1: Thursday, April 25, 2013, 4:41 pm, outside Alliance Hall
2: Identify and list the sounds farthest away from you. Today I had one of the cooler sound moments of my life. I was walking back from class, and I stopped outside my dormitory to listen for the starlings that live in the trees around North Campus. When they’re active in the spring, they’re very feisty in the late afternoon and make the trees buzz and quake with their frenzied chatter. They must not be living in these trees this year though, because I didn’t hear them. I could hear the exuberant chatter of all the students congregated at the picnic tables outside the student center, enjoying the warm weather and smoking hand-rolled cigarettes, and I could hear the whirring spokes of bikes as the occasional hipster pedaled past – but no starlings.
3: Identify and list the sounds at a medium range from you. At my back, the set of handicap-accessible doors would sporadically make a punchy, metallic pop as the automatic lock would release and the entire thing would swing slowly open. The airy sound of the steady hydraulics could be discerned, as well as the miniscule yet sharp beep that the card swipe makes before granting a homebound student admittance.
4: Identify and list the sounds closest to you (– you can include internal sounds if noticed or relevant). I almost moved on from my spot when I noticed a very aggressive, throaty chirp from directly over my head. The bird call was at once so warbled and so squawky that it sounded more like the noise you’d hear from a mutated frog in a radioactive swamp. I looked up at a low-hanging branch and spotted a puny, grey-brown bird perched there, his chest swollen with the sound he was making and his twiggy legs leaning him forward. He looked absurdly eager for a bird. Just to test my whistling skills, I tried to imitate his call. I didn’t do it quite right, but to my pleasant surprise, the bird immediately repeated the modified call back to me. Of course, I then realized it was a mockingbird, a creature I’ve never encountered in real life. I tried a variety of different, completely made-up calls, and he returned each one with visible excitement. It was a really lovely experience.
5: Describe the general sound level and amount of sound activity. The sound activity is very moderate – nothing painfully loud, yet nothing requiring closer listening.
6: Assign a one-word description to the “sound environment”. “Quaint”
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 industrial sounds of the hydraulic doors and the beeping card swipe don’t contribute much to the springtime vibe of the moment. However, the bike sounds, the cheery assemblage of students, and of course the highly conversational bird are all sounds that contribute to a cohesive sonic environment.
