An Ear to the Earth Symposium
By Alice Planas December 11th, 2005
Myself and another ITP student went to this symposium this morning. I was interested in the sound mapping workshop which advertised that participants would make binaural recordings and learn how to use the Google API to create their own interactive sound maps. Turned out that the workshops was really a lecture about the New York Sound Mapping Project, and though informative, rather disappointing. I was really hoping to get my hands a little dirty and to be able to play around with some recording equipment. The strangest things was that though the presentation was nothing like the advertisement, there was also no acknowledgment in the change in the schedule.
The sound project itself, seemed to have potential to be something interesting, however, my first impressions were that either technically or philosophically, something was holding the project back from being released into the wider audience. Currently there is no direct uploading possibilities for people to contribute content. What exists now is currated submission process where people can submit items into the online radio show Giant Ear, which is an arm of the sound mapping project.
James and I ran across similar issues when I worked with him on StudioTalk, and what I found with that experience is that the project needs contributors more than contributors need the project. If you are too near and dear with it, (this is the case that I find many creators are with their pet projects) it prevents others from really being able to take part in it as though it was their own, and what you end up with is something that is great to the creators but fails to gain real acceptance and relevancy to a larger audience. I think projects want to have a life and breadth of their own and this is something that I watch out for with myself. At what point do you need to get out of the way of the project’s development?
The most interesting thing for me was the fact that all of these projects were being enabled by Google releasing their API. This whole open source model, though seriously over hyped in some respects, is on some level really generating something real out in the world for people. The intent of enabling others is something that excites me greatly about the commitment people are putting forth to open up.
The second speaker Steven Feld has spent over 25 years living in Paupau New Guinea learning from the sounds of the people and the jungle. He shared some fascinating ideas related to anthropology and sound, and how we as people learn the world through the sounds in our environment.
I’m so new to this territory, but I got really excited about two CDs that he made in the 90’s Voices of The Rain Forrest and Rain Forrest Sound Walks, that attempt to translate some of his experiences of the soundscape of this environment. Of particular interest to me was his notion that these albums represent a particular mind state or dreaming state from his relationship to the place and the environment over time.
His recent works dealing with bells in European countries brought up some interesting notions of how birds would respond to certain bells and his attempts to understand how a certain bell would sound like from the perspective of the birds who listen to them.
I loved his intent to pay attention to listeners in the world. His studies and questions are about those who listen to a particular environment; what their experiences are like.
We also met a music PhD Student named Betsy, who’s currently working at Princeton. She told us about the Tenement Museum’s website and how participants can ‘play’ the history of the tenement as a musical instrument.