The Discussion of the Notions of Acoustic Ecology in Kits Beach Soundwalk by Hildegard - Essay Example

Central to Westerkam’s Kits Beach Soundwalk is the detailed study she did in acoustics taking the listener to different locations of Vancouver and exploring them acoustically. The original work was recorded on a calm winter morning when the acoustic backdrop of the surging city had the mild sounds of barnacles feeding underlying it from a in the background. By this recording, Westerkamp challenges us to be keen with our own acoustic soundscape1. Her study reveals an unbalanced world in which individual voices are effectively silenced. The work traverses the realms of fantasy and imagination in reestablishing the listener’s place around him. Not only does Westerkamp appeal to an audience of narrowed compass, but also designs her work to reach audiences at different levels of professionalism and intent; from intellectual to psychological; metaphorical to hypothetical2. Kits Beach Soundwalk features Westerkamp’s voice as commentary to the backdrop of voices that are heard. The numerous sounds of planes, cars, splashing water and ducks heard are all aimed at bringing out the intricate effect of the sounds of barnacles in the background. Westerkamp surmises that the high frequencies of the sounds of barnacles increase brain activity thereby stimulating one’s dream experience. Their soothing tones grace the graceful episode when it is present and when it is absent its calming and meditative composition is overtly missed. Acoustic ecology is an amazing field of study that to Bruce Smith, he surmises its central place in the current society by using such undertones as ‘down is the archeology of physical objects, up is the archeology of sound’3. Should you doubt this perception then his description of sound should pontificate his assumption. He thinks (quite truly) that sound is the disturbance transmitted through finite media (like air and objects) when a vibrating object sets molecules in these media into motion to a greater or lesser magnitude; at intervals of greater or lower frequency4. Animals and man have special receptors that are sensitive to these molecular vibrations and which can assign meaning to them as distinct sounds referring or communicating a certain aspect of the human (animal) experience. Bruce goes a step further in his indulgence in the topic of acoustic ecology. He asserts that ‘all sounds that have ever occurred to one still reverberate however faintly somewhere in the blue yonder’5. This postulate then comes in complete corroboration with Westerkamp’s work which brings out the experience of interposed sound experiences that when aligned in a specific way, their subconscious reoccurrence in reverberation contribute to the harmony, peace and grace (or lack of it) that they may be designed to realize. By her work, she set out to help the listener come to the realization of the amount of quality that is realizable from different soundscape experiences. Randolph Jordan, in his Case study, Film Sound, Acoustic Ecology and Performance in Electroacoustic Music, brings to mind various aspects of performance that affect acoustic ecology. Visual attention for instance he says has the capacity to call to attention some aspects of music production that naturally would never have been known to exist. On the other hand, this visual experience can equally call attention away from some qualities of sound being heard which can only be realized when they receive particular attention and address. This visual experience is most observable when one attends say a live dance performance. These visual engagements can also distract our attention towards how sound and music is behaving in the live performance itself thereby limiting our capacity to experience the ultimate sensation of the blend of sound and performance6. The use of recorded sound in live performances received criticism during its inception in the 20th century. Many, like Jordan, argued that an appreciable level of authenticity was removed with the removal of conventional musical instruments that were traditionally used for accompaniment. He asserts that not seeing what a performer is doing to create the sound heard in a live setting, calls to question the notion of the performance7. This need for musical performance to be visually stimulating therefore has greatly been jeopardized by the laptop performance that is so prevalent today. The sight of someone stooped on a laptop and by the simple thrust of his wrist realizes incredible drama is therefore definitely disappointing. This divorce of the sound produced from the people (or objects) producing them appreciably affects the entirety of sensation obtained from the sound (performance). Greater concern regards live diffusion of acoustic sound where pre-recorded sound is manipulated by special mixing sound console systems used in real time. By this manipulation, the performance becomes context-specific despite the absence of musical performance in real time. It is the basic model used for concerts of electroacoustic music. Randolph’s study as relates to live diffusion is central to Westerkamp’s work since hers is a pre-recording of various sound made and analyzed without the sensation of visualizing the objects (cars, planes, animals etc) that make them. Westerkamp addresses this aspect of acoustic ecology by first giving a detailed description of where and when the soundwalk was done. Says she: I produced and hosted a radio program in late seventies working with Vancouver Co-operative Radio called Soundwalking. In this program, I took the listener to a number of locations around the city of Vancouver to explore the city with them acoustically. Kitsilano Beach, informally called Kits Beach by the locals, is at the heart of Vancouver. During summer it is usually crowded with the display of ‘ghetto blasters’ and ‘meat salad’ bereft of the silence and tranquility experienced in the olden days by the native Indians. The original recording of the Kits Beach Soundwalk was made on a calm winter morning when the calm lapping of water and the benign sounds