tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39632346055911416632012-01-27T20:44:30.854-08:00constructing space with soundNick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comBlogger631100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-36164215457590104722012-01-26T23:48:00.000-08:002012-01-27T20:44:30.877-08:00

Why even bother with the names of streets?  In a world of sound, the names of streets ring silent.  They are dwarfed by the din of traffic, overwhelmed by thousands of diffuse sounds from the city hulking above. Striking out to discover a piece of the city as a traveler seeing it for the first time, it seems I have already done myself an injustice by relying upon some of these street names.  

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-75919001445687062322012-01-16T16:55:00.000-08:002012-01-16T17:42:59.927-08:00

On this fifth lunchwalk, where I take a walk instead of eating lunch, I broke the only rule: I ate lunch.  Two shrimp tacos, to be exact.  I also did not walk alone but wandered out with a friend, Marc Wiedenbaum of disquiet  fame.  Our walking discussion ranged across current projects of his, on the reasons we walk and listen, and, as we descended upon a taco truck, the sound of food.  So,

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-50640764726301696802012-01-08T17:54:00.000-08:002012-01-16T17:43:28.549-08:00

Market, the street I always begin on because my office's front door faces it, is a long street.  It is the only street which bisects the entire island--the island defined by an hour round-trip walk on my lunch break.  At the northeast edge, there is water.  So to the water's edge I aimed my stride, and off I went. Down the canyon called Market, sirens wail and horns resonate.  The canyon is the

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-90977444031531342332012-01-04T00:18:00.000-08:002012-01-16T17:46:39.321-08:00

1.  I took an overnight trip to Nevada with my brother about two weeks ago.  I was a city dweller in need of a desert fix, an injection of sand, a shower of still air.  My brother had never been to the desert.  So, I picked a spot about six hours by car from San Francisco—a small town that nobody makes a destination of: Hawthorne, Nevada. 2.  To travel to Hawthorne in the winter, when the road

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-15310351525830561072011-12-09T00:29:00.000-08:002011-12-09T10:28:25.742-08:00

SF Lunchwalk: North, third in a series exploring the city instead of eating lunch. I am exploring north along streets mechanized from below. Gears, pulleys, and cables live under the street, humming and clapping, droning and singing, partaking in the communion of automata. I would begin not listening to machines, but to the bells of the Salvation Army. Passing a giant tree which these

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-70709401949598075792011-11-29T23:09:00.000-08:002011-12-03T21:13:33.654-08:00

A traveler on this new island, my first forays radiate out from the center.  At 12:36 pm, I start walking due west. Not a few moments pass before I am pressed up against fellow travelers, compressed in the space of the city, stacked like the bricks around us.  A clicking signal indicates to the blind, such as yourself, that a street crossing is permitted by the local authorities.  Let loose

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-32616566522845064752011-11-22T00:37:00.000-08:002011-11-22T20:33:23.909-08:00

Lunch break. Got an hour? Take a walk. Inside of a thirty-minute radius, an infinitely detailed (though finitely bound) landscape is within reach. SF Lunchwalks: Morsel of San Francisco which I can reach in a one-hour roundtrip from my office. SF Lunchwalk 01 : Cracks is the first in a series of soundwalks, where I take a walk for an hour instead of eating lunch (or eat lunch while walking).

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-14115890968535475972011-10-19T10:50:00.000-07:002011-10-19T14:36:23.035-07:00

Edgar Frog: I think I should warn you all, when a vampire bites it, it's never a pretty sight. No two blood suckers go out the same way. Some yell and scream, some go quietly, some explode, some implode. But, all will try and take you with them.

