sound | Local Alternatives

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sensing sound

sonic intensities

register on the surface of the skin

sound is eventful

my skin response gets stronger

when I wear earplugs

and walk down the stairs

it feels weird

using your body

to (un)think sound

sound moves

through walls

and bodies

and coat hangars

and pieces of string

resisting the tendency for language

to overcode the sound field

and then letting it do so

and also right before

I'm about to speak

without a word

a rhythm begins

and circles around the balcony

and down the spiral stairs

when I strap the camera

onto my chest

I feel like Ironman

what does fluorescent yellow

sound like?

the listening body

is a molecular society

multiplying connections

inhabiting and creating

its environment simultaneously

acoustic space is potential

yet causally efficacious

the welter of occasions

pressing on the sk(e)in

of the sound field

the listening body is

a vibrational body

an acoustic body

a rhythmic

an atmospheric body

a sensing body

a blur and a smudge

sonic resonances

traces and hauntings

of immediate

and not so immediate

futures and pasts

activating the sonic imagination

and rhythm moves us

when we wear bells on our shoes

and walk through Hulme park

we want to listen to the art room through Jello

and use red balloons to disrupt the university

and bang on the gates of our school

with long cardboard tubes

and scrunch our feet on the sidewalk

and listen to creatures deep underground

and Stretford road when you cross it

sounds different at night

the questions of what we might listen to

and where we might go

and our memories of places

and imaginings of sounds

become lures for the next sound walk

the distant murmur of voices in the classroom

a mixture of talking and shouting

and the sound of the teacher sitting alone

marking our work after school

I hear noise

in every direction

lots of crunching leaves in Hulme park

cars, planes, birds, and buses

mapping the sound walks

projecting Hulme on the wall

we become part of the map

we step into it

sound becomes pedagogical

as it moves us

towards co-attunement

David Rousell (Biosocial Lab, MMU)

Michael Gallagher (Biosocial Lab, MMU)

Mark Wright (artist in residence, MMU)

Suzanne Smith (Z-arts)

Z-artists (age 5-11)

collaborators

sensing sound

​

​

sonic intensities

register on the surface of the skin

sound is eventful

my skin response gets stronger

when I wear earplugs

and walk down the stairs

it feels weird

using your body

to (un)think sound

sound moves

through walls

and bodies

and coat hangars

and pieces of string

resisting the tendency for language

to overcode the sound field

and then letting it do so

and also right before

I'm about to speak

without a word

a rhythm begins

and circles around the balcony

and down the spiral stairs

​

when I strap the camera

onto my chest

I feel like Ironman

what does fluorescent yellow

sound like?

the listening body

is a molecular society

multiplying connections

inhabiting and creating

its environment simultaneously

acoustic space is potential

yet causally efficacious

the welter of occasions

pressing on the sk(e)in

of the sound field

the listening body is

a vibrational body

an acoustic body

a rhythmic

an atmospheric body

a sensing body

a blur and a smudge

sonic resonances

traces and hauntings

of immediate

and not so immediate

futures and pasts

activating the sonic imagination

and rhythm moves us

when we wear bells on our shoes

and walk through Hulme park

we want to listen to the art room through Jello

and use red balloons to disrupt the university

and bang on the gates of our school

with long cardboard tubes

and scrunch our feet on the sidewalk

and listen to creatures deep underground

and Stretford road when you cross it

sounds different at night

the questions of what we might listen to

and where we might go

and our memories of places

and imaginings of sounds

become lures for the next sound walk

the distant murmur of voices in the classroom

a mixture of talking and shouting

and the sound of the teacher sitting alone

marking our work after school

I hear noise

in every direction

lots of crunching leaves in Hulme park

​

cars, planes, birds, and buses