sounds at a major intersection outside the prison in Shibata - a town about 100,000. Fairly quiet for a busy intersection.

Sound Dinner

2006-10-22T22:40:00.001-07:00

All in all, nearly a dozen students headed for Japan - rural and uban - during Summer 2006. What is shared are the memories and impressions from some of the college students who attended a debriefing dinner. Here's a soundscape of what they heard, as remembered, with actual audio from their trip. The primary question centered around differences between Japan and U.S. sounds. Some of the students compared their sonic experiences within the context of other countries that they had travelled as well. Here's an except from the dinner, and field highlights from their trips. Spoiler: ending might be a bit bizarre for some listeners - includes excerpts from a worship service in Japan.

Sonic Tourist

2006-10-22T22:12:00.000-07:00

On being tourists. Conversations of college students, upon arrival to Japan, 2006, from America.

Sonic Stroll I

2006-10-22T22:04:00.000-07:00

A musical stroll through Japan - malls, stores, along the sidewalks (unprocessed)

Reflections - On Walking Japan

2006-10-22T21:59:00.000-07:00

Sonic Stroll II. Recalling a musical stroll through Japan: music from malls and stores, and street musicians, etc. (processed)

Nearly A Year Ago

2006-10-18T00:46:00.000-07:00

WALDEN 2005

COOLING WATERS OF APPROACHING WINTER - Last year on Thanksgiving, my family and I went on a recording stint to Concord, MA to hear Walden (and of course see it, too). Here's some pics, as I reflect - I remember that I never shared these photos.

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INTERNATIONAL ROUTE 66 FESTIVAL

2006-10-18T00:05:00.000-07:00

September 2006

Great times in Springfield. Chris and Julie (first pic) tagged along as I sought answers for my burning questions about the beginnings of the car radio in the early 1920s and 1930s, the romance between the car radio and the driver, the sense of freedom that music and the road give us, etc. I meet some really cool folks (see pics) - intelligent and knowledgeable. The more I find out, the more I realize I have only begun this project. Ultimately I will complete my book and hopefully accompany it with a soundscape that resonates road culture. What would have Thoreau thought - he was awed by the sounds of the train and its signaling of unrestrained technology.

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Tangled Up in Blue

2006-10-17T23:53:00.000-07:00

Legendary Strip. First Cold Day - and of course, it is recording day. Here's one of three groups (Fall 362 ers) which took to the campus strip - with mini disc and flash recorders in hand to discover and seek out sounds for their first soundwalk/soundscape. They are picking up where the summer 2006 362ers left off. Great stuff so far. Josh and I plan to continue chronicling the sounds of the strip - forever. With SIUC located so close to the Shawnee National Forest, you never know what you might hear on the strip - a bit of urban in a natural soundscape. We will resume recording in the summer edition of 362, with intentions to create a sound installation somewhere on campus featuring life along the strip in all its sonic glory. For more photos, go to our class site, soundpractice.blogspot.com

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SAP Adventures in Sound

2006-06-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

Hear Sound Art & Practice (RT/MUS 362) students headed off on their first soundwalk - playing with hard disk recordings for the first time. Location: the beautiful campus of Southern Illinois University nestled in the Shawnee National Forest and renowned as of late for its deer attacks on students. The students have been on several SWs since then.

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2006-06-03T09:53:00.000-07:00

Can you hear what I hear? Come along on 362's sound adventure - listen to group 2's findings along the way.

Sounds of Spring

2006-02-23T19:54:00.000-08:00

This entry continues the discussion on my sound survey project (first posting, 12/2/05).

As Spring approaches, I have begun to ponder on the fresh sounds of the season. At 6 a.m., the birds gather outside my bedroom window, oblivious to my need for sleep. I begin to remember how I would sit on the porch on warm spring days with my youngest (then a baby, now 8 years old) to listen to the sounds of daybreak. I am about to identify another batch of listeners to complete my sound survey. I thought I'd take this opportunity to review some of my interesting findings along the way...

A young Canadian woman recalled dogs barking, traffic sounds, and house and school noises from her childhood. She remembered visiting a waterfall during her sixth birthday. The sound markers across one’s life are often rooted in the “first” impressions that arise during one’s daily journey of discovery, rather than from any critical events.

