EXERCISE #1 - During the initial walkthrough, I tried not to really analyze what I was hearing. I just simply wanted to listen on a basic level to get a sense of the soundscape. After five minutes or so, I got a general sense of the ambiance of the area set by the various sounds. Obviously, the sounds that I made were the first to be acknowledged. Those sounds were the closest to me and therefore the most audible. The sound of my footsteps was constant, though their consistency changed as I walked from grass to pavement to sand. There were distant sounds such as cars which created sort of a constant bass line underneath everything else - the car sounds were always there, due to the park's proximity to the street. Regardless of how far away I walked from the street, the car sounds were always audible.
EXERCISE #2 - The most apparent high frequency sounds were various bird chirps and a man-made steel hammering/tapping. These sounds stood out due to the high pitch they were producing. The bird sounds were coming from all directions and distances, from several groupings of trees. The birds were very consistent; there was never really an interruption in the sounds. It almost resembled a chorus of sorts - though not as if the birds were working together to create a melody or something. That is just how is came across to me by having varying degrees of chirps coming from different types of birds. In addition to the birds, there was a high frequency steel hammering of some sort. It was coming from across the street; a house was under construction and the sound I heard was a result of that. It became as a high-pitched tapping/hammering that was heard from quite a distance due to the reverberation. After awhile, the hammering stopped and it became more of a sawing or drilling, but it never lost its high frequency.
As I stated before, the sound of passing cars was constant of therefore was the major low frequency sound. But there was also something else. Atwater park also has a beach on Lake Michigan, so the sound of the waves in the distance and hitting the shoreline became a low frequency component on its own. It actually quite resembled the traffic, despite being natural versus man-made. The waves were constant, just like the cars, and they also sort of created a natural bass line. Their sound was never completely gone and came, forgive the pun, in waves. I was actually in the middle of these two opposing yet similar sound walls - I had the street to my back and the water in front of me.
As I focused in on tiny sounds, there was one that really stood out to me, and it was difficult to separate from the rest of the soundscape. There was a tall flagpole a little ways behind me, and the wind was blowing the flag itself with enough force to make a sound. It was a rustling/whipping noise. The flag sound itself was very soft, and it took a high level of concentration to focus on. In process, I lost it a few times among the rest of the soundscape. It was interesting once I was able to separate the flag though, because it made me realize just how many sounds there probably are that people never hear because they are overpowered by louder, higher frequency sounds. When shifting back from the flag to the general soundscape, I noticed how quickly the flag whipping disappeared amidst the general soundscape.
EXERCISE #3 - List of as many individual sounds as I could decipher: waves crashing, birds chirping, cars passing, car engines starting, car doors closing, people talking, people splashing in the water, wind rustling leaves and other foliage, wind blowing the flag, steel hammering/tapping/sawing, people running up and down wooden stairs, dogs barking, motorcycle passing by.
Almost all of the these sounds were consistent for the most part, save for the motorcycle, which only passed once. As I said before, the bird chirps had an interesting pattern to them, which created a sort of chorus. The steel hammering definitely had a regular beat to it - it could have been used as a metronome for playing music. There a fairly significant distance between myself and the hammering, yet it was still one of the most noticeable sounds. The was rustling as the wind become stronger and blew through tree leaves and other foliage around me. It usually didn't last very long, but I was able to hear it with clarity. There was one unidentifiable sound that I encountered. Towards the beginning of my soundwalk, far to the left there was a loud thud (it sounded almost wooded). The thud occurred about two or three more times, and then ceased for the rest of my walk. I have no idea was caused it or how far away it was, but it definitely stood out to me immediately as I heard it.
EXERCISE #4 - Soundscape Map
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