tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663Fri, 01 Nov 2024 10:32:58 +0000field recordingsan franciscopost-militarylunchwalk#demilitjapanmilitary basebunkerkoreasoundscapesoundwalkdesertguamjohn cagelisteningmemorialanechoicarchivebaggagescreeningburning mancaliforniacubaecologyjetlandscapemilitary landscapenoiseokinawaplacessculpturesignal v. noiseObscura DayOccupy Wall StreetZizekacoustic wayfindingafghanistanair-conditioneralvin lucierambisonicsamplificationanalog-digitalangel islandathensatlantikwalaustraliabell labsberlinbinauralbordercircuit bendingconstructiondan flavindesign observerdo the right thingdoug aitkenenglandfilmforestfrancefriezegafftagermanygoodharvard acoustics research laboratoryhawthornehi-fihydrophonehyperacusisislanditalyjoachim schmidkabulkitchenlightlo-filost boysmachinesmarfamexicomicrophonemilitary urbanismmissilesmissionmoroccomuseummushroomsnavynetherlandsnew mexiconew yorknew zealandno-finoise-cancellationpanamapennsylvaniaphotographypre-militaryradio raheemrevolutionsan josesf baysound installationsoundfishingsoundmarksoundskatesoundwallspacespatializationstreetssupercollidersydneytaco trucktankstaxonomytexastourismtranslationundergroundurbanexplorationvirginiawarwashington d.c.wdslconstructing space with soundhttp://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Unknown)Blogger75125en-usnoCreative Commons licensemilitary,architecture,travelThis podcast charts my path around the globe as I explore US military bases and post-military spaces.A sonic slice through the global military atmosphere.Nick Sowersnicolassowers@yahoo.comNick Sowerstag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-3878923757336814299Tue, 29 Mar 2016 06:02:00 +00002016-04-07T12:07:04.460-07:00 There is something appealing about the way that a tiny piece of technology can radically alter your experience of listening. Bone conduction - just the name sends a slight chill down my spine. It sounds like a metal spike tapped straight into my skull, conducting electrons beneath the skin. The very idea of bone conduction forces me to become conscious of the calcium structure that holds my http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2016/03/bone-conduction.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-8468039285558272219Tue, 02 Feb 2016 18:34:00 +00002016-02-02T11:57:49.057-08:00Devlog 2.2.16 Soundscrapers are forming. Dreaming of glaciers, they are mere ice crystals dancing in a dark cave. This room diffuses 13 channels of sound. Controls are via a handheld gamepad, routed through Max/MSP. An LED cross marks the locus of sound diffusion, where the spatiality of the virtual acoustic room is rendered at its sharpest. The room is a simulation chamber for imaginedhttp://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-cave.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-6655124121732074472Fri, 20 Feb 2015 00:49:00 +00002015-02-19T16:50:17.696-08:00design observermissionnew yorksan franciscosoundwalkwdslIn two days I will be presenting at Design Observer's What Design Sounds Like conference, held at the School of Visual Arts (logically!) in New York.  I am excited to be a part of a great group including Nicola Twilley who will be talking about sound and food in "Sound Bites", Alexander Chen who will be presenting his work on music and code, and numerous others with presentations that sound http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2015/02/what-design-sounds-like.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-2652835273415307121Sun, 28 Sep 2014 23:41:00 +00002014-09-28T22:39:16.142-07:00afghanistanconstructionkabulsoundscape I had the pleasure of meeting Francesca Recchia last week while she was visiting the SF Bay Area. She is the author of several books which have come out this year. One of them is The Little Book of Kabul, which follows the lives of several artists living in Kabul over the course of a year. Francesca has been based in Afghanistan now for a few years, and she shared some great insights on life in http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2014/09/virtual-kabul.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-2006292648725974492Fri, 05 Apr 2013 07:38:00 +00002015-02-20T22:01:13.973-08:00 Over the last six months I've been making things behind the scenes, from bits to books to buildings. A sorry excuse for not posting anything on the blog, really. But there is a lot of process here that I am excited to share. From On the Making of Islands, 2012 I am making things at all scales. Small to Large. Architecture teaches us that the parts must relate to the whole, and that the http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2013/04/bits-books-buildings.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-864365986577803696Thu, 29 Nov 2012 09:19:00 +00002014-08-11T16:24:44.833-07:00  "Rolling ruler used by the architect Cedric Price"; Image courtesy of Geoff Manaugh & CCA A few years ago, Geoff Manaugh of BLDG BLOG shared this photo while he was blogging from the archives of the Canadian Centre for Architecture. It is a rolling ruler used by the late British architect Cedric Price. This pocket tool undoubtedly aided the architect in his sketcheshttp://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2012/11/roll-align-cut-record.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-8278572235288267348Mon, 10 Sep 2012 06:29:00 +00002012-09-10T08:46:17.618-07:00dan flavinlightmarfasculpturetexas I visited Dan Flavin's Untitled Marfa Project in 2009 on a fellowship studying the spectrum of new uses on former military bases. One such base, decommissioned shortly after WWII ended, is Fort D.A. Russell in Marfa, TX.  The property is home to the Chinati Foundation and contains ammunition sheds, old barracks, and various other military structures. Some buildings are vacant andhttp://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2012/09/dan-flavin.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-4587488038044641047Wed, 05 Sep 2012 07:32:00 +00002012-09-05T00:40:38.638-07:00hydrophonesan franciscosf baysoundfishing"the most important thing to understand with regards to human underwater listening is that our ears are mostly useless" via Introducing Soundfishing, the latest sporting activity in the great outdoors of the San Francisco Bay Area.  In a city that is all about recreation, water activities, fitness, etc., what is there to do for the non-sporty among us? To prove my credentials (in beinghttp://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2012/09/soundfishing.