An African-American woman who grew up to Elton John, Prince, Tears for Fears, Fleetwood Mac, and Peter Frampton, wrote: “At the time I hated it, but whenever I hear ‘Do You Feel Like I Do,’ I see my mother in her blue housecoat vacuuming and dusting around the house and singing in a horrible pitch. Not to mention the fact that I now love that song.” These are only a few of the sonic memories captured by the author’s sound survey.

My sound survey began with a prompting exercise to initiate recall of sound events (a 30 minute listening exercise that asks participants to focus on a particular sound at a self-selected location). Participants were then asked to recall dominating soundmarks (child and adult experiences that bring back intense sound memories), as well as the specific sounds and emotions attached to those memories. Most respondents (even urbanites) reported that they enjoyed listening to rural soundscapes, such as those identified around lakes, woods, picnics, and backyards (playground, swings, etc). These natural locations often triggered memories of grandparents and parents or what might be categorized as “family” experiences. The recollection of family memories were typically positive experiences, whereas “neighborhood” memories of the sound of lawn mowers, cars, trains, and buses, and other “noises” provoked mixed emotions at times. Nearly all respondents reported a sense of continuity in their childhood residence and/or family structure. Their present sound observations noted simple sound events – every day natural and man-made sounds – that triggered family and neighborhood memories. Certain songs also triggered family and friend centered memories among several respondents. Songs, rather than sounds, for many respondents, defined their latter stage of childhood.

Sound markers that emerged from respondents had little to do with nationality, but more often might be attributed to the rurality and/or urban nature of their community and a feeling of continuity and safety within one’s life (whether an individual moved; harmony within the family and community space).

If you would like to participate in this study, contact sonicsouper@yahoo.com.

Crossing Boundaries of Noise

2006-01-25T22:30:00.000-08:00

4. Dissonant Sounds

Industrialization produced a new type of modern noise that challenged prior ways of interpreting life through one’s sonic environment. Emily Thompson (2002, 1-2) demarcates this transition as the beginning of the “soundscape of modernity,” which ultimately created a unique culture of listening that began at the turn of the 20^th century. The rhythmic and dissonant sounds of industrialization began to initiate reinterpretations on personal and urban spaces (Sterne 2003).

A Log in the Ear

In the midst of the industrial revolution, consider Luigi Russolo’s Art of Noises (1913) that challenged the concept of noise as one in juxtaposition to traditional classical musical performances. In the early 1900s, he performed a series of concerts using what he called Intoners or sound machines, as he attempted to incorporate the culture of industrialization into music. He envisioned noise as the logical progression in music, as it should be expected to reflect the natural soundscapes of the era.

Ferrington (1994b, 1) describes "a human-centered soundscape" as “one most frequently characterized by the chaotic noise of our cities or the skies above.” In contrast according to Feld (1990), sound is best interpreted through a “world that is full of birds and live with their sounds” which span time and space and emerge “systematically patterned” (83-84). Sound experiences become social-political geographic events that are likely defined within personal and cultural interpretations (Forrester 2000; Schafer 1994). The people who live within a particular soundscape may comprise a sound sphere based on their common experiences.

Personal Sound Vibes

The degree to which individuals are impacted by their soundscapes has been only minimally investigated for its influence on their world view. Mediated voices and sounds from household television sets, for instance, contribute toward a personal sonic sphere. Sound – as words, music, ambience, physical vibrations, or subconscious impressions as it exists in rural and industrial spaces – is rarely studied for its cultural significance, especially as it relates to listener perception within mainstream and oppositional spheres of influence.

Researchers investigating the role of urban noise pollution have attempted to define it scientifically, physically, socially, and economically, as well as document the impact of noise on health (i.e., sleep interruptions, mental health) in developed countries (Garcia 2001; Gitlin 2002). Noise, like sound in general, is a very subjective concept that lends itself to a multitude of cultural interpretations.

The Thin Line

Sound is evolutionary, rarely revolutionary, in this sense. Along the way, noise is merely temporary dissonance that is often commoditized and perceived as a trend by those offended (Attali 1985) until it is assimilated into the mainstream and no longer perceived as a threat. What is disturbing for some listeners might provide peace and relevancy to another group. Rap music has been both an individual and cultural means of expression that has been simultaneously criticized and lauded among cultural theorists (Mitchell 2002; Rose 1994). Adam Krims (2000) argues that rap music is relevant to cultural studies and critical theories of communication.

