I took part in a 'soundwalk' from the main conference building to the Whitworth Art Gallery at the Beyond Text? Conference last weekend.
A large group of us took the walk through the campus in the steady rain. We were advised to walk in silence and told that a true soundwalk should be taken in isolation, such that you should be unable to hear other people's footsteps. Alas in this case it was not to be, one of the female members of the group had clip-clop high heels on which resonated in the empty corridors between buildings.
It was an interesting experience, perhaps more so as I became aware, not of sound, but of the haptic nature of the environment. Apart from the clip-clop of shoes the most distinct sounds to me was the gentle insistent patter of the rain and the fading in and out of road traffic as we walked closer and further from the main road.
However, as we walked my bag (containing my impractically heavy laptop, 3 books, notebook, brick of a phone, wallet etc) became heavier with each step, digging into my shoulder. I could feel the rain hitting my waterproof jacket and my hair and face. I felt the texture of the road beneath my (also impractical) thin soled boots and, once we reached the muted peace of the park, the squelchy soft mud underfoot.
Back in the conference, a interminably long closing session speech noted that someone (I didn't catch who) suggested that there is only one sense - touch. I.e. sound physically hits eardrums. It was only then that I realised that I had failed to listen after the first couple of minutes of the soundwalk and simply noted what was important to me. I query whether sound means much in isolation - in our Western culture anyway. Does anyone go to hear a band nowadays? Whenever I go to a gig it's a case of 'going to see a band'. After all I can hear them much better on CD and mp3. To me, sound is only one element - without the visual I lose interest.
In fact, I have to confess I fell asleep at one of Steven Feld's talks. He was playing a recording of water and sleigh bells. The concert hall was dark and the sounds so relaxing...
But maybe that's just me.
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1 comment:
Hiya,
I was scanning through the staff profiles when I came across your blog entry. It's really interesting to read what you have to say, given that it crosses over into my research interests!
If you're interested in this sort of thing, and if you haven't come across it before, I'd definitely recommend Michael Southworth's 1969 study of the Boston soundscape, in which he asked participants to undertake a soundwalk over different locations within the city. What was interesting was that he split subjects into different "impaired" groups - subjects were either impaired visually (through being blindfolded), aurally impaired (through wearing a combination of earmuffs and earplugs) and a "control" group of subjects who were neither visually nor aurally impaired. The results were really interesting, particularly as differently impaired subjects offered up significantly different opinions of particular locations depending upon their impairment, while it was found that those who weren't impaired often brought in their other senses and often overlooked (or overheard) aspects of the environment that their visual-only and auditory-only counterparts noticed.
I could also use this opportunity to bring up other aspects of your blog but, since I'm supposed to be writing my thesis, I think I'll leave it just now...:p
Graeme
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