Steve Reich

John Cage, Morecambe and Wise, The Who

Tui Crossing

With all the beeps, alarms and buzzes in urban environments a few natural sounds wouldn't go amiss.

The artist Nina Katchadourian did a project called "Natural Car Alarms" this short video from You Tube isn't particularly good, but you get the idea and it is just black for the first bit.

Wellington Calling

The next stage of the project is to develop ideas for a couple of test soundscapes for different sites and to see what the interest might be. One site will be at Wellington Station, which provides lots of possibilities to test out ideas including historical and contemporary sound recordings. Another site might be at Otari School where I am working with students already and they have started their own sound map, this could be expanded to include a wider area including the native reserve next door and perhaps interviews with local residents.
The pilot projects will be small in scale but hopefully provide lots of useful information and throw up potential problems before making funding applications, also I intended to explore the possibilities of working with some other organisations to help support the project.

Elsdon Best recording Iehu Nukunuku playing a flute, 1923

Sound Map

As part of my work with students at Otari School in Wellington we have been mapping the school grounds and have made a series of maps including a sound map. We shall be doing some more work on its development next term and it has been interesting to explore the area's sounds, especially the sounds the children make in the playground during breaks. I have worked in a number of primary schools and the sounds the children make in the playground seem very similar, which I could test if I had recorded them all.

5 Ways To Listen Better - Julian Treasure

John Cage

John Cage