The discussion here suggests that we push beyond "noise" assessments of rap music in the

U.S

. Reggae, punk, and electronic music have significant identifiable audiences and often exist outside the public sonic sphere. McAdams (1993: 146) concurrently points out physical attributes of sound composition, as well as listeners’ behavioral responses, contribute toward shaping a sound event or experience within personal schemata: “Which associations are activated and which subsequent actions are taken depend on the local context.” At the end of the day, we begin to realize that music is only one consideration within the larger "noisy" sonic sphere of our lives.

References
*Attali, Jacques (1985), Noise: The Political Economy of Music, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
*Garcia, Amando (2001), Environmental Urban Noise, Southhampton: Computational Mechanics.
*Gitlin, Todd (2002), Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives, New York: Metropolitan Books.
*Feld, Steven (1990), Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression, Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
*Ferrington, Gary (1994b), Kids, Noise, and Orchestrating the Soundscape, Techtrends, 39 (1) (25 April 2005)
http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/wfae/readings/earlids.html
*Forrester, Michael A. (2000), Auditory Perception and Sound as Event, Sound Journal (25 April 2005)
http://www.kent.ac.uk/sdfva/sound-journal/forrester001.html
*Krims, Adam (2000), Rap Music and the Poetics of Identity, New York: Cambridge
University Press.
*McAdams, Stephen (1993), Recognition of Sound Sources and Events, in S. McAdams & *Emmanuel Bigand, eds., Thinking in Sound: The Cognitive Psychology of Human Audition, New York: Oxford University Press, 146-198.
*Mitchell, Tony (2002), Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
*Rose, Tricia (1994), Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary American, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
*Russolo, Luigi (1919). Art of Noises (translated 1986). New York: Pendragon.
*Schafer, R. Murray (1994), Our Sonic Environment and the Soundscape: the Tuning of the World, Rochester, NY: Destiny Books. *Sterne, Jonathan (2003), The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
*Thompson, Emily (2002), The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America, 1900-1933, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Mapping Out Walden

2005-12-06T23:23:00.000-08:00

Left: Recent Walden
Right: Thoreau's Map of Walden Pond

Thursday is the day that we present at the NMC Online Conference on Educational Gaming.

We continue to work toward creating a Walden experience - where interactivity, nostalgia, and modernity challenge one's sonic perception. The bits and pieces are out there, but it's our mission to complete the puzzle for the ultimate sonic experience.

Before you record, you should consider what elements you'll need for your server of sonic soup. One way to do so is to organize your thoughts and sounds through mapping. Here's some background - (1) musical sound maps (a theoretical understanding) and/or (2) site specific sound maps (a practical application) - see below projects for ideas:

Berlin Soundscape (Organization Guide - See "Sounds")
University Soundscape
Puget Soundscape (click on map to hear sounds)
f7 Sound (http://www.f7sound.com). Check out the section on field recording.

Our Walden project has at least 5 production elements: (1) recording of sounds by project artists, (2) construction of a sound playlist (available via universal server), (3) sound input into server (participants' recordings), (4) manipulation of elements on map routes, and selection/creation of alternate routes, and (5) individual and team scenarios. Completion date is late Summer 2006, with testing in the Fall semester (with SIUC as the sonic hub). The idea is to build a sound archive and partnerhip with several universities....with the concept of Walden being a very open one. See Walden Around The World for a variety of persectives on the concept of Walden outside its physical location.

Articles
Sound and Geographic Visualization (J.B. Krygier)
Sound Mapping (For Children, but good starter)
Kids, Noise, and Orchestrating the Soundscape (Gary Ferrington)

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Computer Rain (Faster)

2005-12-06T23:10:00.000-08:00

Computer Rain again - this time with increased tempo at same speed. The sonic elements in a digital Walden can be manipulated. It's all about mixing and manipulation to achieve the perfect sonic Walden.

