Sounds I heard in half an hour sitting in my room with the
window open:
A friend screeches “Kaká!!!” to assert her noise on my
soundscape exercise
My breathing, but only if I take a deep breath
Leather slippers padding on a wood floor
Thumping as a housemate plods up the stairs
Clapping and laughter, a pause, a soft voice speaking, the
word “Awesome” whispered louder than the spoken words before it, giggling
punctuated with a snort
My pencil scratching on a pad of paper
A car drives by, I become aware of the constant “ssshhhh” of
cars on the freeway.
The artificial sound of a box opening when I wake up my
iPhone
Five distinct bird calls
The engine of a car in the driveway next door, the sound
rattles into silence and two doors open and shut. Voices of a couple make their
way toward the house—the woman has a high pitched chatter and the man speaks in
low tones. I try to make out his words
and then hear the smack of their door closing and the voices are cut off.
A honk
A gust of wind
The faint whine of a siren swings up and down in pitch,
growing louder and louder, hitting its peak as its ambulance darts past my
window, and then fading and giving way to the rush of traffic on 95 and the
trilling of a bird that must be near, though I can’t spot him at his perch.
These sounds tell simple stories—stories we are accustomed
to ignoring. In doing so, we miss an
opportunity to appreciate the sounds as objects separate from our
interpretations of them. Until this
exercise, for example, I never noticed how melodic my friend’s speaking voice
is. She’s practically singing. I want to be more aware of the soundscape so
as to situate myself aesthetically in my immediate environment.
First and foremost, it is both nice and fair of you to include your friends screech in your post, considering the nature of the noise. More importantly, I can’t help but notice that your sound experience was very similar to mine. I spent time sitting on my porch, only a wall away from where you sat (effectively), and it appears that my only differences were a lack of inside noises and an increased ability to distinguish the words of people passing. I also appreciate your honesty in including your iPhone as well as your awareness in including your breathing. Great observational work.
ReplyDeleteThe simplicity of your analysis is both striking and beautiful. I too would like to better objectively appreciate the sound around me on a daily basis, as well as the smells, sights, and feelings. Overall, I believe your posting was very successfully meditative and present.
I agree with your analysis of the soundscape: an awareness of soundscape can heighten your sensitivity to otherwise ignored sounds. For example, the note of the sounds of your own breath and pencil are written after other, more obvious sounds--you could only become aware of these background noises after focusing on the entire soundscape.
ReplyDeleteSo far this is the only post I've seen where someone reports that other people in the room are aware of the nature of the exercise. (Nice example of reflexivity!) I agree that all the soundscape posts seem to contain the seeds of little stories, and sometimes even hints of not-so-simple plots; your choice of language to describe the couple in conversation (chatter, smack, cut off) has a lot of dramatic/narrative potential.
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