Soundwalk Response

The soundwalk was quite an interesting experience. I showed up not really knowing what to expect of the whole thing like where we would go, what exactly we would do to try and listen for things, and how I was going to react to all of it. Well everything went stunningly well. We started out in our lab room and wound our way out of the building and out into the campus. After winding around the music building we ended up filing into the Union. There were lots of interesting sounds outside.

It never really occurs to me what sounds make up the everyday hustle and bustle of the city, but I'm sure this is mainly because I have grown accustomed to meandering about while listening to my ipod. I noticed all kinds of sounds that when "meshed" together don't really seem to sound like much at all. Everything just tends to flow into a never ending drone. Once in the Union, we wound around a little; up the stairs, down the stairs, around the stairs, and finally into the main atrium. Once there, we sat around for a while and "mapped" the sounds around us as we heard them. After mapping our bodymap excercise we left the Union via the front doors and wound back down to the room. All in all, it was quite an interesting experience. Like I said earlier, I never really thought about (or cared for that matter) all the various sounds that surround me every day. Weird.

1. Were you able to find places and spaces where you could really listen? Not really. Pretty much everywhere we went there was an overwhelming background drone... just kind of a mix of sound.
2. Was it possible to move without making a sound? Probably not. I could move without hearing myself well but I'm sure I was still producing sound.
   
3. What happened when you plugged your ears, and then unplugged them?Everything got much quieter. Sounds were either muffled our completely extinguished.
   
4. What types of sounds were you able to hear? List them. ^^See above.
   
5. Were you able to differentiate between sounds that had a recognizable source and those sounds you could not place? Yes, but on different levels. Some were easily distinguishable but others were not at all.
   
6. Were you able to differentiate human, mechanical, and natural sounds? Yes.
   
7. Were you able to detect subtleties, changes, or variations in the everpresent drone?Some changes depending on where I was in relation to buildings, trees, and other large objects.
   
8. Extremely close sounds? Yes. Sounds coming from very far away? Yes. (airplane)
   
9. 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.? I didn't really try.
   
10. Do you feel you have a new understanding or appreciation of the sounds of our contemporary landscape/cityscape? Absolutely.
    
11. How do you think your soundwalk experience will affect your practice as a media artist, if at all? I'm hoping it will help me pay more attention to the sounds my surroundings produce.
    

-Ian

*No more photo issues!*

Drift 1 Starting Point & Strategy

I decided to make sure that 100% of my Drift project is the fruit of my own ideas. That should obviously go without saying. In keeping with that decision, I felt that I needed to come up with a strategy for planning my drift route that I hadn't heard suggested already. Here is what I did...

First, I borrowed a dart from a friend. After that, I printed off a map of downtown Milwaukee which I proceeded to pin to the cork board on my desk. I stepped back a few feet, and started having some fun. After ten good throws in a general area (I don't feel like meandering across the ENTIRE city, just a good portion of it) I marked off the points with a highlighter and... voila! My Drift strategy is complete. I will be starting somewhere near the corner of Jackson St. and Pleasant St. since the dart ended up in the middle of the block.

Here's hoping that I don't end up getting lost...

-Ian