Soundwalk

To start I am a DJ and a music producer. My ears are usually plugged with earphones and I am in a perpetual state of “music video.” My visuals rarely are in sync with my audio for this reason. I spend time outdoors without music, only when I am conversing with the company I am surrounded with. Unless there is a blaring siren or a loud commotion, I am used to tuning out noise other than the sound of conversation. It is not that I am unaware of the background noise, but I don't acknowledge it. Though simple, an opportunity for a soundwalk was refreshing and a new experience for me. I spend almost all of my days in the city and get home to Queens fairly late. I decided to do my soundwalk in my immediate neighborhood, which is a more suburban area. Compared to the city, and especially at night, my neighborhood is quiet.

My immediate thought was that the area had a dry texture of sound. Usually, I would regard the wind as a background noise. In comparison to the lack of sound, the strong winds caused the loudest noise. Immediately after, I would hear the dry leaves shaking in the wind and sounded like an instrument called the rainstick. Ironically, the dead leaves moved by the wind, would sound similar to rain. The wind would also cause signs to clink metal, and occasionally cause litter to roll around. It sounded like an industrial track without rhythm.

I also never realized how much I hear the movements that my body makes. Obviously, this was a sound loudest to me, but one I tune out the most. I heard myself breathing at times, my nose sniffling in the cold, and my feet hitting the ground.

            In the foreground, the most “exciting” sound of was cars passing by.  Concentrating on sound made it seem as if each car’s sound was reflective of the driver. There were cars with loud or quiet engines and the sounds were different at variable speeds.

            My soundwalk’s soundmark was actually the absence of sound. My neighborhood is away from the bustle of the city. Due to the lack of sound, I was able to realize how loud background noise can be at times. I wanted to have a soundwalk with unique sounds. What was unexpected was that the quiet could be a unique experience in itself. Through the soundwalk I was able to think about how much more detail I could add to the audio aspect of a film.