A site specific audio walk in the tradition of Janet Cardiff.  I am so intrigued by the curious, secret worlds she weaves.  At first, I didn’t realize they were site specific, and I don’t think they need to be experienced in the location to be exciting pieces of sound art.  Unlike Hildegard Westerkamp’s Kit’s Beach Soundwalk, which sounds like it was recorded on a studio mic, Cardiff’s audio walks feel live.  Whereas Westerkamp’s dream logic is private to her, Cardiff invites you to share in her own.  She sounds like she is walking with you, and I found this very effective. So I recorded mine on location, to capture the motion and strain of the walk.  This also captured the ambient sounds of the location, which are of course different from the sounds when the participant hears them, giving a window into another time in the same location. 

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I instruct the listener to physically interact with and investigate the environment to uncover sonic fantasy worlds. For instance, as the listener digs a hole, a new sound comes into focus.  These worlds consist of sound poetry, pieces chosen for little tonal and contextual nods to the environment and other parts of the narration.  Sound poetry is often nonsense, both on the page and to the ear, because it consists of letters and/or words that are dislocated from their meaning.  It’s similar to acousmatic or reduced listening.  This form of listening relies on duration; the ear and performer need time to unearth the musicality of the sounds. 

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Voices:

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Clare Marie Nemanich narrating

Max Thornton reading “Gyre’s Galax” by Norman Henry Pritchard II

Erica Malachowski reading “I am That, Am I” by Brion Gysin

Alessandro Streccioni speaking Italian

Angela Rosado speaking Spanish

Bar Landau speaking Hebrew

biiirth speaking Portuguese

Byungkyu Lee speaking Korean

Cora Badey speaking French

Peter Hager speaking Tagalog

Wei-Fang Chang speaking Mandarin