Interview: Composer Emily Dolittle

Emily Dolittle (9:22) Andrew Stiefel, Artistic Director of the Eugene Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, interviews composer and zoomusicologist Emily Dolittle about her interdisciplinary work researching the song of the Hermit Thrush and the inspiration for her piece, Falling Still.

"Canadian-American composer Emily Doolittle was born in Nova Scotia in 1972 and educated at Dalhousie University, the Koninklijk Conservatorium in the Hague, Indiana University and Princeton. Her doctoral research was on the relationship between bird and other animal songs and human music, a field in which she continues to be active. Since 2008 she has been Assistant Professor of Composition and Theory at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle." For a full biography, please visit her website Source: Vimeo

Soundscape: New Orleans Street Scene

Spontaneous Dance Scene (2:33) The soundscape of the French Quarter in New Orleans (Louisiana, USA) is frequently filled with street music. In this video, a spontaneous moment takes place on Frenchmen street when, while listening to a busking swing band, a senior citizen visiting from Greece is swept up to dance by a young man walking by pushing a stroller. Source: YouTube.

Project: Listening people / Sounding Places

Listening People/Sounding Places (8:06) "This project aims to understand the role that sound plays within the ecology of urban life, through a continuous series of analytical exercises and artistic interventions. Working with sound implies that all activities are context specific as sound is always intimately linked to space in which it occurs and the materials and actions from which it originates. The dimensions of these sonic possibilities are as varied as the architectural and social contexts of urban environments." This is a collaborative project led by John Grzinich in cooperation with Muzeum Sztuki Łódź. More details with video. Source: YouTube.

Soundscape: Street Crossings Part 1

Acoustic street crossing signals have become "soundmarks" within the urban soundscape. Here are four short videos that provide variations on signaling around the world.

Pedestrian Light (:37) Michal Rinott documents an intersection in which a red no walk signal includes a beeping sound. The walk signal is silence. Source: Vimeo.

Street Crossing (2:57) Ronald Lambert's video of  "Street Crossings" documents a sound installation - a duet. "The work performs along side an existing gesture of municipal aesthetics in the urban soundscape, in downtown Nashville. Electronic bleeps and blips punctuate the urban traffic drone when it is time cross the street. This work fills and extends that moment with a superimposed sonic layer." Source: Vimeo

Signals for Blind  (:10) Music is used to guide blind pedestrians across an intersection.  A blind person can hear one specific sound when the east-west street is clear for crossing, and another distinctly different sound when the north-south street is clear for crossing. Source: YouTube

Street Crossing in Costa Rica (:57) Bird sounds signal pedestrians to cross this complex soundscape of urban traffic.

Soundwalk: Hopkins River

Hopkins River (3:49) This video by James Russell explores, using still image sequences and field recordings, the soundscape encountered from the bridge to the mouth of the Hopkins River in southwestern Victoria.

Project: Road Music

RoadMusic Project (4:34) RoadMusic is a project by Sound Artist Peter Sinclair in which the road becomes the score, the drive becomes the musician, and the music becomes the sound of the situation. The idea is to have a live sonic experience in which music is created from your ride for your ride. Sensors gather data about bumps, curves, accelerations and braking while a camera analyses the visual scene. This data is used by custom software, on a dedicated on-board computer, (AutoSync) to generate sound. RoadMusic is a new art object, participating in a very recent art form - artistic real-time sonification. Sinclair is specifically interested in the situation of the car ride in which we are "traditionally" estranged from the audio environment through which we travel. Source: RoadMusic

Lecture: Claudio Curciotti World Loudness

The Loudness of the Contemporary World (6.2)  Sound artist Claudio Curciotti is the creator of the sound web-archive Field Abuse, a blog focused on the loudness of the contemporary world in relation with religion, ethnic music and traditional cultures. In this short video he highlights two of his projects created in India (2010) and in Egypt (2011). Coming from an electronic music and digital media background, in his work emerges a sensibility towards the acoustic textures, intensities and the rhythmic relationship between sounds and images. Source: Vimeo

Soundscape: Mexico City

Mexico City Soundscapes (3:11) This is an audio slide-show production: a story photographed and recorded by four blind and visually impaired photographers showcasing the sounds of Mexico City's streets related to trades that are slowly but surely disappearing. The project was proposed by Gerardo Ramirez, who worked with his fellow students from the Sight of Emotion organization, Edgar Angeles, Jose Sebastian Munoz and Miguel Fabian. Chico Sanchez edited the audio and photos and produced this audio-slide show. Source: YouTube