of barnacles feeding were clearly audible in the background of the throbbing city8. With this detailed description of the context and place where the soundwalk was done, it is acceptable that the effect of analysis of the soundwalk without envisioning the objects which make the sound is minimized and the conclusions drawn from it are authentic in their own right. There is an interaction of location and listening that is so peculiar and central to the concept of soundscape. Brandon LaBelle addresses this aspect of acoustic ecology in his book, Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art. In the book, he details how the place of sound is as much an auditory experience as it is imbedded in the material sound itself. Locational sound is bounded by the geographic expanse of the planet and therefore the presence of a single sound activates the entire field of sound; its balance and evolution. Because of this, LaBelle concludes that to listen to sound then is to listen to the entire body of sound world in micro-detail9. The central aim of soundscape and its composition is to establish a communication between environmental sound and musical work. This goes further in intelligently merging the discovery of place-based sonority with intense listening. This broadened look at sound is from an expansive view that general acoustic ecology has come to encompass. Uses of music and in the aesthetic realm of sound have expanded the scope of sound to incorporate the study of sound and its aesthetic appeal which is conscious of global relationships and mindful of environmental awareness10. This attempt of broadening the experience of sound to incorporate relational experiences and defusing it with environment is central in Westerkamp’s work. She implores laymen listeners who do not have interest in detail any more than they can assign meaning to the sounds they decipher, to view sound in a more wholistic way so as to attain the most from the incredible experience of sound. The tranquility she ties to the soothing sounds of the barnacles against the backdrop of a throbbing city is an illustration she uses to prove just how much sensation is realizable from the experience of sound when it is taken in its entirety. To those of us who ascribe no other importance to sound except the linguistic meaning we receive from it to use in our interpersonal relationships, Westerkamp implores to reconsider our interests and delve into deeper depths of experience that can be attained from sound. Jamie Sexton discusses these issues articulately in his book, Music, Sound and Multimedia: from the Live to the Virtual. He asserts quite philosophically that as human beings, our minds hare bent to ascribe some representational meaning to world around us and this capacity is in every one. The point therefore is to strive to achieve a balance between our grounding in the materialism that is governed by our own human survival instincts and an ability to transcend that materiality through separation of sources and abstraction of context11. The point he makes is that there is capacity in us to sieve through the fabric of our conscience and brains what we want to perceive and in what way. At very elevated levels of this brain capacity, it is possible to wade through a myriad of sounds and only pick out sounds of interest while being completely oblivious of other sounds that may be just as audible. In this regard, not even intensity can deter or incapacitate the brain of this incredible capacity. To find someone seated in a small room throbbing with the noise of a rock band playing on a stereo and yet nodding to a distant lull of an orchestra playing in the next room at almost undecipherable tones is no wonder. In Kits Beach Soundwalk, Westerkamp describes the scene of Kits Beach so articulately bringing out the details of its composition and form with the specificity of a narrator. In her description, she calls to attention different aspects of the soundscape where in particular she articulately makes a distinction between the sound of the waves on the beach in the foreground and the commotion of the traffic noise in the background. The point she puts across through her illustration is that depending on where we put our attention to, it is possible to replace the background noise with the foreground noise and vise versa with a homogeneous transition that can even trick oneself whether it is illusionary what they hear or it is real. In her explanation of these sounds, Westerkamp manipulates the honking noises of the traffic by reducing them slowly to draw our attention for a closer listen to the details at the beach. In trying to help the listener decipher the serene sounds of the beach, she highlights the little pops and clicks of the barnacles which she helps to make them clearer by narrating a personal experience she has had in her life that relates to them. She points at an experience she had from her memory from Iannis Xenakis’ Concrete PH II which was a pioneering piece of electroacoustic creation. As she continues to describe her experience, Xenakis’ work is brought in for us to hear for ourselves slowly replacing Westerkamp’s description, the yanking of the barnacles on the beach and eventually Westerkamp’s own memory recollections. This experience is a superb illustration of how we slip from one soundscape to another within the same environment. Westerkamp helps us to transit homogeneously from a document of existing soundscape (the traffic and beach sounds) to work of acoustic music by the use of technological manipulation of recorded soundscape. This manipulation emulates the capacity of human perception to use the acts of remembering and listening to compose and create our auditory environment. This illustration by Westerkamp addresses the concept of shifting of perspective in helping create the feeling of our sonic environment to be new. Acoustic ecology has the mandate through listening, remembering and focus to deal with the increasing trends in noise elevation through industrialization in our society12. Sexton asserts that the aspects of our surrounding that dominates our