// Blog //
We seemingly will happily describe a view, a meal, or a holiday in great detail, but without any reference to sound, to think of it, how many activities in life do we talk about focusing on the sound? And yet, if we look carefully, there is a substantial body of material where people do talk about sound, usually in the form of ‘noise’. You’ll find it on the endless scroll of social media.
am always teaching that sound is immediate, it enters our being before we can prepare, before thought can form a perceptual shield against it. From the time we are in the womb, before ‘King Sight’ (Walter Murch in Chion’s Audio Vision) has taken over we are learning and understanding about the our world through it, and then when we born, our existence in the world is to be immersed in it, pulled into relations that we do not choose but cannot escape. Unlike sight, a sense which allows for distance and framing, sound insists on intimacy, it places us inside the world and ourselves. Ever since, just over 50 years ago, R. Murray Schafer tried to “tune the world” and formalised the notion of ‘soundscape’ and thus soundscape studies which has lead increasing formalisation within the frameworks of academia and now government legislation (for example in the Noise and Soundscape Plan for Wales 2023-2028).
A sound diary or journal is both mindfulness and archive, practice and creation. By noting the sounds of daily life, we bring hidden elements of our lives, memories and soundscapes into focus. This practice grounds us in the present while also tracing personal, social, and cultural histories. Over time, the diary becomes a sonic map: a record of how places, and we ourselves, sound.
This study explores the practice of "soundtalking," a novel method of participant-led sound practice, within the environment and soundscape of the Dee Estuary in the UK. Over the course of twelve months, the Our Dee Estuary Project facilitated monthly meetings where participants engaged in in-depth discussions and sound-making activities, fostering a deeper connection with both their local and auditory environments.
This recording was made on the 3rd April 2008 as I undertook a soundwalk from Tottenham Court Road underground station, along Charing Cross Road (via Denmark Street). This is a part of London which 13 years later is VERY different, many of the landmark buildings have gone to make way for Crossrail and the new TCR station.
