Thursday, September 24, 2009

Everyday Sounds – Exercise 3 – Part 1

Part A

Outdoors:

Where: On the grass near four winds drive.

When: 4:00pm

Sound Notes:

  • a fly buzzing
  • air vent from the underground parking garage
  • kids making non-sense noises
  • people walking
  • a loud annoying bug
  • kids playing and shouting back and forth
  • the wind blowing past my ear and through the leaves in the trees
  • the kids bouncing some sort of ball
  • a crunchy leaf blowing across the nearby pavement
  • the wind catching the pages of my notebook
  • a crunchy leaf falling next to me
  • a car drives by with some sort of squeaking noise suggesting it needs some sort of tune up
  • I become aware of the vent again and then notice the leaves rustling in the bush beside it
  • a kid on his bike squeaks by while he shouts non-sense 'whooping' noises
  • some sort of loud heavy sounding creaking in the distance
  • a car alarm goes off momentarily
  • another squeaky car drives by while another squeaks its brakes nearby
  • someone walks by on the grass and I hear their rustling footsteps
  • birds continue to chirp from near and far
  • a dog barks a few times
  • more cars drive by
  • some different birds start chirping
  • the wind picks up again rustling both pages and leaves
  • the alarm on my cell phone goes off telling me my 10mins is up

Reflection:

The loudest sound was the vent but I did eventually lose my awareness of it only to remember it was there again later. Many sounds were very faint and I had to listen hard past the nearby sounds; by concentrating on distant noises I began to lose my perception of the sounds nearby. I realized that there was always some sort of noise going on and there was never silence.

Indoors:

Where: Sitting in a classroom before class starts up.

When: 4:30pm

Sound Notes:

  • people talking
  • footsteps as people walk by
  • the guy next to me starts talking to me and I tell him to stop
  • he continues talking to annoy me which distracts me from the other sounds in the room
  • pages turning
  • someone whistling
  • my own sniffling
  • chairs squeaking and creaking as people roll them around the room
  • air moving through the vents
  • a mac error message
  • coughing
  • someone drinking from a water bottle - i can hear the plastic crinkle and the water slosh
  • footsteps as someone walks by
  • the hiss of someone opening a pop bottle
  • someone humming some unknown tune
  • more footsteps
  • more chairs rolling
  • people are still talking and I hear someone say my name
  • more footsteps
  • I continue to sniffle
  • more talking and mumbling with the occasional laugh
  • something is set down on a table nearby
  • a book gets moved on the tabletop
  • I can hear people's conversations
  • someone taps a keyboard with a pencil then proceeds to type
  • fingers tapping
  • more coughing
  • more laughing
  • my alarm going off to tell me the 10mins have passed

Reflection:

I was very aware that the sound of the air conditioning created a background 'indoor' sound. Even after the exercise when the class started and people stopped talking, I still noticed that there were always little sounds of movement and the noise never really stopped.

Part B
While listening in a crowded room it was very difficult to pick out anything actually being said. The way I found to listen in on peoples conversations was to turn my ear to them and look at their mouths moving; once I determined what part of the noise they were making by the way their lips were moving I found it easier to just tune in on them. I noticed that even though I could probably hear the voices of the people further away, I could not determine what they were saying no matter how hard I tried to listen.

Part C

Sounds that may evoke an image are the sound of birds chirping and the sound of running water.

Images that provoke a sound can be a person screaming or breaking glass

Sounds that provoke a feeling are music (of any kind) and the sound of emotion (like someone crying, laughing, etc)

Sounds that provoke a thought are unidentifiable sounds (because you wonder what it was) and sirens (because you wonder what happened).

Sounds that compete with an image may be the sound of a quaking duck with the picture of a cow or the sound of a woman with the image of a man.

Sounds that counter an image could be the sound of a thunderstorm with a picture of sunshine or a quiet sound with an image of a car crash.

No comments:

Post a Comment