awareness are completely alterable by human intent and desire. If this be so, then it is possible that we can stretch ourselves to those things that we are interested in and even environmental degradation that comes with noise and disturbance can be dealt with by this human capacity of listening as composition. Westerkamp’s work therefore provides great insights for this reclamation process through its ability to change listening habits especially by her use of electroacoustic technology. In Kits Beach Soundwalk, there is the notion of mediation that is a consistent concept in acoustic ecology which Westerkamp addresses so effectively by her use of electroacoustic technological advancement to manipulate the composition of sound. The demonstration first shows just how impossible it is for a technologically advanced soundscape can give the sense of how the soundscape really is. Her exposure of the manipulation that is inherent in playback and recording brings to attention the mediated nature of the experience13. By this revelation, Westerkamp goes ahead to detail how we mediate our own experiences all the time in the experiences we have; experiences that are related to our respective histories. She does so by narrating her own experience with the lulls of the barnacles on the beach tying it with the experience with Xenakis piece. Just to what extent does personal experience determine the responses and the meaning we ascribe to the sounds we here? That is a complex trajectory which Westerkamp attempts to shade some insights to in her work. Admittedly, it is a hard area to delve in with the intent of giving insights given the intricate factors that come into play when considering the issue. Responses and meaning are components of human experience that by no strain of imagination can they be tied to one factor; say perception, or sound. Straight from the onset of the point, tying personal experiences to perception and meaning is problematic in itself from the basic diversity of personal experiences as concerns different individuals. There is seldom one experience that is consistent for all people let alone being universally acceptable. There are those who will assign importance to some experiences more than others. Take suffering for instance. Religious fundamentalists and ascetics of early days of Christian growth had a near acquiescent in suffering and pain as the sure way one’s faith and sacrifice could be gauged. This general feeling is still traced in some mild forms in current religions. To many people now, suffering (asceticism) is no way of showing commitment and allegiance. A safer approach therefore as regards experiences is to take an all-inclusive approach that acknowledges a broader spectrum of factors that contribute to the meanings we arrive at from acoustics. Westerkamp asserts that the art of live diffusion in electroacoustic performance is the act of mediation calling our attention to space in a site-specific environment. This approach of composition of sound in ascribing meaning is a rich blend of Pierre Schaeffer’s ideals of reduced listening and Schaffer Murray’s postulate of the need of ecological awareness14. The expanse of performance is wide to say the very least. Components that come into play thereby affecting outcomes of perception are many and complicated at times. For the case of Kits Beach Soundwalk where only technological adjustments in sound and narration could bring such experience with sound and acoustics, there is no knowing to what extent these thrilling feelings of newness are possible when the factors are broadened to include such things as socio-cultural experiences, educational attainments and level of intelligence. In a live performance, similar acousmatic aspects of the performance (or music) may produce in one a feeling of empathy and pity towards a performer who is molested in the performance and the same aspect may produce anger and hatred against the perpetrator of the molestation in another person in the audience. These feelings and perception may also arise from other elements like Murray’s concept of schizophonia which is the separation of sound from its source. This means that meaning of sound may be ascribed with regard to who (or what) produces it15. Ferocity is likely to be ascribed to a mere yawn of a tired lion more than any form of courage or rage may be ascribed to furious cries of protest by a toddler and this is due to the source of the sound rather than the sound itself. In a word, Kits Beach Soundwalk, a creation of Westerkamp’s of high novelty and reputation highlights a myriad of notions of acoustic ecology. These notions are well outlined and articulated with the detail of a researcher and specificity of content of a professional. Central to the notions of acoustic ecology that the author clearly addresses is the human capacity to zoom in on contents of interest only even in a scrimmage of other sounds16. The greater fancy of this capacity maybe is the ability to transit through different soundscapes such as real time events to personal experiences from the past and back with a homogeny that is almost transcendental. The realization of this capacity can therefore be handy in responding to contemporary challenges in the dins of noises from industrialization. It is possible to concentrate our intents only on those things we are interested in hearing from sounds that we hear and the ease of maneuvering to and fro across this spectrum of transposition is then the zenith of acoustic ecology. References Barry Truax, Acoustic Communication, 2nd ed. Westport: Ablex, 2001. Brandon LaBelle, Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006 Emily, Thompson, The Soundscape of Modernity, MIT press, 2002. Jamie, Sexton, Music Sound and Multimedia: from the life to the Virtue. Edinburgh University Press, 2007 Leigh, Landy, Understanding the Art of Sound Organization. Massachusetts: MIT press, 2007. Murray, Schafer, The Soundscape: The Sonic Environment and The Tuning of the World Rochester: Destiny, 1977 Viet, Erlmann, Hearing Culture: Essays on Hearing, Sounds and Modernity, Berg Publishers, 2004 Read More