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-31238164187931926992011-10-14T00:04:00.000-07:002011-10-19T10:44:28.622-07:00

A mobile loudspeaker array Something like what you see above will not be found around the #occupy movements growing in cities around the globe.  An amplified platform, broadcasting a clear and distinct message, is fittingly absent.  It is not permissible by many of the occupied downtown neighborhoods, nor is it even necessary as a technology for these groups to express themselves. The NYPD

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-38903176444849521682011-10-08T16:25:00.000-07:002011-10-19T10:27:21.088-07:00

Horn Antenna, Holmdel, New Jersey, circa 1960 (via) I came across this image by chance, just flipping through images of Bell Laboratories.  The image itself speaks of a colossal effort to listen to something.  Was it a particular sound that was sought out here?  Not sound, but another kind of wave energy would be collected in this ear in the landscape.  This ear with its ability to rotate and

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-15397810118760469962011-09-29T00:57:00.000-07:002011-10-14T00:20:40.817-07:00

Hi-fi architecture: a concert hall, a lecture room, a sound stage.  A great deal of acoustic engineering and formal design decisions goes into the production of these spaces. The remaining spaces we inhabit, the everyday architecture of hallways, kitchens, lobbies, and public streets--these are largely not designed from an acoustic standpoint.  Less than lo-fi, which would suggest some sort of

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-10601714870292796052011-09-01T08:23:00.000-07:002011-10-19T10:27:46.531-07:00

Give me 20 D Energizers. 20 C Energizers? Not C, D.  C Energizers? D, motherfucker, D. Learn to speak English first, all right? How many you say? 20, motherfucker, 20. Motherfuck you. Motherfuck you? You, you all right, man.

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-84805396650952440022011-08-23T23:23:00.000-07:002011-10-19T10:28:28.748-07:00

A definite sonic quality to this 1932 aerial view of San Francisco Bay.  Found via. Much has been made of exploring post-military landscapes, but what is to be said of the pre-military landscape? For instance, survey the busy San Francisco Bay in the photo above, just a handful of years before the military began its massive transformation of the watery edge.  It is worth observing how well

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-61967792237528530142011-06-02T21:27:00.000-07:002011-10-19T10:29:11.046-07:00

Busy times offline here at Soundscrapers. Found in print only, on a newsstand somewhere, is an essay and set of drawings titled "Military Pastoral" in issue 138 of Frieze magazine.  In the article I write about two military landscapes with vastly divergent post-military paths:  Gettysburg, memorialized ad infinitum, and Palmanova, finding new life in its eroding geometries. The Entropic

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-8457621700918237902011-03-29T00:26:00.000-07:002011-10-19T10:31:54.458-07:00

A misty morel wall Soundscrapers continues the assault on the kitchen over at GOOD.What would make a good sonic kitchen?Hit me up over @twitter.

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-75022186530511649972011-01-19T10:53:00.000-08:002011-10-19T10:29:48.606-07:00

In case you missed it, I have a soundscape for your listening pleasure over at Design Observer's Places.  The recordings are of the temporary city called Burning Man which appears annually in the Nevada Desert. I was out there for the full seven days, recorder in hand... As a trained architect who is familiar with listening to cities composed largely of hard walls, I found myself out of my

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-53683337281083140092011-01-13T22:35:00.000-08:002011-10-19T10:30:27.964-07:00

The following question comes from a study guide for one of the seven exams required to get an architecture license: When I saw the question, after getting over my disbelief that this sort of subjective nonsense could even be found on the exam, I put down (D) as my answer. I flipped to the back. WRONG. The answer is (A). Are you kidding me!? It was as though the architecture gods-that-be

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-54263348463135956292011-01-06T14:40:00.000-08:002011-10-19T10:31:11.907-07:00

The photographer Joachim Schmid was (and perhaps still is) afflicted by a condition known as hyperacusis -- a reaction of severe irritation to sounds of certain frequencies. Apparently airborne sounds like helicopters were causing him great discomfort. Whether or not the object was visible, Mr. Schmid, as a self-imposed therapy, would step outside and take a photograph of the sky.  Each moment of

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-27087340495392250052010-12-11T00:07:00.000-08:002011-01-19T10:55:28.084-08:00

Dissipate Michael Heizer, 1968 Consider Michael Heizer’s Dissipate, installed in Nevada's Black Rock desert in 1968. The piece consisted of five rectangular Cor-Ten steel trays, depressed in the desert floor and sloping from shallow to deep. The noteworthy thing to me about this piece is not the iconic image but the unseen excavation, the desert removed. The dust from the excavation may even

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-2960114264887653302010-12-03T23:59:00.000-08:002011-10-19T10:32:14.609-07:00

Ray tracings of a single point source in a theater, 1,291 ms.

