Soundwalk

Were you able to find places and spaces where you could really listen? Yes, we sat out on the side by the Mitchell building next to the bus loading area.

Was it possible to move without making a sound? Not exactly, were sitting in the grass so whenever someone moved, you could hear the grass ruffling under thier feet/body.

What happened when you plugged your ears, and then unplugged them? It sounded like a seashell, everything seemed to be at a distance and there was no particular noise you could hear just a shallow, airy sound.

In your sound log exercise, what types of sounds were you able to hear? List them.
Leaves Crunching
Laughter
Trees and wind swishing
Car/Bus engines
Planes
Shoes ruffling in grass
Bus or Truck beeps(backing up)
Girl coughing
Squeaky brakes
Keys
Food wrappers(Burger King)
Phone vibrating
Paper blowing in wind
Birds
Kids

Were you able to differentiate between sounds that had a recognizable source and those sounds you could not place? Yes because I usually hear alot of these sounds on a daily so alot of them are easy to name.

Human sounds? Mechanical sounds? Natural sounds? All,people were constantly walking by, listening to thier iPods, talking amongst themselves,etc. Cars and busses were the loudest the busses brakes were really squeaky and cars would constantly zoom by or people would honk at the pedestrians. The wind was also blowing constantly so we could hear the leaves and branches brushing up against one another.

Were you able to detect subtleties in the everpresent drone? Yes I could hear the humming of some of the buildings that were close by.(Mitchell, the Arts Building and the Union.)

Extremely close sounds? Sounds coming from very far away? I was close to a bush and a tree so I could hear the birds chirp even with my ears closed;I couldn't really hear much far away though, maybe music from peoples' cars.

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)? I could hear alot of swishing with the bushes and trees, there was also paper ruffeling from our notebooks.

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.? Yes we heard slight echoing when we tapped a medal ramp handles and at a certain angle in the corner of the Lubar building.

Do you feel you have a new understanding or appreciation of the sounds of our contemporary landscape/cityscape? Yes, not exactlly new though just a little bit of an altered understanding because our focus was to try to describe some of the noises we heard with words and some sounds can't be described. It was also a little intresting to try and see how far I could actually hear.

How do you think your soundwalk experience will affect your practice as a media artist, if at all? As a media artist I am now more aware when it comes to sound, as a media artist my aim would be to find new ways to explore sound and experiment with my results.