SoundWalk
I currently live in Kips Bay and chose 1st avenue and 14 street as my location to perform the soundwalk. I am quite familiar with the concept of the soundwalk from meditation and have performed it to a certain extent. In meditation, there is a technique called grounding, where the emphasis is based on the awareness of the body to its surroundings- including noise.
I chose to sit on a bench right in the busy intersection of 1st avenue and 14 street and began with closing my eyes. I put my phone on airplane mode and let my body concentrate on the experience. The immediate sounds I picked up on were the cars. They were on a green light, and I could hear their speed as they drove past me, I could even hear the distance between me and the other cars who were in the right lane or left lane. After a while, I was able to decipher the size of a car by how loud its engine sounded when it drove past me. Another interesting indicator I managed to pick up on was direction, I was able to tell what direction the car was going in just through its sound. Some keynotes I was able to pick up on during the exercise was chatter. I was in a busy intersection, during the day, so I expected to hear some chatter from people in my surrounding. Other keynotes were strollers passing by, children laughing, store doors opening, the city bus kneeling, and the pigeons cooing. Many of the sound signals came from the cars horns and even some people who were shouting to get their friends attention across the street. Soundmarks present would be the crossing signal for pedestrians, when it was not time to cross a voice would say “wait”, and then once the signal was given to cross, a stutter would being till the time was up.
I chose to sit on a bench right in the busy intersection of 1st avenue and 14 street and began with closing my eyes. I put my phone on airplane mode and let my body concentrate on the experience. The immediate sounds I picked up on were the cars. They were on a green light, and I could hear their speed as they drove past me, I could even hear the distance between me and the other cars who were in the right lane or left lane. After a while, I was able to decipher the size of a car by how loud its engine sounded when it drove past me. Another interesting indicator I managed to pick up on was direction, I was able to tell what direction the car was going in just through its sound. Some keynotes I was able to pick up on during the exercise was chatter. I was in a busy intersection, during the day, so I expected to hear some chatter from people in my surrounding. Other keynotes were strollers passing by, children laughing, store doors opening, the city bus kneeling, and the pigeons cooing. Many of the sound signals came from the cars horns and even some people who were shouting to get their friends attention across the street. Soundmarks present would be the crossing signal for pedestrians, when it was not time to cross a voice would say “wait”, and then once the signal was given to cross, a stutter would being till the time was up.
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