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-33353648109747698252010-11-12T10:41:00.000-08:002011-10-19T10:32:59.284-07:00

The Spatial Sound With Supercollider workshop has come to a close.  Thank you to the folks at CCRMA and GAFFTA for hosting! Before expanding on some of the techniques that came up in the workshop, I think it would be useful to take a few steps backward and explain what it means to spatialize sound. We can think of sound as a process which occurs in time  i.e.  I listened to Rachmaninoff's 

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-60587432211631258252010-11-09T10:18:00.000-08:002010-11-17T21:10:05.274-08:00

I am almost finished with a four-day workshop hosted by the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA) in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco.  The title is "Spatial Sound with Supercollider".  In this workshop we have concerned ourselves with the manifold possibilities for taking sound and expanding it from the standard stereo listening environment.  This spatialization of sound is distinct

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-53931552443337502812010-08-28T21:54:00.000-07:002011-10-19T10:34:23.819-07:00

Just about to take off on a week-long odyssey into the Nevada desert. Of course, I won't be alone. I'll be joined by about 40,000 people who gather each year and construct the temporary metropolis known as Black Rock City. I've been looking forward to my first trip to Burning Man all year but I've withheld expectations. My plan all along was just to show up, sound recorder in hand, and just

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-37508768041182793742010-08-17T02:44:00.000-07:002010-08-17T02:51:46.964-07:00

Park Avenue, Adobe Systems Inc., via Google Streetview It's another sunny day in downtown San Jose, just like everyday is on Google Streetview.  The fog of San Francisco never seems to get close.  It's just an average day like this that two of DEMILIT's members, myself and Bryan Finoki, decide to have a look around. We're getting ready for an installation at the SJ01 San Jose Biennale next

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-51520796429172285212010-07-20T23:17:00.000-07:002010-07-21T00:34:07.052-07:00

I was around when Jesus Christ had his moment of doubt and pain -The Rolling Stones Moments of doubt around me Jesus was a pain -Google Translate, two iterations between English and Japanese Around me in a moment of doubt and pain, Jesus was -Google Translate, fourth iteration Indeed, the pain, I was around the moment of Christ -Google Translate, sixth iteration (equilibrium)

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-35757911064617815142010-07-08T09:15:00.000-07:002010-07-08T12:12:53.786-07:00

Sound Walls will be a set of recurring posts which question the fundamental assumptions of how to design for the sonic environment.  A 'sound wall' is typically referred to as a piece of infrastructure which serves to block or attenuate the transmission of sound.  This series I am calling Sound Walls will reconsider the sound wall as literally "a wall of sound" wherein sound is also a

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-33797884298595585792010-06-25T01:53:00.000-07:002010-07-03T10:06:35.970-07:00

The #demilit workshop was a great success last week. Bryan, Javier and I led a small group of people into the vast hinterland of military space. The discussion ranged from buildings in former Yugoslavia as evidence in war crimes to walking tours to examine the remnants of nuclear militarization. It was an intense 90 minutes that could easily have spun off ten more workshops. We are excited

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-47396730350832181022010-06-14T23:59:00.000-07:002011-01-29T12:43:28.551-08:00

Pulling more out from my sound archives. In September 2009, I was in Vicenza, Italy, studying the US Army base there. I was able to gain access to the base via some contacts I made through the Corps of Engineers, but I also walked the edges of the base, just because you always find interesting things in these border spaces. Among my findings, some private housing which used to be part of the

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-45034407175793098782010-06-14T00:59:00.000-07:002010-06-15T00:10:18.867-07:00

This Friday I am leading a workshop titled "Decoding Military Landscapes" with Javier Arbona and Bryan Finoki. The aim of this workshop is to find a means for bringing awareness of invisible militarizations of space in the cities we live in. But what do we mean by militarization of everyday space? A simple example and one which I relentlessly documented as I traveled last year is the baggage

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-572651457584959762010-05-31T19:11:00.000-07:002010-06-14T23:44:20.647-07:00

I'm doing the folks over at the Echo Red conference a quick favor by posting some samples by the Sonic Archivist of Guam. We open with the resonances recorded in the hollows of the jet noise barrier, overlaid with an F-22 flyover. We then descend into some of the boarded-up buildings of the former air base, down into some caves (artificial or natural?) and emerge in the interior of the