Rhythm of the Keyboard 2

2005-12-06T20:19:00.000-08:00

Here comes the computer rain. Typing on a computer keyboard creates sounds reminscent of rain for some listeners who hear urbanization and technology in the rural and natural. This sound clip is but one element in our postmodern Walden world - where the nostaglic converges into real time, and car key alarms imitate bird chirps ...and so it goes...and Thoreau's greatest hits randomly play off Ipods.

Winter Walk 1843

2005-12-06T15:45:00.000-08:00

I visited the Boston area over Thanksgiving, and had the opportunity to record sound around Walden Pond. About 45 minutes from Boston, Concord had a beautiful dusting of snow on the day after Thanksgiving. No snow in Boston. The crunching of the snow underfoot against a layer of leaves was an extraordinary sonic recording experience. What else would motivate one to tour Walden in late November? Thoreau's Chapters on Sound and Solitude provided the initial spark for my interest in this area. But his Winter Walk (1843) was as relevant on this particular day as it was 162 years ago. I will post my sound recordings (and photos) soon - for now, enjoy a reading of Thoreau's Winter Walk (link on the blog title). Happy Holidays.

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Rhythm of the Keyboard

2005-12-02T11:02:00.000-08:00

David Harvey (2001) calls attention toward the disappearance of clearly defined urban and rural geographies – physical and social.

Part of Sonic Walden's aim has been to understand how we remember and experience sound. I would like to take a moment to share some findings from my sound survey - 64 participants were asked to select a listening site, and then they described the site and any memories, moods, and thoughts that surfaced during this process. They maintained a journal for 10 days. About half of the students were Internationals and the other half Americans. Surprisingly, the results were about the same. When they were asked to select a listening site for this study, men chose listening spaces with machine sounds and women chose sites that were more people-oriented (perhaps out of convenience, yet the campus is located in a natural setting). Further, participants described natural settings, when directly asked to identify their favorite listening place(s). I have included a couple of journal entries that begin to illustrate how the computer is converging into our natural soundscapes - sounds glide (rather than collide) into one another within the sonic theater of our mind.

"While I was in the computer lab today, I was transported into the woods. As I sat typing, I became aware of the hum that the computers made. This sound remarkably resembled the sound of crickets singing their nightly songs in a rural area. I began to think about fishing at my Grandfather's farm and the sound of wilderness that surrounds the area."

"I heard the sound of my computer, vehicles passing by on this very quiet night. The sound of the vehicles on this empty road reminds me of the place where I came from. There, many street sellers displayed their merchandise with coconut oil lamps. This sound makes me feel peaceful and calm. "

Stay tuned for the next entry - Rhythm of the Keyboard, Part 2 (computer rain).

Gaming in Walden

2005-12-02T00:52:00.001-08:00

Join us for an on-line educational gaming conference hosted by the New Media Consortium on December 7 - 8th. I will present with Jonathan Pluskota our latest info regarding our Sonic Walden project on December 8 (1-1:45 pm CT).

Porch 2 - Sonic Utopia?

2005-12-01T22:59:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Front Porch - a listening space within a small community in southern Illinois and framed by the Shawnee National Forest. This rural soundscape is a mix of neighborhood and natural environmental sounds...that means a dash of leaves, wind, dogs, chimes, crickets, cars, whispers, walking, etc....to create a unique perspective of Walden. Change around the elements and you get a totally different interpretation. That's the idea! Walden is a personal space. Simply record a variety of sounds and mix and match until you create a sonicgraph of your listening space. Then swap sounds with a friend - and then with other friends - and record in a variety of settings during road trips to morning hikes - and weave your sounds into a sonic utopia. You'll be surprised how certain sounds trigger memories.

Hearing The Front Porch

2005-11-08T11:06:00.000-08:00

Photo from EarthPlay Projects
(Cornell University)

The wind chimes on my porch are a conscious effort to avoid silence – when they stop, the world seems to open up into a larger space. I can hear the cars swishing down the street, the bird songs are given prominence, and I hear the thicknesss of the rushing wind and the swirling of the fallen leaves – all actors in my nostalgic scripting of my sonic space….It is the difference between silence and solitude that fascinates me – along with many sound artists and writers…Silence, in reality, can never be accomplished (Cage gave evidence of that). Thoreau pointed out that solitude can be a state of mind. Margaret Fuller let us hear silence through women. As a society, we can silence individuals…and in reality that means not listening to them, not hearing them, ignoring their contributions – and that is essentially what Fuller was concerned with – silenced women in the midst of a vastness of untamed aurality. She sought silence and sound in the solitude of wilderness.

