MEDP/FILMP 150: Media and Film in a Digital Age
Spring 2009
Anderson/Lucas
BLOG ENTRY #4: WHAT I HEAR
Spend an hour doing a “Soundwalk” around a particular neighborhood in NYC.
A “soundwalk” is a term invented by R. Murray Shafer, a musician and former professor at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. Shafer noticed in working with his music students that most of them couldn’t remember even five sounds they had heard earlier that day. He created the soundwalk, a kind of walking meditation, as an “ear cleaning exercise” as a way to increase sonic awareness.
Some of Shafer’s terminology might be useful to you in writing about your experience on the soundwalk:
· Keynotes: background sounds
· Sound Signals: foreground sounds intended to attract attention
· Soundmarks: sounds particularly regarded by a community or its visitors (analogous to visual “landmarks”
In An Introduction to Acoustic Ecology, Kendall Wrightson writes, “In order to listen we must stop, or at least slow down – physically and psychologically. We need to try to be humans beings, instead of ‘human doings.’”
So – during your soundwalk, do not answer your phone, text message, browse the internet, read, or do anything but be and listen.
250 words, due week of May 11 in lab