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-38090366785544625152010-05-28T19:11:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:03:02.189-07:00

The Ornithologist has posted his report over at Archinect.com. What I think is most interesting in the report is the masking or camouflage of military space with artificial ecologies. By producing bird habitat, the military can prolong their presence. However, too successful of a habitat will lead to the birds' over-taking of the base, by activist protest or B.A.S.H.--Bird Aircraft Strike

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-16621269434869199302010-04-30T20:57:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:37:06.995-07:00

My first commissioned soundscraper has opened tonight at Brussels-based Silence Radio. It is titled Air Conditioner No. 8. There's a blurb in French that accompanies the piece. However, I'd rather offer this email I wrote to Etienne Noiseau, the sonographer-in-chief at Silence Radio.org, to introduce the piece. Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 11:19 PM Dear Etienne, Thank you for your patience. I have

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-13817064186643450562010-03-22T15:34:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:37:07.034-07:00

On March 20th, 2010 Soundscrapers took part in the Atlas Obscura/BLDG BLOG expedition to the "Geoglyphs of Nowhere" a.k.a. a bunch of dirt roads northeast of California City in the Mojave Desert. I put up what I call Desert Prosthetics, a series of installations which mediate the experience of listening to ambient sound in the desert. {Please refer to my post at Archinect for the full statement

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-67918695058122279512010-02-02T00:03:00.000-08:002010-06-14T01:04:06.072-07:00

This is a quick, belated mention of two things: one, I have been commissioned to produce a sound piece for Brussels-based Silence Radio; and two, I was featured in Soundwalk's series called Editions. Soundwalk describes Editions as: Soundwalk Editions features artists and composers who use environmental field recordings as a point of departure in their work. By recording sounds outside of the

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-53432203306324775972010-01-19T11:58:00.000-08:002010-06-14T01:04:29.909-07:00

In a recent conversation with a recreation manager for Andersen Air Force Base on the US unincorporated territory of Guam, I learned something which may prove incredibly pertinent to my thesis. At Ritidian Point, the northern-most tip of the 30-mile long island, there is a wildlife center which plays in the background the recorded sounds of extinct birds. These birds became extinct by way of

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-71717916437254178222009-12-21T13:14:00.001-08:002010-06-14T01:04:50.944-07:00

Do you ever wish there was a random soundtrack for every google search that you do? I might just sound like this. Listen: I just did a simple experiment. I typed in "war" into the search engine at freesound.org to see what would pop up. I was listening to the tracks one by one, but then I started playing them on top of one another. You can play as many as you want at the same time using

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-80348664769295222352009-11-09T11:41:00.000-08:002010-06-14T01:37:07.038-07:00

Rubble mountains. One can only imagine the sound of a rubble mountain under 'construction'. Rubble mountains are everywhere, under your feet, under buildings; they are underground mountains. What is anything we call ground but some form or rubble, of various sizes, 'destroyed'particles, aggregates of something else reconstituted as a new landscape. Berlin's Teufelsberg is the largest rubble

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-11335630341921870102009-09-28T17:12:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:37:07.050-07:00

As seen on BLDG BLOG, my wife and I took a boat trip out to see these incredible structures leftover from WWII. The day was filled with some unexpected events, such as the lowering of a broken windmill turbine onto the boat, using an old crane arm from one of the towers. On board, in awe of these hulking towers of rusting steel, will be a couple hours of my life that I will never forget.

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-23266732173436115252009-08-26T08:03:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:37:07.070-07:00

Following after one of my favorite sound artists, Francisco Lopez, as I record sound I am collecting the matter of sound. Lopez writes in an essay titled "This is Not La Selva: Sound Matter vs. Representation": In my conception, sound recording does not document or represent a richer and more significant "real" world. Rather, it focuses on the inner world of sounds. Both of the samples

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-58810002676186522462009-07-21T10:49:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:37:07.081-07:00

I'm now over a week deep into the Urban Islands design workshop, working with Geoff Manaugh of BLDG BLOG and 15 other students to devise a tarot card deck and some proposals for Cockatoo Island from that deck. Cockatoo Island is a former shipbuilding facility and convict prison in the middle of Sydney Harbour. Since its closure in the 1990s it has been the subject of much speculation. I am

