Starting location of my own soundwalk
Andrew Brown works with locative sound. He carries out soundwalks (an excursion whose main purpose is listening to the environment), where he records sounds and composes multi-layered montages of them. The act of purposeful listening becomes a way of focusing on the often overlooked, as well as situating oneself in space and time. Creating the compositions means Brown must make decisions on what to include, and may notice sounds that were overlooked during the original recording. His work examines the world through different categories of existence: spatiality, temporality, corporeality and rationality. His audience experiences both an immersion and an element of critical detachment.
I carried out my own short soundwalk during a funfair event at West Park in Long Eaton. I liked the way that I could ‘compose’ the audio by walking nearer or further from the different sound sources. I feel that you can get a sense of the scale of the space by listening to it, but it also has a disorienting quality. You can listen to the audio file here: West Park Soundwalk
I enjoyed the effect but I was also aware of the restrictions of the medium and I wondered whether using a multi-sensory approach would increase the feeling of immersion. It was interesting however, to isolate the audio and consider it separately to the visual information. Especially in a space that is overwhelming, it became possible to fully appreciate its audio qualities where otherwise they may have been lost amongst other forms of ‘noise’. I would like to return to West Park during a quieter time and record some of the ambient sounds for comparison.
Funfairs immerse their customers in lights, sound and motion
Andrew Brown is an Artist and Senior Lecturer at Nottingham School of Art and Design, Nottingham Trent University.
Sources- https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/6/3/69