Sound Walk

It's not unusual for me to be purposefully wandering and noticing in the city, but my observations are usually visual, and mostly recorded through photographs or the written word.

Today I joined a small group of people on a "silent sound walk," led by sound artist Phill Harding. I've got to know Phill a bit on Twitter over the past few years, and his micro-sonic observations were quite a formative influence on my own brand of observational micro-poetry, which in turn led me to observational photography through this journal. The key thing about Phill's work though, is that he encourages us to notice sounds in addition to the sights and smells that we usually foreground.

Phill started by outlining the protocol for the walk: we would be in single file, as far behind the person in front as we needed to be not to hear their footsteps, no talking and no recording devices. The route would be partly composed and partly improvised. With that, we set off in a slightly disjointed crocodile into the sounds of the city.

The omnipresent sound was of traffic, although that grew and receded depending on where we were, and the buses, trucks, cars and motorbikes each had their own voices. We also heard snatches of conversations, in many different languages. When we arrived at the City Park fountains, the water took over, and softened the harsher urban sounds. It was here that my listening told me that I'd trodden on a dry leaf, echoed shortly after by a scuttling crisp packet. After half an hour we arrived at the Cathedral Green and for the first time heard birds: sparrows scuffling around the feeder and pigeons cooing from the roof. We then went into the cathedral, sat for five minutes and listened to the background hum of the lighting, punctuated by cars struggling up Church Bank and a plane roaring through a sky that we couldn't see. We had a brief huddle under the scratchy leaves of a tree, sharing some thoughts about what we'd heard, and then dissipated back into the city.

At the end, left alone, I was joined by a dragonfly, but whatever noises a dragonfly makes were lost.

The walk was part of a two-month season of events and exhibitions: 'Journeys and Migrations', which features the work of many local artists including fellow blipper Holly Rowan Hesson. It goes on into October, so there's still plenty of time to join in.

Today was all about listening though. So whether you're at home, or out and about, try paying attention to the sounds around you. What is it that you hear?