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-90004713363765386862009-07-11T14:32:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:37:07.097-07:00

New Zealand is a peaceful country, if only because it is so far away no one has bothered with it. Henry Kissinger once called it a "dagger pointed at the heart of Antarctica" but that's about as militarized as New Zealand gets. Now it is possible to drive a tank while visiting the lovely South Island city of Christchurch. Through this experience, really a boyhood fantasy come true, the land

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-61973594465542905952009-07-02T15:57:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:37:07.137-07:00

Take a flight out to New Mexico and explore the wonders of White Sands Missile Range, the largest military installation in the United States. I will walk around and point out various missiles in the park, and then let some of the museum video material speak for itself. Listen:

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-56548675314154387572009-06-24T12:06:00.000-07:002009-06-24T13:58:46.281-07:00

There's been a hiatus in posting sounds. I'm still recording fearlessly, forever heightening my awareness of the environment around me. The sound recordings continue to amass. Electrons stored, charged, awaiting release.I am re-evaluating the function of this blog. I have a blog over at Archinect that serves my needs to discuss the things that I am seeing.So what can I do with this space? I

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-53805803900600627132009-05-30T11:38:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:37:07.144-07:00

The laying of the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is pervaded by a sonorous trumpet. I've heard it a million times in movies, but to pick up the resonance, the subtle variation in the tapering off of each note in the live performance is powerful. I feel directed to observe, obey, and to be humble. Needless to say the trumpet call has a high signal to noise ratio. The Tomb is an

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-57058617258336545572009-05-30T11:31:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:37:07.146-07:00

Rolling Thunder, a motorcycle parade in its 22nd year, roars across the Memorial Bridge to make a circuit of the Mall before terminating at the Vietnam Memorial. Vietnam vets ( Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom vets as well) ride their hawgs to bring attention to POW's and MIA's, and veterans' rights in general. Curiously though, the noise becomes part of the background. I found a way to tune

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-21615195218813058682009-05-21T09:48:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:37:07.158-07:00

Stepping inside the restored Gettysburg Cyclorama is a strange juxtaposition of a 19th century precursor to the cinematic experience with a 21st century lighting and sound spectacle. Looking at the various sections of the battlescene, I am impressed by the painting's extraordinary detail. It is as though you could infinitely zoom into the battle. The illusion is that nothing is hidden from

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-58374247383481639862009-04-30T15:33:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:37:07.161-07:00

Continuing to dig back through some sound recordings. This is an amazing building that is being restored on the outskirts of Havana. In the 1960's it was not applauded by the Castro government which viewed the orgasmic curves and laborious brick construction as unbecoming of a young, industrial communist state. Listen:

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-34724473679688825592009-04-29T21:04:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:37:07.168-07:00

In Berkeley for 12 more days. Why not do a little armchair traveling myself? I went back through my recorded sounds of Cuba and put a little something together. Take a cocotaxi ride into the depths of Havana, exploring the soundscape of the ocean meeting the city edge.

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-1477697097397797282009-04-14T01:12:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:37:07.172-07:00

Following my interest in how to represent exclusive, forbidden spaces, I got this idea as I was going through the usual routine of the airport security check. I took my recorder and mics out of my pocket and was about to stuff them in my bag when it occurred that I could actually do a little military exploration here. I switched on record and in it went, a satellite probe into one of the most

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-91471484691217473062009-04-09T11:01:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:37:07.175-07:00

I finished day 8 on top of Okinawa's second tallest mountain, or rather a hill at about 450m above sea level. My goal was a US communication station which has been partially returned to the Okinawa Prefecture. There are several satellites still in function, including the one which I describe in the podcast. After the sun sets I head down alone, darkness chasing my tail. The surrounding jungle

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-1378844444303126442009-04-05T07:21:00.001-07:002010-06-14T01:37:07.177-07:00

After nearly 20 miles of walking today, a moderate day, I have just enough energy to share three samples of sound from this strange island. First, a quintessential Okinawa experience: the enduring of Air Force vocal chords. Listen (if you dare): Next, another common sound, the jet swooping in to land at Futenma Air Station. I am standing about 300 feet below the jets when they come in.

