Anne-Marie Houy Shaver
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Water Walk

1/27/2018

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This week I had the chance to lead a music education class of about 15 people on a soundwalk! The goal of any soundwalk is to listen to the sounds in the spaces you go through, so we walked in silence around campus, stopping for a few minutes at certain locations to focus in on that particular spot. It was my first time leading a walk, and I couldn’t have asked for a better group! The students were very open to the experience and they willingly shared their thoughts in our following discussion.
 
I had mapped out the route ahead of time, choosing four stops along the way. We started and stopped at the door of the classroom.
 
Breathe to begin.
 
Quiet, carpeted flooring.
 
Door opening. Sharp.
 
Stairs. Staccato.
 
Stop one: Fountain in the music building outdoor courtyard.
Sidewalk. Passing people. Skateboards. Bird. Birds?
 
Stop two: Fountain in the Teachers College covered courtyard.

Onward, through Memorial Union. Crowds. Conversations. Crunching.
 
Stairs. Steps like raindrops. Staccato. But soft. Comforting. Awesome.
 
Man staring up and yelling.
 
Stop three: Fountain at Old Main.

Corridor between buildings. The backs of buildings. Hummmmmmmmmm.
 
Stop four: Sound instillation in a covered walkway. Water sounds. Running water.
Picture
People at tables. Sketching? Really intense sketching? Sandpaper! LoudLoudLoudLoudLoud.
 
Through a building with flooring made from two different materials. Every third or fourth step a resonant thud.
Clack clack thud clack clack clack thud.
 
A cart. One single beep.
 
Sidewalk. Quiet. Distant cars.
 
Inside again. Enclosed. Tile. Echo.
 
Return. “Ta-da!” (Yes, I literally said this at the end.)
 
I had planned the stops ahead of time: three fountains and the sound instillation. When I first found the instillation (on accident) I didn’t realize it was a sound piece. I’m still not exactly sure about the setup, but I think there are motion sensors that trigger different sounds for the space. I had walked through there a few times while finalizing the route, and usually it was just me, and maybe one other person, and the sounds played were high pitched: bells, gongs, birds. So it was CRAZY when we stopped there as a group AND THE WATER THEME CONTINUED! This was hands-down the coolest part.
 
My second favorite part was going down stairs. It was such a markedly different sound than walking on a flat path. I urge you to really listen next time you’re descending stairs with a group of people. Lots of tiny sounds making one gesture (which is pretty powerful if you think about it).
 
Sure, we got some weird looks. And that’s understandable. I mean, it’s strange to see a group of people just walking leisurely, not carrying anything, not talking, stopping occasionally, still not talking. But no one got hit by a cyclist, so I consider it a success.

The students commented on how nice it was to be quiet for a period of time, on how different materials reflected sounds differently, on how they felt calm, on how what you see and what you hear can vastly differ, on how they heard themselves.
 
You can turn any walk into a soundwalk by just setting an intention to listen. Grocery store trip, hike, going to your car…they all can become a soundwalk. Give it a try :)
 
January 24, 2018
1:40 - 2:10pm (ish)
Temperature in the 70s, sunny

Until next time!

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Couch Potato

1/20/2018

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Today, I decided to stay in to listen!
 
While this may sound (heh heh) like cheating, I don’t think it is. For me, I find that familiar spaces can be more difficult to actively listen in, simply because of that familiarity. But there’s still so much to hear! I did some listening exercises in the apartment last semester for a class, but this time offered new sounds. (Also, I’m VERY impressed with myself that I didn’t fall asleep while on the couch, listening with my eyes closed.) Listening in a space where you can’t see everything that’s making sound also allows for reduced listening, a mode of listening that focuses on the traits of sound, rather than the sound source - for example, describing a sound as “rumbling” or "low" rather than “car engine.”
 
Fortunately(?) our upstairs neighbors are quite active in the sound department. And today was a real treat. Why?
 
Vacuum cleaner.
 
At first, I was annoyed when the vacuum upstairs started. But it turns out that sitting under a floor being vacuumed is kind of amazing! As the machine changed direction, its pitch changed too, so it almost sounded like the vacuum was talking, Charlie-Brown-adult-speaker style. And the different floor types (I’m guessing carpet to laminate/linoleum) made a huge difference in timbre, and in volume. There were even overtones!
 
Also,
 
Nail clicks from the upstairs dog, which at times sound remarkably like…
 
Our clock ticking, which sometimes got muffled by…
 
My own heartbeat? This was strange to me. But a great reminder that it’s equally important to listen inwardly as outwardly.
 
Water running/trickling through the pipes from upstairs.
 
Matt’s “hearty” laugh during a phone conversation in the other room (the last time he did that laugh was while watching this video).
 
It turns out that the “white noise” of the sprinkler outside and our upstairs neighbors’ washing machine, along with the clock ticking, were the easiest sounds to tune out. Whoops. Aaaaaand I forgot to record the super cool vacuum. Double whoops. Hopefully I'll remember a short recording for the next post!
 
So try listening in your own room/office/space, and see what new things make themselves known :)

Picture
Olive has great ears for listening (and judging). Surprisingly, she's actually pretty awful at discerning where a sound is coming from.
She also tends to not listen when told to get off the couch.

January 20, 2018
2:35 – 3:00pm
Indoors, Arizona


Until next time!
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Air Apparent

1/10/2018

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Hello again, friends!

I’m back! Well, I’ve always been here…

I guess I should say, “the blog is back!”

This round of entries is going to be pretty different than the NYC flute times with Robert (I miss those days so!). A ton has happened since then, and now I’m in Arizona working on my PhD at Arizona State University. This spring is my second semester; in the fall, I did a lot of research on Pauline Oliveros and Deep Listening, the practice of listening to all sounds at all times. Stemming from that work, I’ve identified a goal for myself of committing to a weekly listening practice. I anticipate that this blog will become my little listening journal to document the sounds along the way. And this is week one!

Picture
I decided to spend some time at Air Apparent, a “skyspace” by James Turrell on the ASU campus. My advisor showed me the structure when I first visited ASU, and this was my return to the spot. I sat for about 30 minutes, just listening and sometimes watching the clouds through the open “ceiling.” Striking was that I passed a plethora of loud people on my way to the space, but it seemed like they all vanished once I was inside. I mean, I didn’t hear a single human voice while I sat. Of course, that could have been the intense construction going on nearby...or the road noise...but for all the machinery going on, which indicated the presence of humans, I didn’t hear anything human. (Maybe think about that for a minute.) Now, I understand that excessive sound is tiring to our bodies and mind, but since I had knowingly placed myself in an urban soundscape, I decided to just roll with it.

Like I said, lots of road noise and machine sounds.  

One sharp bird call.

Planes overhead.

Increased density of bird calls...have they been there all along and I was just unaware? (There’s a life message there somewhere...)

Machine beeps to the left and right. Left. Right.

And my favorite:
Beeps on pitches “ti” and “do” - I couldn’t believe it! Their sounds danced. I smiled. It was actually pretty beautiful.

Picture
 January 9, 2018
3:00 - 3:30pm (ish)
77* F, cloudy


Feel free to share your favorite sound you heard today :)

Until next time!

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