Ambient Sound Field
A transect (transverse section) is a mapping technique. It requires an observer to move along a path to document a sequence of occurrences. Rather than begin with the map of a real place, this investigation asks you to work in reveree: to project what its like to walk through your imagination of tbe sound(s) of a place.
Instructions:
Construct five long sound sequences. Imagine they tell the story of a moving body encountering sounds while passing through an unseen environment.
These sequence may be literal sound compositions produced by collaging sounds together in software. They could be recordings made by moving through the city or another space. They could also be a graphical score, like Cornelius Cardew’s notational techniques of sound annotated with descriptive text.
Think about the qualities and changes in intensity. Are they abrubt, gradients; smooth or striated? Is there reverb, echo, interferene, or doppler effects?
Establish a simple geometric boundary that represents the limits of park. Imagine that the five sonic sequences start somewhere beyond the boundary, pass through it, and then leave. Create a notation for sequences so each cross or meet another somewhere inside the boundary and then diverge. If you imagine these lines are transects through a range of environments, they can represent the encounters of different bodies meeting and then diverging in a continuous sonic field. Try to extrapolate/interpolate from these transects to imagine the entire field within the boundary.
Instructions:
Construct five long sound sequences. Imagine they tell the story of a moving body encountering sounds while passing through an unseen environment.These sequence may be literal sound compositions produced by collaging sounds together in software. They could be recordings made by moving through the city or another space. They could also be a graphical score, like Cornelius Cardew’s notational techniques of sound annotated with descriptive text.
Think about the qualities and changes in intensity. Are they abrubt, gradients; smooth or striated? Is there reverb, echo, interferene, or doppler effects?
Establish a simple geometric boundary that represents the limits of park. Imagine that the five sonic sequences start somewhere beyond the boundary, pass through it, and then leave. Create a notation for sequences so each cross or meet another somewhere inside the boundary and then diverge. If you imagine these lines are transects through a range of environments, they can represent the encounters of different bodies meeting and then diverging in a continuous sonic field. Try to extrapolate/interpolate from these transects to imagine the entire field within the boundary.
Possible Tools:
Drawing on paper,Painting on paper
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe, Photoshop
Audacity (link)
Apple Garage Band
Nodebox
Relevant Texts:
John Cage, Composition as Process in Silence, pp.76-83. (link)John Cage, Eric Satie in Silence, pp.76-83. (link)
Cornelius Cardew, Treatise (link)
Eno, Brian, Systems: Generating and Organizing Variet in the Arts. (link)
Other Inspiration:
Janet Cardiff, “Sound Walks” (link)ChicagoParks to Reference:
This investigation can begin in the imagination. It can also begin by observing an existing park.
2025 Spring — Second Nature