Val's Soundwalk

Film 116, September 13, 2008

Val Danculovich

TA: M. Carrera

I walked around the campus, including the dorms, Klotsche Center, wooded areas and city streets. It was a sunny, beautiful fall day and the leaves had not yet begun to turn. While walking, we found great areas where we could sit or stand and absorb the sounds that surrounded us. The Union was crowded with many sounds that were difficult to differentiate. We found the best opportunities outside where the sounds were more distinguishable. There were about 15 of us on the sound walk so it was really hard to move without making a sound. While walking on the concrete, you could hear the footsteps, including people who dragged their feet. On the grassy areas and woods, the ground was uneven and the grass and weeds dry, making our footsteps even louder than on cement.

When we plugged our ears, it didn't silence the sounds but just muted them a little and made the loudest of the sounds more noticeable. When we unplugged our ears, the sounds were more vibrant.

We heard the following types of sounds:

• car horns
  
• cars accelerating and braking
  
• people talking on the phone
  
• water bubbling from the fountain near Curtin
  
• doors opening and closing - some squeaked
  
• wind blowing
  
• leaves rustling
  
• longer grasses whistling
  
• bird chatter

In the Union, there were sounds that blended in with other sounds making it very hard to distinguish what we were actually hearing. There were computer start-up sounds, voices, trays banging, etc. that combined to create "noise". You could hear some of the sounds but because they were mixed, you couldn't really tell what they were. In the food part of the Union, the volume was loudest but once in a while a tray would be dropped that was even louder and you could identify that sound.

While walking outside, I was able to hear far-away sounds such as the traffic noise from buses and cars but at the same time I was able to identify close sounds such as people talking on their phones and people dragging their feet.

It was kind of windy that day and it was easy for us to identify the sound of wind even without the sound of leaves. We could hear the leaves rustling in the wind but also the "wooshing" sound of the wind as it blew past the buildings.

I didn't make my own sounds but members of the group did. One person hit his pen on a metal light post. Another person hit a pen on a wooden electric post. There were enough sounds to hear in the urban landscape so we didn't need to make our own.

I am a very observant person and I usually notice things like the sounds around me. I love going to Chicago, hearing the noises of the big city. I don't really have a new appreciation of sounds because I have always paid attention to them. I think that having to write down these observations about the sounds, however, has increased my appreciation for the variety of sounds around us.