1: Wednesday, February 27, 2013, 3:14 am, Alliance Hall, 7th Floor Bathroom
2: Identify and list the sounds farthest away from you.
Inside the shower, water falls steadily in thin, high-pressure streams onto an assemblage of plastic, toiletry bottles, of which the varying degrees of emptiness create an array of tonalities. The water also drums on the edge of a plastic shower curtain, creating the full, soft sound of rain on wide-leafed flora – the sort of sound one hears on a recording of a lush rainforest, meant to work as a relaxation/sleep aid.
3: Identify and list the sounds at a medium range from you.
A girl sits in a stall on the other side of the bathroom, talking on the phone in a low yet urgent voice. Each syllable, no matter how hushed, ricochets off the smooth, Formica countertops and the hundreds of small tiles, echoing onto the start of the next syllable and garbling her words so that only the vague sounds of pleading and apologizing can be discerned. The conversation has the intimate, shameful tone of a confession to a romantic partner, and she seems to have sought relative privacy in the bathroom at 3:00 am, presumably to not disturb her sleeping roommate. The sound of me showering has made her self-conscious, and she murmurs sheepishly for the better part of my shower.
4: Identify and list the sounds closest to you (– you can include internal sounds if noticed or relevant).
Outside the bathroom, a resident can be heard strumming his guitar inside his single room. However robust the sound may be within the room itself, when emanating through the wood of the bathroom door and the curtain of water, the notes sound eerie and thin. Compounding this effect is the slow, lilting pace at which the player strums as he tries to find his way through the ill-remembered chords.
5: Describe the general sound level and amount of sound activity.
The sound level is somewhat low, in keeping with the time of night and the solitary nature of the various, simultaneous activities, from my ablutions to the girl’s chagrinned confessions to the boy’s meandering guitar practice.
6: Assign a one-word description to the “sound environment”.
“Intimate”
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.
All three levels of sound work well together, however disparate the individual sounds may seem in character. Each is the product of a private activity, carried out alone in the latest hours of the night, and thus creates a sound suiting one such mood. As a result, the tone of each sound fits nicely within the theme of the collective.
