I try to remake worlds by “displaying” them aurally. Part of it is about the nostalgia boom in pop culture, part of it is just my curiosity about sonic memories. My remade worlds can sometimes be described as music. I’ll add something to it in the future but I don’t know what.
I spend a lot of my research time reading and writing but I eventually realized there were so many things I just couldn’t convey on paper. Sublime worlds and feelings can be communicated with words effectively, especially for a skilled writer. But when I started constructing worlds, I realized how much richer and immersive it felt to listen to sounds rather than read about them. Research felt enjoyable for the first time when I began working with the experimental medium.
I don’t think everyone gets it. I have to learn how to talk about my arts-based ethnographic work in a way that convinces people that it’s important to my communities rather than self-indulgent or just academic stuff that doesn’t concern them. I care what they think.
Thank you for this post. Your fascination with sounds reawakened an aural awareness. I have listened to soundscapes that transport me to other worlds, both ones that I want to visit and ones that I don’t. I have learned new words geophony and anthrophony and I want to ask you, is it still called a soundscape if the noises are composed and not occurring naturally? or what is the term then used, for a fabricated soundscape?
I also found a nice quote from Jean-Michel Basquiat “music is how we decorate time”
Sounds are very powerful. When I hear recordings of my father’s voice, it brings him back to life. I am inspired by your practice and will, at least, remember to make aural snapshots of important moments.
Yeah that’s such a wonderful way to remember someone. I do it myself. As far as your question I don’t know the answer to that! I think it would still be a soundscape though. We’re always influencing the sonic ecology in some way.
If I may add to your intriguing discussion an ethnosonic project of mine:
https://entanglementsjournal.org/vocal-letters-a-migrants-family-records-from-the-1950s-and-the-phonographic-production-and-reproduction-of-memory/
That was really cool Panos. I have so many questions actually I hope we get some time to talk about it at Metochi!
What amazing and touching work. It’s incredible how small reflections lead to the introduction to and discovery of a whole world of research and projects. It’s both inspiring and overwhelming.
Dear Keyania
I must work on the website and social media on Saturday for the art gallery where I am employed. On Sunday I must read the syllabus for the programme. On Monday or Tuesday, I’m ready to answer this task. My e-mail address is anjanils@online.no. Please send me an email and we will establish a connection to communicate about the task in Module 2.
Regards Anja
Hi Keyania,
Thank you for your post.
I’m concerned about such matters as well and I’m mostly puzzled over them.
I like the way you talk about nostalgia, I would like to discuss more about this.
Dear Keyania
Fun to see a music cassette again. It is rare today.
I’m so old I was introduced to MS-DOS and storage on the soft 8 “disks. I still have VCRs at home. There are some old videos I can not throw. A VCR is connected together with a DVD-player to a TV and a VCR is deep inside a storage room. They will maybe soon be valuable antiques. Maybe I will get rich one day …
A Pokémon card was sold for an incredible $ 350,000 this year.
I had never heard of the terms geophony, biophony and anthropophony before reading your post and the comments. The concepts give me new artistic ideas. Exciting!
It’s fun to repurpose old media! I just started tape looping which sort of gives me an analog method of creating though it is difficult. I find that starting the day with something like that improves my patience and focus throughout the day however. And it’s a barely discernible sound from digital.