Monthly Archives: February 2013

Field Recording #3
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Location:  Outside Alliance Hall — February 18, 2013, 2:05 pm

 

Sounds heard: A fire alarm has just started going off inside the dormitory, and I am standing outside in the crowd of displaced students, some of whom can be heard at the beginning of the sound bite making light-hearted conversation about classes.  At times, the blaring of the alarm can be heard only faintly, but the doors to the building sporadically open to admit firefighters and public safety officers, at which point the alarm becomes much louder.  The final sound is that of the wind blowing against the building, as the plateau outside Alliance Hall functions as a fairly strong wind tunnel.  At the end of the sound bite, one student can be heard asking if another is “ok,” to which his comrade responds, “Yeah, I’m just cold.”

Journal Entry # 4
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1- 02/17/2013-9:52 AM- On the Bolt Bus from NYC to Boston.

2- Sounds farthest away: Whizzing of cars passing by outside.

3- Sounds at a medium range: Light rattling of the bus, sounds like a baby’s toy. Very light whisper of women’s voices, one woman’s pronunciation of s’s is very predominant.

4- Sounds closest: Constant low hum of the bus, sounds like a propeller at times beating at a 2/4 rhythm. Soft rustling when my head moves to get comfortable in the seat. It is so calm I can hear myself inhale and exhale.

5- General sound level and amount of sound activity: Sound level is very low and sound activity is calm and tranquil. There are maybe about five people on the bus and it is an easy early morning.

6- One word description to the “sound environment”: Soothing.

7- 3 sounds which are essential to the sound environment.: Constant low hum of the bus, light whisper of women’s voices, inhalations and exhalations.

Field Recording #3
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Location: In my room on my computer.
Sounds heard: Skyping with my parents, they were playing around with the camera and this had some sort of effect on the sound system, causing them to sound like demon chipmunks on my end of the conversation. Thought it made for a perfect field recording so I taped it on my phone. Sounds heard include their voices, during and after demonization, and my voice when I’m laughing and wondering what happened.

 

Journal #4
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1- 2/17/13 – 1:09 AM – On bench in front of Hofstra Hall
2- Identify and list the sounds farthest away from you. – Furthest away from me I can hear the occasional and very faint tone of a car passing by on the Turnpike. Every noise is quick and is a fast swoosh past the University due to the Doppler effect of where I was sitting in relation to the cars that were zooming past. A little bit closer but still pretty far from me on the other side of me I can hear the noises of the few maintenance guys working on the building behind me. They are generating a series of clicking and clanging noises as they move equipment from their car to the building
3- Identify and list the sounds at a medium range from you. – A little closer than these noises I can hear the flags on the flag pole whipping in the wind and cracking like a whip with every large gust of wind. Whenever the wind dies down the tension on the cable was released and the clip on the flag would briefly clang into the pole just before another large gust came and pulled the flag away again. To the left of me I can hear the distinct noise of the two posters hung on the light posts clinging onto the pole for dear life. The paper was whipping so hard I thought it could rip off at any moment. 
4- Identify and list the sounds closest to you (You can include internal sounds if noticed or relevant). – Closest to me I can hear a few dry leaves scootch across the concrete and create a very distinct noise i associate with late fall. Just behind me I can hear needles of the evergreen trees cling create friction with the wind sailing around them. Against my ears I can hear the whistle as the wind goes through the fibers of my hat- effectively muting almost every noise I have listed above. 
5- Describe the general sound level and amount of sound activity. – All around me the noises are very intense and there is a plethora of noises around me mostly being influenced by the wind that is whipping through the air. The interesting thing is that the noise of the wind through my hat is that it lessens the intensity of every noise around me. 
6- Assign a one word description to the “sound environment”. –  Exposed
7- Select and list 3 sounds which are essential to the sound environment. Note: you need to try and figure out what sounds make up this environment and which of those sounds need to be there for the feeling of the environment to stay intact. – Wind in my ears, Flag pole, leaves scootching

Field Recording #3
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Identify the location of the clip – I got a lifeproof case for Christmas for my Iphone. A lifeproof case is completely waterproof and so I decided to do something entirely new and different. This field recording is taken from inside my shower stall with my phone placed on the soap holder.