Randolph Jordan, in his Case study, Film Sound, Acoustic Ecology and Performance in Electroacoustic Music, brings to mind various aspects of performance that affect acoustic ecology. Visual attention for instance he says has the capacity to call to attention some aspects of music production that naturally would never have been known to exist. On the other hand, this visual experience can equally call attention away from some qualities of sound being heard which can only be realized when they receive particular attention and address.

This visual experience is most observable when one attends say a live dance performance. These visual engagements can also distract our attention towards how sound and music is behaving in the live performance itself thereby limiting our capacity to experience the ultimate sensation of the blend of sound and performance6. The use of recorded sound in live performances received criticism during its inception in the 20th century. Many, like Jordan, argued that an appreciable level of authenticity was removed with the removal of conventional musical instruments that were traditionally used for accompaniment.

He asserts that not seeing what a performer is doing to create the sound heard in a live setting, calls to question the notion of the performance7. This need for musical performance to be visually stimulating therefore has greatly been jeopardized by the laptop performance that is so prevalent today. The sight of someone stooped on a laptop and by the simple thrust of his wrist realizes incredible drama is therefore definitely disappointing. This divorce of the sound produced from the people (or objects) producing them appreciably affects the entirety of sensation obtained from the sound (performance).

Greater concern regards live diffusion of acoustic sound where pre-recorded sound is manipulated by special mixing sound console systems used in real time. By this manipulation, the performance becomes context-specific despite the absence of musical performance in real time. It is the basic model used for concerts of electroacoustic music. Randolph’s study as relates to live diffusion is central to Westerkamp’s work since hers is a pre-recording of various sound made and analyzed without the sensation of visualizing the objects (cars, planes, animals etc) that make them.

Westerkamp addresses this aspect of acoustic ecology by first giving a detailed description of where and when the soundwalk was done. Says she: I produced and hosted a radio program in late seventies working with Vancouver Co-operative Radio called Soundwalking. In this program, I took the listener to a number of locations around the city of Vancouver to explore the city with them acoustically. Kitsilano Beach, informally called Kits Beach by the locals, is at the heart of Vancouver. During summer it is usually crowded with the display of ‘ghetto blasters’ and ‘meat salad’ bereft of the silence and tranquility experienced in the olden days by the native Indians.

The original recording of the Kits Beach Soundwalk was made on a calm winter morning when the calm lapping of water and the benign sounds of barnacles feeding were clearly audible in the background of the throbbing city8. With this detailed description of the context and place where the soundwalk was done, it is acceptable that the effect of analysis of the soundwalk without envisioning the objects which make the sound is minimized and the conclusions drawn from it are authentic in their own right.

There is an interaction of location and listening that is so peculiar and central to the concept of soundscape. Brandon LaBelle addresses this aspect of acoustic ecology in his book, Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art. In the book, he details how the place of sound is as much an auditory experience as it is imbedded in the material sound itself. Locational sound is bounded by the geographic expanse of the planet and therefore the presence of a single sound activates the entire field of sound; its balance and evolution.

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