As you know I’ve been experimenting with the Walking/Recording kit lately. I have tried a FOSTEX FR-2LE field recorder, (bulky but apparently amazing) my trusty Edirol, (I have been using this for so many years it’s like an extension of my own ears, but unfortunately it doesn’t have the power to deal with THE WIND) […]
So on Monday night I walked the entire length of my A4074 route overnight. Sandford-on-Thames, around 8.30pm Including the journeys to and from the station at each end, and the long wander at either end of the trip to the start and from the finish of the actual walk, I reckon all in the entire […]
Views across from Warborough to Wittenham Clumps I have spent the past few days researching how best to present the soundwalk that I am planning to instigate on Sunday July 18th around a section of the A4074 for World Listening Day. Documentation of this event will be included in the A4074 radio show that I […]
Last week I received an email from an extremely kind man in Ireland who had found what he termed ‘my art school folio’ at a car boot sale in Dublin. I was flattered to read that he had picked it up thinking he could actually sell some of the drawings in it on ebay, and […]
I have written several times here about a project I’ve been developing that I’ve referred to as The A4074 project. The A4074 is a road that lies between Reading (where I live) and Oxford (where I work) and I drive it very often – sometimes 3 or 4 times a week. To make a conservative […]
I first discovered The London Sound Survey when Ian Rawes – the site’s inventor – mentioned a recording he had made in a carwash on the phonography group message board. ‘What a great sound to record’ I mused to myself and clicked through to hear it. I was astonished to find not only the car […]
The Sonic Tuck Shop is an installation that I finished putting up in Reading on Friday, and it will remain up for about 3 weeks. Last week, the now derelict KIK SPORTS shop was looking like this: …now it looks like this: The window display extends the original idea of The Sonic Tuck Shop installation […]
973846284648230473 is the number of messages left on various answerphones around Reading on Thursday when keys to the installation space for The Sonic Tuck Shop were nowhere to be found! 5.5 is the number of weight watchers points in a whole packet of Ainsley Harriott’s amazing Citrus Kick couscous. Couscous is an amazing lunch when […]
ETA: it is much harder to blog from the phone than I thought, so itinerant broadcasting creativity will have to be confined to audioboo and posterous for now. Still, I decided to add in the photos and sort out this post from the easy interface of my laptop… much simpler all round and still contains […]
Last weekend, Mark and I attempted the third of several walks I am plotting along the A4074, in order to map out the best routes for 1. a Sound Walk planned for World Listening Day (18th July) and 2. the A4074 radio show/podcast production I am currently developing, as my final PhD project. After seeking […]
The second pair of Swaledale Sonic Socks is finished! The first pair is described here, and my thoughts when I cast on the second pair in January, are here. The first pair had a very maritime theme, especially because of the beautiful swaledale yarn and its soft crunchiness, which reminds me of the sandy beaches […]
The LISTEN hatâ„¢ saga continues. Here is my first prototype, which I am about to frog. It ended up becoming awfully busy, as my child’s-painting approach to the exciting colours overwhelmed me and I decided to use ALL the colours, in very close proximity to one another, and in an ill-conceived dog’s dinner of a […]
Yesterday I had the amazing experience of talking to Dr Chris Holland of The Oxford Silk Group, for the forthcoming series of The Hub. Our series – starting on Sunday 11th April – kicks off with a special focus on Science to tie in with Science Oxford. Now ever since I first read about the […]
I had another look through the Sound Art To-Do-List and was gratified to see that I am (mostly) on track with various sound-related projects and jobs at the moment. The recent counting prevails with WW points, £-watch and some happy knitting maths. It turns out that a 15-stitch-wide S is not an easy thing to […]
Two of my favourite patterns; Wazz’s Woollen Winter Walking Outfit #1 and Jared Flood’s Turn a Square pattern, mashed up into one happy hat of joy, to be given as a gift to my Grandad – who I hope does not know about my blog. If you *do* read this, Grand Pappy Wilf, Happy Birthday! […]
This weeks’ numbers are all about generosity. Not only have I been generous to myself with my WW points (woops!) but I have also been given many things this week that have made me think about gifts and the role that kindness plays in material sustenance. For instance Liz turned up at Sticks’n’String this week […]
50g This is the amount of wool I carded yesterday at the excellent Prick Your Finger show currently showing at the Stanley Picker Gallery. I loved carding this wool and wrote as much on my labour report, collected by the office that is part of the exhibition. Unfortunately the machine that would let me work […]
Monday was a day of little luxuries and large pleasures. This involved a slice of the fruity tea brack I made at the weekend, two hot chocolate options sachets enjoyed from the amazing ‘I am not a paper cup’ beaker of dreams, some marshmallows, lip-salve, and further enjoyment of the woolly comforts that are my […]
10 is today’s magic number, as I have now lost 10% of my body weight since I joined WW just before Christmas. To celebrate, I took all the clothes that I didn’t like which were too big for me anyway, and deposited them at the nearby charity shop. To mark this splendid occasion and the […]
2 For some reason, there are often 2 ducks to be seen around the University campus at Brookes. I love sighting these ducks almost as much as I like seeing the squirrels. The squirrels go beserk in Autumn, stashing every edible nom they can find in a frenetic way and seeing each other off with […]
90 seconds I am loving the 90 second long recordings that Paul is putting up on the sound diaries website as part of his 90″ project… it is a nice length of time, 90 seconds… just long enough to get into listening but not too long, either. £5.11 This is the price of a shade […]
I am sorry to bore you all to death with yet another one of these bags. However I cannot stop myself from making this pattern; everytime I turn out those cute pockets I begin visualising yet another lining/outer fabric combo and when I surveyed the moth-eaten pile of ebay-won Harris Tweed left over from the […]
I got back from Edinburgh to discover that my bank have cancelled my overdraft facility. This is good on one hand as it means I am not constantly living in overdraft mode; however it is also bad as it means I have far less money this month than I was budgeting for. The situation is […]