Soundwalk: Art In Odd Places

Sound Walks: Art In Odd Places (15:06) By Bleakley McDowell. 

Members of The New York Society for Acoustic Ecology lead a series of public soundwalks across three weekends of the 2009 Art in Odd Places festival. The purpose was to engage and educate the public in the art of listening.

Together, the construction, foot traffic, commerce, and auto-traffic of 14th street create a dense, noisy and complex soundscape to engage. Several different types of walks focusing on different aspects and locations of 14th street and the Union Square vicinity were explored with each beginning with with what composer and acoustic ecologist R. Murray Schafer calls, “ear cleaning” exercises. These exercises help the listener to untangle layers of traffic, pedestrian, construction and louder periodic/random sounds one can encounter at any given time (or simultaneously) in the complex urban soundscape. These exercises help to better engage the ear with the mind and aim to transform the soundscape into a living organism for the sound-walker through active listening. 

Several walks are documented in a variety of weather conditions. The camera follows listeners through a diversity of city environments, weather conditions and during both the day and night time hours. Ref: NYSAE

Source: Vimeo.