We all have our own personal sound spaces – and these combine to create nostalgic sonic spheres – personal and social (the latter being a sort of sound culture). So just listen. Close your eyes. What do you remember as you hear your surroundings? The sound of a flag pole can trigger powerful memories to many individuals. Can you hear the clanging on the pole? What sounds come to your mind – as you listen in your own personal sonic space? What is your daily soundscape? What are the soundscapes in your life?

Modernity in Walden

2005-11-08T08:25:00.000-08:00

3. “Modernity” Sounds of Walden

Thoreau’s cabin was nestled among the woods less than one quarter mile away from the Fitchburg Railroad stop. The train crossed near the southern tip of the pond, and its morning arrival was often cloaked by its own billowing clouds of smoke and the woods that stood between society and Thoreau: “I watch the passage of the morning cars with the same feeling that I do the rising of the sun, which is hardly more regular” (Thoreau, 1854, “Sounds”).

Thoreau was influenced by the philosophical convergence of spiritually and materiality, which for him began with his Unitarian upbringing and prospered through time spent with mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson. Thoreau’s Walden was a spiritual journey through sound and silence and his means toward greater introspection (Lambdin, 1969; Sherman, 1950). The aural passage of Thoreau’s “train” travels between an inner and outer sanctuary called Walden, a proximity juxtaposed by the sounds of modernity and nature with a revelatory translation into a Divine language, which he exclaims with words of praise, fear, and wonder through his writings. The railroad (in all its word forms) is mentioned 55 times by Thoreau in Walden, and the majority of these references are found in the first three chapters. The train whistle glides through the acoustical realm on one occasion; another time it is a crude iron beast that dominates the soundscape.

Perhaps it is the change in atmospheric pressure that accentuates the whistle for Thoreau, for that is a common meteorological phenomenon. Or perhaps, it is Thoreau’s perspective that evolves and devolves as he contemplates meaning from his observations. So it is not surprising that sound has the potential to promote both assimilation and alienation to a listener in a moment. The tumultuous expansion of the railways around Europe and the U.S. set the stage for mass efficiencies in production. Thoreau foreshadowed the significance of this second industrial age that would begin around 1870.

For two years, Thoreau lived near Walden Pond, a 62-acre pond with partly wooded shores. The area stretches into nearby Concord, Massachusetts, and it is approximately 15 miles west of Boston. Thoreau sensed not the absolute liberation that Walden might ideally provide him. There was a power that emanated from the “iron horse” that raced swiftly across towns and countryside, with little consideration to sonic boundaries. It announced its presence as a fearless and untamed beast unaware of any allegiance to its creator:

When I meet the engine with its train of cars moving off with planetary motion- or, rather, like a comet, for the beholder knows not if with that velocity and with that direction it will ever revisit this system, since its orbit does not look like a returning curve - with its steam cloud like a banner streaming behind in golden and silver wreaths, like many a downy cloud which I have seen, high in the heavens, unfolding its masses to the light - as if this traveling demigod, this cloud- compeller, would ere long take the sunset sky for the livery of his train; when I hear the iron horse make the bills echo with his snort like thunder, shaking the earth with his feet, and breathing fire and smoke from his nostrils… (Thoreau, 1856, “Sounds”)

It is interesting that Thoreau’s discussion of the Fitchburg train is heavily concentrated in the chapter, Sound. Nature and machine inevitably became part of one sonicscape.

Experience the Train - photo (above) and sounds from:

http://www.cyberbee.com/henryhikes/movies/fitchburg.mov

http://www.cyberbee.com/henryhikes/movies/trainsound.mov

Next in series - "Crossing the Boundaries of Noise...."

Online resources are available regarding the works of Thoreau, Fuller, and a host of new environmental artists and researchers through
"The Walden Woods Project" (founded in 1990 by Don Henley).

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Women of the New Walden

2005-11-08T07:47:00.000-08:00

Hildegard and The Other Women of the New Walden....

