Traversing The Concrete Marvel : Walking The Un-Sung City
(2023) p.148-163- Abstract
- Soundwalking has its roots as a meditative practice, engaged with ecological concerns. Its origin in R. Murray Schafer's work imbibes it with longing for environments free of industrial sound, and Pauline Oliveros' sound-walking practice seeks the subtle emerging from the silence. Although these progenitors of what we call soundwalking offer us a wonderful palette of listening and walking practices, they are lacking when it comes to heavily human-built environments like cities, inner-suburbs, industrial areas or exploited land. The composer Toru Takemitsu described the buzzing of the biwa string against its face-plate as ‘a beautiful noise, emerging from the apparatus of an obstacle'. This idea can also be a counter-balance to the practice... (More)
- Soundwalking has its roots as a meditative practice, engaged with ecological concerns. Its origin in R. Murray Schafer's work imbibes it with longing for environments free of industrial sound, and Pauline Oliveros' sound-walking practice seeks the subtle emerging from the silence. Although these progenitors of what we call soundwalking offer us a wonderful palette of listening and walking practices, they are lacking when it comes to heavily human-built environments like cities, inner-suburbs, industrial areas or exploited land. The composer Toru Takemitsu described the buzzing of the biwa string against its face-plate as ‘a beautiful noise, emerging from the apparatus of an obstacle'. This idea can also be a counter-balance to the practice of sound-walking that celebrates ‘natural' sounds over ‘artificial' ones. In the soundwalks of Oliveros and Schafer, one is a careful and respectful listener. In the ‘derive', or ‘drifting', of psychogeography, one is a subtle agitator. But what of the city walker who does not travel these two poles of agitation and reserve? Between and outside them unfold innumerable inter-worlds, offering a deeper sense of place. The city is an archetype of multi-faceted place, but the way it manifests in daily minutia defies the archetypal. In walking and listening, the pre-human, artificial, historic, futuristic and contemporary all collide in fistfuls of pathways and secret maps. In the original soundwalks of Schafer and Oliveros, humans are eternal visitors. But in a city one is always a participant, emerging together with the beautiful noise as co-creators. This chapter is written to look beyond common soundwalking practices, through my own and others' ways. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/904d7104-1e38-4c44-965f-e5cf49756385
- author
- Hernandez, Katt LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023-01-30
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- soundwalking, psychogeography, sound art, Urban Studies
- host publication
- Soundwalking : Through Time, Space and Technologies - Through Time, Space and Technologies
- editor
- Smolicki, Jacek
- pages
- 148 - 163
- publisher
- Routledge
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85149526725
- ISBN
- 9781032044224
- DOI
- 10.4324/9781003193135-10
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 904d7104-1e38-4c44-965f-e5cf49756385
- date added to LUP
- 2023-01-04 00:20:31
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 14:19:19
@inbook{904d7104-1e38-4c44-965f-e5cf49756385,
abstract = {{Soundwalking has its roots as a meditative practice, engaged with ecological concerns. Its origin in R. Murray Schafer's work imbibes it with longing for environments free of industrial sound, and Pauline Oliveros' sound-walking practice seeks the subtle emerging from the silence. Although these progenitors of what we call soundwalking offer us a wonderful palette of listening and walking practices, they are lacking when it comes to heavily human-built environments like cities, inner-suburbs, industrial areas or exploited land. The composer Toru Takemitsu described the buzzing of the biwa string against its face-plate as ‘a beautiful noise, emerging from the apparatus of an obstacle'. This idea can also be a counter-balance to the practice of sound-walking that celebrates ‘natural' sounds over ‘artificial' ones. In the soundwalks of Oliveros and Schafer, one is a careful and respectful listener. In the ‘derive', or ‘drifting', of psychogeography, one is a subtle agitator. But what of the city walker who does not travel these two poles of agitation and reserve? Between and outside them unfold innumerable inter-worlds, offering a deeper sense of place. The city is an archetype of multi-faceted place, but the way it manifests in daily minutia defies the archetypal. In walking and listening, the pre-human, artificial, historic, futuristic and contemporary all collide in fistfuls of pathways and secret maps. In the original soundwalks of Schafer and Oliveros, humans are eternal visitors. But in a city one is always a participant, emerging together with the beautiful noise as co-creators. This chapter is written to look beyond common soundwalking practices, through my own and others' ways.}},
author = {{Hernandez, Katt}},
booktitle = {{Soundwalking : Through Time, Space and Technologies}},
editor = {{Smolicki, Jacek}},
isbn = {{9781032044224}},
keywords = {{soundwalking; psychogeography; sound art; Urban Studies}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{01}},
pages = {{148--163}},
publisher = {{Routledge}},
title = {{Traversing The Concrete Marvel : Walking The Un-Sung City}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003193135-10}},
doi = {{10.4324/9781003193135-10}},
year = {{2023}},
}