Sound Walk #1

The first sound walk consisted of sound documentation on various parts of the UWM campus.

The photograph illustrates the noises I personally heard when standing at a 'central point'. The sounds written were done so from the direction they seemed to originate.

Aside from the illustration, I also heard a variety of other noises.

Initially when we started the walk, I documented hearing:

-Breaks squeaking from a bus off in the distance; starting up again and zooming away.
-Random voices of those I passed. (I.E.: "I'm all wet from the grass." "I'd lived a couple of blocks south of campus when I was 20." "I just wanted to let you know.") These words tended to seem to almost complete a single thought. They blended together rather distinctly.
-Bicycle spokes spinning as the rubber tires slide against pavement.
-Wind rustling lightly through the leaves of trees. It sounded almost like a waterfall. This occurred a lot, sometimes becoming a stronger and angrier rustle, only to return to the serenity it initially had.
-A whistling that sounded like a bomb dropping, followed by an airplane soaring above-with a definite note of wind resistance.
-Books smacking together by being dropped onto other books from a couple feet above.
-Wheels of a dresser scraping and rolling against the pavement, hitting slight bumps along the way.
-A skateboard hitting the cracks in the sidewalk. As it rolls past, it creates a pattern which feels and sounds like music.
-Our shoes digging into the dirt and sticks on the ground. It sounds almost like sandpaper.
-A siren screeching; slowly increasing in volume and fading away.
-The crunching of a leaf periodically among the swishing of our shoes through the grass.

After wandering around outside for a while, we took our sound walk indoors. There I documented hearing:

-Clicking of the computers' keys behind me as fingers quickly tapped the keyboard.
-A short laugh amidst the buzzing and high pitched screaming of voices.
-Light footsteps, provoking slight jingling of keys with each movement.
-The clinking of high heels against the tile floor.
-Echoing of small, slight beeps of the ATM.
-Clanking and banging of metal against metal, and briefly clashing on the floor.
-Legs of a chair scraping against the floor.

There were some places where it was easier to pick up on sounds. It was actually louder inside the Union than it was outside. The sounds tended to jumble together, and it was much easier to decipher what was actually going on when we were out of the building.
The entire experience involving cutting out all sound (plugging ears) and re-emerging (unplugging ears) was very interesting. It really forces us to be more aware of the every day sounds that are ignored far too often. We only think we're not making any sounds when we stand still. But as I said before-it's easy to disregard these noises.
I think this is a good exercise, overall. We forget too many things that we need be reminded of.