Our recording begins as we walk towards the center of the Davis green. You can hear some friendly banter between Will and I as we discuss upcoming concerts. Another prevalent noise is a constant flow of wind while we wander towards the granite benches near the sidewalk. The microphone also does a good job of picking up the dull thrum of surrounding conversation, with a few more discernible phrases interspersed within the recording. For much of the recording we can also hear Will softly strumming his guitar which provides a nice and simple background soundscape. For a short bit you can hear some clicks and pops of my beatbox in accompaniment to Will’s guitar. The long section of our interview then commences which was quite exciting and amusing for everyone involved. We then head back through the Davis center, run into an SGA booth asking for suggestions, and head through the tunnel. It cuts out halfway through the conversation because the sound file was too big to transfer from my phone voice memos.

I enjoyed the interaction of the many human voices throughout our recording because of the differences distinguishable through a reduced lens. Listening to the recording also reveals how cacophonous the more populated areas of the campus are. I was also interested in how a lot of the sounds I could hear on the recording were not exactly noticed while we were in that moment and time. I really liked this particular assignment because I got to see how much sound exists all around us that we aren’t even registering.

Works Cited:

“【风华国乐 HQ】洞庭秋思 / 龚一 / 古琴独奏.” Youtube. Youtube. 12 November 2011. 20 April 2013. Web.

Attali, Jacques. “Noise: The Political Economy of Music.” The Sound Studies Reader. By Jonathan Sterne. New York: Routledge, 2012. 29-39. Print.

“Confucian Music 孔子音乐.” Youtube. Youtube. 6 July 2008. 20 April 2013. Web

“Musical Bells, Temple of Confucius, Nanjing.” Youtube. Youtube. 6 August 2012. 20 April 2013. Web.

On our sound walk, Will and I ventured over to the hill near the Davis Center Tunnel entrance on Main Street. While we were there we were very observant of the level of wind. The hill acted as a natural wind tunnel in that it focused the wind down towards Main Street from the Catholic Center near Redstone Campus. We discussed the idea that wind isn’t actually heard, it’s the motion caused by the wind that we then in turn perceive as audible signs of the presence of wind. A human beings “microphone” is deep within the ear so it is sheltered from the wind but the microphone used in my iPhone is almost directly exposed to the wind. It is then in turn heard as an overarching white noise in the recordings. Fortunately in reality, we humans are able to filter that out.

Dan and I walked from UHeights to the library, then back around through Living and Learning. While outside the library on the green, we heard mostly laughter, conversation, and music, as well as some unidentifiable machinery (possibly a generator or ventilator) which became background noise. Most of the sounds that we heard were human sounds and ranged across the entire green. This shows us how full of life UVM is when we finally get warm weather!

-Locations: outside greenhouse, inside greenhouse, in science lab, on the street. We sat outside the greenhouse for our first five minutes, which was quiet besides wind and the sounds of the greenhouse fans. For our ten-minute walk we went inside the greenhouse and then in Hannah’s microbiology lab she works in. We then walked outside and were on the street.

- The whirring of the greenhouse fans was very identifiable. The conversations we heard I didn’t know exactly where they came from because my eyes were closed.

-The drones were the wind and greenhouse fans. At first I didn’t really hear them but when I really started listening they were identifiable.

- The natural sounds were predominant in our first 5 minutes (mostly the wind), and then the sounds became more human as Hannah and I started to talk and explore during our ten-minute walk.

- Most of the sounds I heard were fairly quiet. There was really no loud, startling noise

- The depth of sounds ranged from very close to the microphone to almost out of our ability to hear

- I feel like I understand how much depth there is to sound now. Hearing beyond what’s right in front us is something that doesn’t often happen unless we are really trying to listen and hear everything.

Soundcloud link:

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Akhiyaan Udeek Diyan (1993)

Rangda/Barong: Balinese Bebuten Trancing

Sorry it’s so quiet, I couldn’t figure out how to make it any louder.