Decumentary: Jon Rose - Aural Map of Australia

Aural Map of Australia (12:58) Australian composer Jon Rose discovers the uniqueness of sound making across his homeland. A chainsaw orchestra, a singing dog, an aboriginal women's choir, a woman who makes music from DOT Matrix printers, and a man who screams into (and chews on) amplified glass are just some of the musical innovators Jon Rose met on both sides of the 40,000 kilometers of fences he turned into musical instruments throughout Australia. Rose then compiled this carnival of souls into a giant chamber orchestra, which performed at the 2005 Melbourne Festival, a sonic map of Australia that emerged from Rose's sonic map of the fences between them.

This is a video clip  from "The Reach Of Resonance," a feature documentary directed by Steve Elkins.

Documentary: John Luther Adams - A Sonic Geography of Alaska

A Sonic Geography of Alaska (4:18) John Luther Adams is an Alaskan composer who is interested in defining an ecology of music. He is greatly influenced by the sonic geography of Alaska and in  this short video explores the forces of nature as music and a work he created  translating the geophysical phenomena of Alaska into music, as explored in the feature documentary "The Reach Of Resonance", directed by Steve Elkins. Source: YouTube

Soundscape Composition: Tangamanga

Tangamanga (15:08) In the Huachichil culture, the word Tangamanga means land of gold and water. In the past it was the name of the city of San Luis potosí, México. But today it is the name of a public park in the same city.

The Tangamanga landscape composition is by Iván Sánchez, with video by Omar Bernal, was realised with sounds recorded at a native community near the municipality of Aquismón, located at the Huasteca Potosina, with the help of the local inhabitants and the support of the institutions FECA and CANTE from Potosí San Luis.

Iván Sanchez, composer and guitarist, has composed for bands like RADIO KAOS, EL MONOLITO, and orchestral settings such as the Choir of the Symphony Orchestra of San Luis Potosí. He currently directs the Laboratorio de Arte Sonoro at CANTE as part of the Center of Arts in San Luis Potos, teaches classes in arts and culture at the ITESM and undertakes productions in his own sound studio.

Interview: Bill Fontana - Spiraling Echoes Installation

Bill Fontana is interviewed (February 2009) as he puts the finishing touches on his sound installation Spiraling Echoes, which essentially used San Francisco City Hall as a musical instrument by shooting ultrasonic beams of bird, underwater and city street sounds off the walls of the building's rotunda. 

Spiraling Echoes (12:24) Interview by Gallery Crawl. There is a related Educators Guide that can either be viewed online or downloaded and printed.  

Spiraling Echoes -The Technology (10:43) On this episode of Culture Wire, Bill Fontana explains the technology behind his audio sculpture "Spiraling Echoes."  Meg Shiffler interviews.

Bill Fontana (born in Cleveland, Ohio, April 25, 1947) is known internationally for his pioneering experiments in sound art.

Source: YouTube

Project: Lima Sonora Festival

Lima Sonora Festival (3:33) In this video, children discover and learn about the soundscape of Lima in a visit to the Lima Sonora Festival. This exhibit was organized by the Investigación Sonora en Radio (ISONAR)  workshop that included the participation of professors and students at the University De San Martin De Porres. This exhibit is a  part of a larger project designed to bring the soundscapes of Peru to the people of Lima and to other cities around the world. It has, so far, been on exhibit in Argentina and Spain. 

In this Spanish language news segment children are seen listening to "The Quipu Sound" devices which are colorful handmade gourds (with speakers) that serve as listening stations.  Each is hand painted by Peruvian artists.  The word "quipu"  relates to "talking knots" used by the ancient Inca culture. There provide a multi-sensory experience in which you can touch, smell and see the quipu and robe that composes it.


Participants listen to various recorded sounds of the city with the goal of developing an awareness of the city's soundscape environment.  Among the soundmarks identifying parts of city were the sharpening of knives, tamale making, the sound of trains, combis, bakers, ice cream vendors, strolling players, video games, and market places, among others. Source: YouTube

Project: Egyptian Museum Sound Map

Sound Map (2:30) This excerpt provides an introduction to John Kannenberg's sound map of the Cario Egyptian Museum. During a five-week stay in Egypt in April and May 2010, Kannenberg devoted four days to recording the sounds present inside and outside the Museum, resulting in the eight hours of material from which this composition has been created. As a cultural institution, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo represents one of the foundations of human history; as a soundscape, it represents an unexpectedly rich sonic experience with its own place in the history of a country now in transition. Click2Read more about the project. Source: Vimeo.

Documentary: Stephen Vitiello - Listening With Intent

Listening With Intent  (27:41) This 'boat-movie' written and directed by Klaus Toft follows Stephen Vitiello, internationally celebrated 'sound artist' from the US, as he embarks on a 300km odyssey around the rugged Kimberley coast capturing unique sounds. Vitiello's latest challenge, to capture the sound of Australia, was at the behest of art patron John Kaldor and is to create an 'installation'  exhibited in the old kilns at Sydney Park's brickworks buildings. Source Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Arts Online.

Interview: John M. Hull, Author "Touching The Rock"

John M. Hull (2:24) In 1984, when the last traces of light sensation had disappeared, Professor John Hull began to keep a diary on cassette of his experiences as a newly blinded person. Touching the Rock is a selection of passages from this journal. In his book, Hull discovers the acoustic environment of the soundscape in which he lives and writes about the discovery of attentive listening.

Excerpt: RAIN 9 September 1983 - pp. 22-24

This evening, at about nine o’clock, I was getting ready to leave the house. I opened the front door, and rain was falling. I stood for a few minutes, lost in the beauty of it. Rain has a way of bringing out I the contours of everything; it throws a coloured blanket over previously invisible things; instead of an intermittent and thus fragmented world, the steadily falling rain creates continuity of acoustic experience.

I hear the rain pattering on the roof above me, dripping down the walls to my left and right, splashing from the drainpipe at ground level on my left, while further over to the left there is a lighter patch as the rain falls almost inaudibly upon a large leafy shrub. On the right, it is drumming, with a deeper, steadier sound upon the lawn. I can even make out the contours of the lawn, which rises to the right in a little hill. The sound of the rain is different and shapes out the curvature for me. Still further to the right, I hear the rain sounding upon the fence which divides our property from that next door. In front, the contours of the path and the steps are marked out, right down to the garden gate. Here the rain is striking the concrete, here it is splashing into the shallow pools which have already formed. Here and there is a light cascade as it drips from step to step. The sound on the path is quite different from the sound of the rain drumming into the lawn on the right, and this is different again from the blanketed, heavy, sodden feel of the large bush on the left. Further out, the sounds are less detailed. I can hear the rain falling on the road, and the swish of the cars that pass up and down. I can hear the rushing of the water in the flooded gutter on the edge of the road. The whole scene is much more differentiated than I have been able to describe, because everywhere are little breaks in the patterns, obstructions, projections, where some slight interruption or difference of texture or of echo gives an additional detail or dimension to the scene. Over the whole thing, like light falling upon a landscape is the gentle background patter gathered up into one continuous murmur of rain. Click2Read  more. Video Source: Vimeo.