7.1 Sound

I remember one time when I was in high school, my sister and I went for a walk in the woods. It was in November and it was a crisp Fall day. We were walking alongside a pond when my sister stopped and took a deep breath in through her nose. "You always forget about smell. I love remembering to do it" she said. So I followed her lead. It was at that moment I realized how powerful smell was. Taking a moment to be mindful of how the woods smelled made me more present and aware of my space. I felt comforted and more appreciative of where I was. She was right that we forget about smell. We are so dependent on our eyes for sensory awareness. I still think about her comment and to this day will remind myself to take a deep breath in and appreciate.

Similarly, this assignment helped bring my awareness to sound, another sense that I don't prioritize. I just moved to New York a month ago from Providence. I'm adjusting and becoming familiar with a lot of sensory input. The bright lights of city sidewalks or the unexpected smell of rotting garbage. Until this assignment, I haven't really taken time to recognize the difference of soundscapes. But there is a lot to hear in the city, even from my apartment. In Providence where I lived, it was very quiet. My sounds included church bells every few hours and wind chime from the neighbors next door. As I write this blog post, I hear sounds that are quite different. I hear construction right across the street, cars honking, people shouting and pipes banging in the walls. As I pay attention, the sounds are abrasive. It's interesting to think that I didn't notice these sounds all that much until this assignment. Maybe it's not a good thing...

Paying attention to sound expands your awareness of where you are. By listening to the sounds in my apartment, I can appreciate the myriad of stories that are happening this moment in the city, even just on my block. Where is that truck rushing to? What are the construction people actually working on? I've become more curious by paying attention to sound.

Sound has incredible emotive potential. Sound also opens up new points of access for people to understand what a piece of art is about or to just connect. It also impacts how people observe a piece of art. If the sound is quiet, it invites the viewers to move close to work. If the sound is omnipresent, it envelops the viewer in an entire world. Sound art is incredibly interesting and is well suited for art classroom. It's fascinating to learn about sound artists techniques of collecting sounds and distorting them to be something entirely different.