This Saturday (11.12.05), I will present "Women of the New Walden" at the Women in the Arts Conference (St. Louis University). Thanks to Kimberly and Jonathan Pluskota - owners of Alchemy Sound Recording Studio and The Mix Art Gallery (Carterville, IL - www.moonvibemedia.com) - for letting me use their "sweet" Protools suite (as well as wandering with me through the leaves, wind, and mire to record the sound piece that accompanies my paper). But the presentation isn't about me - it's about the emergence of women sound artists. So - I thought I'd pass along a few links of interest regarding some key women soundscape composers...

Hildegard Westerkamp

Ghosttowns in British Columbia (September 8-16, 2000)
http://www.sfu.ca/~westerka/installations/edgewilderness/edgewild.html

Moments of Laughter
http://www.sfu.ca/~westerka/programnotes/laughter.html

Andra McCartney
Soundwalking in Queen Elizabeth Park With Hildegard Westerkamp

http://www.emf.org/artists/mccartney00/walk.html

Also great material to inspire a walk in your hometown is a recent read by Janet Cardiff - The Walk Book (2005). She documents audio walks in London, New York and Paris.

Thoreau and Fuller

2005-11-08T07:23:00.000-08:00

2. Contributions to Early Industrial Sound Culture

Industrialization, particularly 1890-1930, produced a new type of modern noise that challenged prior ways of interpreting life through one’s sonic environment. The rhythmic and dissonant sounds of industrialization began to initiate reinterpretations on personal and urban spaces (Sterne, 2003). What is introduced as noise is soon assimilated into the soundscape of society (Attali, 1985; Keil & Feld, 1994; Thompson, 2002). Fuller was dismayed at the new immigrants’ inability or unwillingness to hear and see the beauty of nature, and rather they readily embraced and accepted the materialization of their new frontier as truth:

"It grieved me to hear these immigrants who were to be the fathers of a new race, all, from the old man down to the little girl, talking not of what they should do, but of what they should get in the new scene. It was to them a prospect, not of the unfolding nobler energies, but of more ease, and larger accumulation. It wearied me, too, to hear Trinity and Unity discussed in the poor, narrow doctrinal way on these free waters; but that will soon cease, there is not time for this clash of opinions in the West, where the clash of material interests is so noisy [Italics added]. They will need the spirit of religion more than ever to guide them, but will find less time than before for its doctrine. This change was to me, who am tired of the war of words on these subjects, and believe it only sows the wind to reap the whirlwind, refreshing, but I argue nothing from it; there is nothing real in the freedom of thought at the West" (Fuller, 1844, p. 18).

Modernity and mysticism were captured through the observations of Transcendentalists like Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) and Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862). Although it might be easily argued that Fuller became one of the movements’ most ardent critics. Through the writings of Fuller and Thoreau, we begin to hear nature’s voice and a sonic identity emerges through their narratives and aural descriptions. The Transcendental movement heightened a sense of environmental nostalgia, as urban and rural spaces collided with modernity. Conventional religion, namely Puritanism, failed to capture the divine organization and spiritual expression within one’s life that might be otherwise revealed, according to transcendentalists, through introspection. The coming industrial age is symbolically represented through Fuller’s steamships and Thoreau’s locomotives, as evidenced by their respective writings on nature of the upper Midwest and New England. Fuller’s 1844 edition of Summer on the Lakes logs her travels through Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois, and some of the sounds that she heard:

"I used to hear the girls singing and laughing as they were cutting down boughs at Mackinaw; this part of their employment, though laborious, gives them the pleasure being a great deal in the free woods" (Fuller, 1844, p. 245).

She saw her experiences as conversations, and much of her writings involve her aural interactions with people of various ethnicities and cultures. In contrast, Thoreau blended into his landscape; he noted his observations and interactions with his environment introspectively. In 1845, he would begin to write about an 1839 canoe trip on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers three years after his brother died. He spent two years in Walden Woods. He had retreated into the solitude of the woods, although he could not completely escape the occasional visitor or sound of the locomotive that signaled the arrival of goods to the merchants gathered in the center of town. The sound of nature and roar of machine, intertwined into one composition, had inevitably become part of the same sonicscape. Fuller and Thoreau were compelled to appreciate and document their spirituality – and that of others - during these transitional years from naturalism toward industrialism. The Transcendental movement heightened a sense of environmental nostalgia, as culture and urban and rural spaces collided with modernity.