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-100668776559777445Fri, 24 Aug 2012 05:50:00 +00002012-08-26T20:08:41.959-07:00field recordingjohn cagelisteningmorocco Fes, Morocco, on a scrubby hill overlooking/over-listening the city. Like the view, the image in sound is dense in detail. Tiny spikes of contrast: a distant horn, sparrows flittering in the foreground, the sharper cry of a child nearby. Emerging from a grey droning sea: scooters, voices, air conditioners, idling buses, the overlapping calls to prayer. Altogether these sounds form the http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2012/08/afternoon-prayer-in-fes.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-4119286733100182850Sun, 08 Apr 2012 19:31:00 +00002012-04-08T12:56:05.351-07:00#demilitpost-militarysan franciscosoundscape As mentioned here from time to time, I represent one third of the experimental collective DEMILIT. We are a group taking walks, recording sounds, and making connections between militarized spaces and the everyday landscape. Last year we were commissioned by Deutchlandradio Kultur to produce a radio piece on their "Newcomer Werkstatt" program, which aired in Berlin at midnight, June 24, 2011.http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2012/04/sf-gravelator-91l.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-7929275151549943747Thu, 22 Mar 2012 06:36:00 +00002012-03-24T22:53:01.656-07:00 Four Recent Lunchwalks Attack and Decay are technical terms known to sound editors and synth musicians, but the concept is also intrinsic to urban walking.  "Attack" is the initial rise of a particular sound and "Decay" is the falling away of the sound from its peak to a normal or "sustained" volume.   Doors open and the clamor of a restaurant rushes out (attack); someone walks http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2012/03/sf-lunchwalk-attack-and-decay.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-6005481498256813039Wed, 07 Mar 2012 08:40:00 +00002012-03-07T00:42:39.831-08:00lunchwalksan francisco Walking every week, with every chance I get.  My feet vault me out of a sedentary habit (we are what we repeatedly do) into the unique opportunity of an urban walk, latent with unexpected encounters.  Encounters, such as the sight of this smokestack somewhere north of the lunch hour ground zero.  I marvel at its unlikely location, amid the housing and workplaces.  Surely it http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2012/03/sf-lunchwalk-smokestack.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-3616421545759010472Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:48:00 +00002012-02-03T22:54:54.058-08:00field recordinglunchwalksan franciscostreetstaxonomy 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.  Market Street, for instance, beckons to be renamed every time I walk out onto it.  My feet are willing to forget, but my head still wants to know: where am I going http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2012/01/sf-lunchwalk-forty-three-ambient-slices.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-7591900144568706232Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:55:00 +00002012-01-16T17:42:59.927-08:00lunchwalksan franciscosoundwalktaco truck 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, http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2012/01/sf-lunchwalk-taco-truck.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-5064076472630169680Mon, 09 Jan 2012 01:54:00 +00002012-01-16T17:43:28.549-08:00field recordinglunchwalksan francisco 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. &http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2012/01/lunchwalk-north-northeast.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-9097744403153134233Wed, 04 Jan 2012 08:18:00 +00002012-01-16T17:46:39.321-08:00bunkerdeserthawthornelandscapemilitary landscapemuseum1.  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 http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2012/01/notes-from-desert.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-1531035152583056107Fri, 09 Dec 2011 08:29:00 +00002011-12-09T10:28:25.742-08:00field recordinglunchwalkmachinessan francisco 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 http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2011/12/sf-lunchwalk-north.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-7070940194959807579Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:09:00 +00002011-12-03T21:13:33.654-08:00field recordinglunchwalksan francisco 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. &http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2011/11/sf-lunchwalk-west.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-3261656652284506475Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:37:00 +00002011-11-22T20:33:23.909-08:00field recordinglunchwalksan franciscosoundwalkLunch 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). http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2011/11/sf-lunchwalks.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-1411589096853547597Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:50:00 +00002011-10-19T14:36:23.035-07:00lost boys 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.http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2011/10/death-by-stereo.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-3123816418793192699Fri, 14 Oct 2011 07:04:00 +00002011-10-19T10:44:28.622-07:00acoustic wayfindingamplificationmicrophoneOccupy Wall StreetrevolutionZizek 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 http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2011/10/revolution-will-not-be-amplified.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-3890317644484952168Sat, 08 Oct 2011 23:25:00 +00002011-10-19T10:27:21.088-07:00anechoicdoug aitkenharvard acoustics research laboratoryjohn cagelistening 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 http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2011/10/listening-prostheses.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-1539781011876046996Thu, 29 Sep 2011 07:57:00 +00002011-10-14T00:20:40.817-07:00circuit bendinghi-filo-fino-fi 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 http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2011/09/lo-fi-architecture.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-1060171487029279605Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:23:00 +00002011-10-19T10:27:46.531-07:00do the right thingfilmradio raheem 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. http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2011/09/story-of-life-is-this-static.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3963234605591141663.post-8480539665095244002Wed, 24 Aug 2011 06:23:00 +00002011-10-19T10:28:28.748-07:00#demilitmilitary landscapepost-militarypre-military 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 http://soundscrapers.blogspot.com/2011/08/traces-of-pre-military-landscape.htmlnicolassowers@yahoo.com (Nick Sowers)