EK: videos with binaural sound, audio mixes with binaural sound
— see google drive folder linked above
ELLINGSEN LECTURE and WORKSHOP NOTES
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
‘'Time' and'timing' will structure the walkshop, rather than space. By which I mean, rather than meeting each other at geographic locations, corners, signs,etc., we will set our own rhythms and stay within earshot of each other on the same block. This will compress space around us, lightly bump, not interrupt, pedestrian flows like throwing a handful of rocks in a stream-- curious turbulence. We will basically look like a lot of slightly too slow walkers. Will not be aggressive at all; will not really call attention to itself, but give attention to the sounds of the things around us. The sound and unsound things. Monk with bowl in'Baraka' comes to mind, but without the bowl and with no aspiration to become monks, unless Thelonius :) These are your neighbors. We will be neighborly.
Goal is asked to map the threshold of the School entrance(ZONE 1) with the block the school is on(ZONE 2). We do not need to go far, and I think this is really going to work for us. We tuck the walk in, tighten it up. We spend time in what we already thing we know - the familiar, the sounds we have acclimated to.
ZONE 1: we basically walk through the security zone a few times-- 4 times(back-and-forth)-- with specific listening instructions, and
ZONE 2: we walk around the block 2 times. That's it. Each will set their own pace. We will start and end at classroom.’
The Terms:
Everyone is asked to listen to all the sounds in each of the Zones, and select 1 sound in each Zone. Attend to that sound; give it attention. Recognize it on its own terms, then offer it one of your terms(concept).
Everyone will be asked to(a) note two sounds, one in each Zone-- literally translated the sound into a note(in-voice it), and record it. Isolate it. Focus on it, the source of the sound, and the sound we translate it into. Is the source of the sound mechanical for example, seasonal. Interview the sound. Question it. It is seasonal? Regulated? Consider the source. What are the sounds vibratory relationships with the world, and with its immediate sound neighbors. Record and note the two locations of the two sounds, the source of the sound, the rhythms, signatures, patterns and phases. From those two sounds each person will be asked to make a chord(accord). We can put our chords together or not, am working through the timing of all this now.
Everyone will also be asked(b) to note the sound with an inscription -- geographically locate the sounds on a sketch of the Zone that will be handed out to everyone before we head outdoors(basically blank paper and black pen). Each person is asked to translate their two sounds a notation, a sign, a conscious mark. As a group in the classroom-- last 45 minutes, we will Wookie these signs together as our'Urban Score'-- will look great!! And sound great! Am working out time now in terms of how much we can do once back in the classroom. With 40 people we will have quite a good map of the sciruty Zone(imagine point-clouds in archeology survey); and with 40 people mapping one sound on the block, and where those sounds occur, we will have quite interesting map/score. Will be simple and precise.
Walk around the block(ambulate; the'amb') and through the security--
Everyone will be asked to set their own pace and hold that pace for a certain amount of time(working this out now). Urban campuses require incredible complexities when having to'enforce' a safe space. I learned this at SAIC, and value it, like we said when we spoke - I don't want to subvert or antagonize the system on our walkshop. Especially the good docents that attend to the schools front doors and interface between the public and private, gate the flows so to speak. Thermodynamic gates come to mind. Flows. Electrical circuits. I do want to play with the uniqueness of the moment of going to the other side of something. To dwell in the official of passage. Life and death associations are welcome. Our intention is to acknowledge these carefully constructed and mediated zones, to pay attention to it, nod to it like when entering a Japanese garden, rather than disturb it. And then to archive it, note it, translate it into something that is informed by the particularities of these structures and systems. Energetic gates come to mind; synapses; cell lattices in tree rings marking the year. Koyanaquatsi. Positive things. When systems open(opening of Lisbon Story; Berlin wall). And negative systems. Customs. The biases and profiling that occurs. The clarity of what'privilege' is, and who has it.'Minority Report' and'Blade Runner' come to mind;'children of men', Don Hertzfelds'the meaning of life'; a lot of Marker films; rites, rituals of passage, Kafka's Before the Law-- and all the things we spoke about. These zones reinforce systems of membership, citizenship, inside and outside communities. Implicit and explicit behavioral contracts entangle, terms of'cooperating'. Technologically speaking, interoperability comes to mind-- other things. Let's see what comes up with the students. Will set them in motion and give everyone a chance with the bull(in the classroom).
I don't think we are doing anything that requires permission, it should not require it in my opinion, but I do think it would be good to sidle-up with one of the security guards you know and help them to feel positive curious and comfortable that we will be walking and back-and-forth through the check-in a few times. We won't be loitering, but we will linger in the overlaps.
We are listening to the everyday things around us and noting the passing though to the other side of things. The security checkpoint. The other side of the street that we usually don't take. Etc.
If you are interested in doing a city soundwalk thru a different‘lens’, please
ELLINGSEN LECTURE and WORKSHOP NOTES