Stay tuned - Next in Series, "Modernity Sounds of Walden"

Sonic Cafe - A Taste of Acoustic Ecology

2005-11-06T16:14:00.000-08:00

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World Forum of Acoustic Ecology

American Society of Acoustic Ecology

Sonic Interventions

Hildegard Westerkamp

Steven Feld

R. Murray Schafer

The Walden Woods Project

EarthEar

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Personal Waldens of the Stereo Forest

2005-11-06T13:40:00.000-08:00

 

This series explores the nostalgic space between
technology and nature, as remembered and experienced by listeners.
The natural is unfortunately often interpreted as the mundane
until it is digitally recorded, reinterpreted and repackaged.
Sonic multiplicity of the natural becomes potentially
minimized and artificial. Yet, the stereo forest emerges
from this convergence of natural and modernization as a
space of negotiation and fluidity between urbanity and
rurality. Located in this undefined space, sound is
expressed within and as culture, and perhaps as echno-culture.

1. Introduction....

David Harvey has specifically addressed the disappearance of clearly defined urban and rural geographies – physical and social. The authors attempt to elaborate on his discussion, after establishing what we shall refer to as “sonic transdifference” - the nostalgic and cultural space between technology and nature, as remembered and experienced by listeners. The snapping of a twig, the hoot of an owl, and rustle of a leaf compete for a hearer’s attention against what we define as the “stereo forest.” With the advent of mobile and digital technologies, such as traditional transistor radios, miniCD players, and iPods, the natural has become inundated by sonic strife. Moreover, the natural is unfortunately often interpreted as the mundane until it is digitally recorded, reinterpreted and repackaged. Sonic multiplicity of the natural becomes potentially minimized and artificial. Yet, the stereo forest emerges from this convergence of natural and modernization as a space of negotiation and fluidity between urbanity and rurality. Located in this undefined space, sound is expressed within and as culture, and perhaps as echno-culture which metaphorically constructs a postmodern version of Walden. We perceive the phenomena as an evolutionary “stereo forest” - the technological reverberation of industrialization that is increasingly inseparable from a listener’s perception of the natural.

Consider the rhythmic and dissonant sounds of industrialization that initiated reinterpretations on personal and urban spaces (Sterne, 2003). More than a century later, individuals are still impacted by their sonic environment, which ultimately has been only minimally investigated for its influence on one’s world view. Mediated voices and sounds, for instance, contribute toward a personal sonic sphere. Sound – as words, music, ambience, physical vibrations, or subconscious impressions as it exists in rural and industrial spaces – is rarely studied for its cultural significance. Sonicity, as a theoretical concept, reclaims sound as a viable cultural influence within the socialization of the individual. One’s identification of preference toward music genre, orality, and urban or rural spaces, as well as one’s emotive and physical aurality, are examples of the breadth of sonicity.

Important to this discussion is the process of sonic negotiation among individuals and societies during momentary lapses of cultural stability, at which point identity space may be reinterpreted contextually and temporally. Noise, or sonic strife, among various constituencies might be theorized as the “space between cultures” (Breinig & Lösch, 2002, p. 26). As a cultural phenomena, sound offers definition and elaboration to self and societal identities. I draw upon the work of transcendentalists Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller, sound historians Emily Thompson (2002) and Jonathan Sterne (2003) and postmodern anthropologist David Harvey (2001) to explore the intersections of sonic spheres of convergent and divergent influence within a larger framework of cultural re/formation.

In the days ahead.....I also share perspectives from an ongoing journaling project that asks participants (and the presenter) to locate and describe listening space (personal Waldens). As technology attempts to magnify sonic identity, it appears relevant to consider the presence or absence of a sound culture against traditional conceptions of culture, such as ethnicity, for example, and more recently definitions of gender. Perspectives of those traveling to and from rural and urban spaces help to illustrate indistinguishable sonic boundaries that began during the early industrialization of America.

Thoreau’s chapter on “Sound” in Walden sets the stage for our discussion; in coping with modernization (and now post-), listeners seek the nostalgic. The stereo forest is a metaphor like that of Thoreau’s train which dissects and unites Walden.

Next in series: "Thoreau and Fuller"