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-53927739019226229652009-04-01T10:07:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:37:07.178-07:00

The thunderous jet noise described last time: There is a lot more sound, but I'm off to Okinawa. Read more...

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-32683757407545993902009-03-23T22:47:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:12:55.310-07:00

The void is an evocative theme. It works two ways, across a threshold. For the military, what lies outside the fence, as far as I have seen, is always represented on their maps as a blank region. And in city plans, the military base is a grey block, a chess piece which makes no move and can never be taken. There is an important difference with each type of "void space" here. From within the

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-64736637906038279212009-03-14T04:00:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:37:31.068-07:00

The experience of walking onto a military base is truly stepping across into another world. This soundscraping also contains a dialogue with a retired Army Sergeant-Major and a visit to the Odusan Unification Observatory at the DMZ. Listen:

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-32970699625840589672009-03-14T02:31:00.000-07:002010-06-14T01:14:00.938-07:00

Tokyo is a soft city. It is incredibly relenting. This is not a visual experience. I am talking about the cushion of space that people make way for you. The language, both bodily and spoken, is designed to ease the potential awkwardness of strangers crossing paths. Eventually the polite but ubiquitous "Irashaimase!" that store clerks deliver when you walk into their space wears out and becomes

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-30715154868415502812009-03-03T08:42:00.000-08:002010-06-14T01:37:31.070-07:00

This latest Soundscrapers installment takes place over a span of week. I have been moving in fits and spurts, under the weather a bit and traversing the country.In the spirit of the Korean snack, I have limited each clip to a 10 second interval. As soon as one section of sound is absorbed in the ear, another one follows it in. Listen:

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-53846308470627498982009-02-25T06:45:00.000-08:002010-06-14T01:37:31.072-07:00

The Korean War Memorial is a massive building that sits on the edge of Yongsan Garrison. Children play on the big tanks. The massiveness has a sound. Listen:

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-24191886597337793662009-02-20T08:56:00.000-08:002010-06-14T01:37:31.074-07:00

It's been a full two days now in Korea. It's cold. The food is spicy as all hell. And I'm very happy about that. I think this is a culture I agree with very well. It's nice to be traveling somewhere and the people basically leave you alone. And when you want contact with people, you find they are exceedingly friendly and hospitable.The sound here is full of jingles and jangles. You can't

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-43611759431731048932009-02-19T07:05:00.000-08:002010-06-14T01:37:31.076-07:00

This is revisiting some sound I recorded from the beginning of the trip. Hey, don't give me any grief for posting things out of order. Khronos, after all, is a god of serpentine form with three heads. You can't possibly expect him to be in sync either. Three sounds: Cables supporting the arch at the entry of the Avenue of the Revolution, Tijuana. A highway outside Naval Station San Diego.

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-17010485966067165972009-02-12T01:41:00.000-08:002010-06-14T01:37:31.078-07:00

I spent the morning at these old Navy ammo bunkers. Listen:direct link

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-1781717424216794922009-02-06T01:54:00.001-08:002009-02-06T01:54:20.754-08:00

Gear, originally uploaded by nicksowers....for a year around the world. From left to right: German shoulder bag, Alice frame, pens, minidisc, minidisc player, camera, Tide travel detergent, various medicines, contact microphone, stereo microphone, battery charger, usb cable, bug spray/sun block, bandaids, leatherman, compas, ear buds, collapsible frisbee, cellphone, flashlight, cuba guidebook (

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-40644834463537387292009-02-05T15:02:00.000-08:002011-11-22T00:39:46.802-08:00

This is the first Soundscrapers podcast.  As I travel around the world to visit military bases and post-military spaces, I will be collecting audio in 10-20 minute sonic cross-sections. If you download podcasts on itunes and the like, use the subscribe link to the right. Headphones recommended. Please enjoy. a mini guide 0:00 Houston Airport0:30 A sound installation1:12 Flight 8751:35

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-37206443977304186642008-10-22T17:09:00.000-07:002009-01-30T12:51:49.342-08:00

hello. http://arch1.ced.berkeley.edu/~nsowers/sound/double_you.mp3

Nick Sowersnoreply@blogger.com