So what’s next? – that was the question I have always been puzzled by since I started this blog. Collecting sounds was huge fun, editing and posting them online was even bigger fun but wait – do I really want to make just an archive, a storehouse, a sum of sounds?
It felt like being a migrating bird on a journey – you know the direction but you’re not sure what exactly the final destination looks like. What’s the meaning of this after all?
Sound mapping definitely makes listening and recording more meaningful – there are lots and lots of fantastic mapping projects made by really talented people out there. These are worth checking out, browsing through cities and woods with your headphones on could never be boring.
But personally I’ve never considered of mapping as a next step. First, my computer skills aren’t that good to make something usable and decent looking at the same time. Opting for an existing mapping service doesn’t seem the best idea. But above all – for some reason I didn’t want to make a map for the sake of a map.
What I wanted was engaging with local communities in defining their own sounds. Once, I was struck by discovering a whole new dimension to the world by exploring its audio scene. Now, it would be great to have a walk with the locals listening to that ever changing landscape transformed into stories and back from stories into sounds. So, why can’t we build a map upon that – sounds, walks and stories?
(you can hear this every now and then in the city centre but you aren’t likely to find it in a usual tourist guide: Sergiyev Posad central bus station traffic contoller using the PA to summon up a lost driver named Markov).
The idea is simple – let’s go for a walk that incorporates people ans sounds of a particular region. It’s not a map actually, the borders aren’t precise. They are making up 12 roughly drawn parts of the town – corresponding with the 12 oncoming months. There is a year-long journey ahead.
https://www.oontz.ru/en/posad/
Photo by michasager