Soundwalk response questions

Were you able to find places and spaces where you could really listen? Not many; there was often traffic in the background. I think the closest I got was under the Mellencamp-Mitchell skywalk and the underground parking lots, far away from whatever was making the humming/droning noises.

Was it possible to move without making a sound? Probably not, especially not at the pace we were going, although I did try. I could hear my pants leg scuffing across each other, and my books shifting around in my backpack.

What happened when you plugged you ears, and then unplugged them? Nothing. I hear through the microphone on my headpiece (that little round thingamajig stuck on my head), not through my ears. So plugging and unplugging my ears would have absolutely no effect. However, if I were to take the headpiece off, or switch off my cochlear implant, then I wouldn't hear anything at all.

What types of sounds were you able to hear? List them. First thing to mind is traffic and various car-related noises. Also, footsteps and background chatter. The humming drone of the furnace and a similar noise in the underground parking structure, although I couldn't have told you where they came from. Also, doors squeaking and clicking shut (never noticed how noisy UWM doors are until now); bike chains clinking; books shuffling and papers rustling; maybe a bird once, but that might have been another door creaking.

Were you able to differentiate between sounds that had a recognizable source and those sounds you could not place? To a certain extent, yes. There are sounds I hear every day-- cars, people talking, footsteps, doors squeaking-- so I am very familiar with them. Other sounds I don't hear as often, I end up comparing them to the closest alternative I know-- e.g., the humming in the Union parking structure to the refrigerator at home, only not quite as loud, and not quite as annoying, and not quite as refrigerator-y.

Were you able to differentiate human, mechanical, and natural sounds? Yes. Other than that one chirp/squeak that may or may not have been a bird, I could differentiate between the three fairly easily. Mechanical noises tend to follow a "pattern" of sorts-- it never, ever changes, never pauses-- until someone turns it off, and then it just... dies, just like that, and it leaves a weird hollow vacuum. Human and natural noises are much more fluid, much more vibrant. People generally don't take pains to be quiet, especially in each others' company-- they clomp around rather carelessly (it's like controlled falling, really), talking, occasionally burst into laughter or cough or sneeze, jiggle key chains or shift backpacks. Face it-- we're noisy pains in the butts. Natural sounds tend to be more subtle and more sporadic, and much more difficult to detect in an urban landscape. Sometimes a branch cracks under someone's foot, or a bird chirps-- probably in direct relation to the proximity of other birds. That's not exactly easy to confuse with a blaring car horn.

Were you able to detect subtleties, changes, or variations in the everpresent drone? To a certain extent, yes. For instance, car noises are extremely familiar to me, but sometimes I have difficulty distinguishing between a running engine and a revving engine. Someone else mentioned they heard a car starting; I remember it vaguely, but at the time it was just another traffic noise. I did notice that the cars passing by us emitted slightly different variations of a running engine, though. Same for background chatter-- although I can identify human speech, I have difficulty understanding it. I guess it depends on how subtle the change is.

Extremely close sounds? Sounds coming from very far away? Extremely close sounds, yes. Sounds from far away... hm... not so much, I don't think. Especially not when there was traffic in the background or humming vents overhead.

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 unintentionally cracked ice under my footsteps. Does that count?

Do you feel you have a new understanding or appreciation of the sounds of our contemporary landscape/cityscape? Aside from the drone of traffic in the distance, yes, I think it's improved. Very interesting exercise; I look forward to doing it on my own. I certainly noticed certain variations, which I wasn't aware of before. And the other students mentioned quite a few sounds that I will be listening for in the future.

How do you think your soundwalk experience will affet your practice as a media artist, if at all? I'm hoping it'll help me attain a more "realisitic" understanding of the atmosphere that permeats given locales. While I am aware of many of the noises around me, I'm often not too attuned into their subtleties/variations; perhaps partly because I focus so much on just trying to understand human speech and anything that interferes is a mere annoyance to be muted or avoided.
Also, I usually have difficulty reproducing or describing those sounds, especially if I don't see them in print. For example, I might think of a 'BOOM' as a 'CLANG' instead, or mistake a 'thwck-thwck-thwck' for a 'fwip-fwip-fwip.' Hopefully the Soundwalk will help me get a handle on that as well.