Identify the sounds heard in the clip – The first sound that you can hear is the background noise of the water hitting the bottom of the shower floor and then the ting of me setting my phone down on the soap holder. You can then proceed to hear me rinse my hair and the surges of water drop and hit the shower floor. As the recording continues you can hear me fill my hands with water and then drop it to the floor. At the end the water is shut off and you can only hear it drip off of my body adn then the shower curtain opened. The final noise is me grabbing my towel and drying off which is a lower “boomy” noise. Overall the sound is very tinny and echoey because I am in the shower stall and the tiles of the walls reflect the high frequency of the sound waves as the water hits the ground.  

Journal 3
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1:  Friday, February 15, 2013, 8:55 pm, Hofstra Student Center

 

2:  Identify and list the sounds farthest away from you.

Students talking and eating in the large dining section.

 

3:  Identify and list the sounds at a medium range from you.

The student center television, some other students in the front part of the dining section eating.

 

4: Identify and list the sounds closest to you (– you can include internal sounds if noticed or relevant).

Students walking by on their way to their first class, “Kill Everybody” by Skrillex on my iPod.

 

5: Describe the general sound level and amount of sound activity.

For such a busy hub on campus, the sound is rather muted and subtle.

 

6: Assign a one-word description to the “sound environment”.

“Subdued”

 

7: Select and list 3 sounds that are essential to the sound environment. Note: you need to try and figure out what sounds make up this environment and which of those sounds need to be there for the feeling of the environment to stay intact.

Footsteps of students, the tv, the cashiers at their posts ringing students up.

Sound Journal #3
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1:  Thursday, February 14, 2013, 6:14 pm, Hofstra Student Center

 

2:  Identify and list the sounds farthest away from you.

The sound of over a hundred voices bounces around the high-ceilinged, hard-surfaced space, making any sound beyond the room in which I sit completely inaudible over the din.  At its farthest, the sound of voices constitutes more a continuous, singular noise than a collective of individual voices – a humming, steady roar.

 

3:  Identify and list the sounds at a medium range from you.

At my table, several people eat their food in solitude, sitting rather close to me on all sides because of the way the seats are configured around the table.  The sound of plastic forks and knives scratching against the cardboard of their to-go boxes makes a cacophony of irksome scratching noises.  One girl sits close enough to me that I can hear the wet, tearing sound that her soda makes when she sucks it violently through her gnawed, spit-covered straw, as well as the smacking of her lips as she eats her pasta.    Without such proximity, I would not be able to hear anything from my fellow diners.  After all, I can hear very few individual noises from the next table over, due to the general noise level in the dining area.

 

4: Identify and list the sounds closest to you (– you can include internal sounds if noticed or relevant).

On my laptop, I am live-streaming the audio from a show in Boston’s Café 939, via Birncore.com.  I can hear the noises in this venue in Boston: I can hear glasses clinking, peals of giddy laughter, and the three male musicians tuning their guitars and making Valentine’s-related jokes to their largely female and thusly doting audience.   With no visual knowledge of the inside of the space, it’s a strange experience to be able to hear so vividly so finite moment and so intimate an environment, as it exists miles away from and yet simultaneous to all the hubbub in the student center.  Such an overlap is the closest thing one can get to a concrete experience of the multiverse.

 

5: Describe the general sound level and amount of sound activity.

Many individual sounds can be heard, but the general racket begins to sound very monotonous the more I sit in it.  Again, the overall noises level is quite high.

 

6: Assign a one-word description to the “sound environment”.

“Rambunctious”

 

7: Select and list 3 sounds that are essential to the sound environment. Note: you need to try and figure out what sounds make up this environment and which of those sounds need to be there for the feeling of the environment to stay intact.

The audio livestream is interesting, but not necessarily integral to the essence of the space at large.  Much more important is the incessant, buzzy sound of dozens of conversations at once, juxtaposed with the individual sounds of people scraping up their food, as well as the slurping sounds of the girl eating nearest to me.

 

Field Recording #2
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Location: Sushi Ya Restaurant, Garden City, New York — February 14, 2013, 10:14 pm

 

Sounds heard: general “happy human” sounds, i.e. a euphony of lovebirds chatting in the small room, with the exception of the couple at the table next to ours, who can be heard bickering (“I’m not shallows, don’t call me shallow.”)  Stephen and I tease each other with phony, hackneyed expressions of love (“Your eyes are like limpid pools of…”)  At one point, Stephen begins explaining to me the concept of moshing at a concert, and two waiters can be heard nearby speaking a foreign language to one another.