The Domestic Soundscape

I don’t know if it’s Spring or what, but it seems like all the blogs I subscribe to have recently been full of delicious gems that I feel I must pass on. In the style of Susie’s amazing Probably Something You Would Like posts, here are my round-ups of what I’m enjoying at the moment around the Internet.

Sound Links

The London Sound Survey have some beautiful April recordings of all the seasonal bird doings. I was especially excited about a recording made in Lewisham; it’s quite near to where I grew up and the suburban sound of great tits and blackbirds – although ubiquitous at the moment – is one I never tire of hearing. Check out that recording and many more, here.

Speechification, a journey South. Alice sent me this link and after getting hooked on the first few moments, I am saving up the whole recording for tonight’s bedtime story. I will also probably spend some time perusing the delicious archives of the Touch Radio Blog, which looks to be full of beautifully crafted podcasts by Chris Watson and Co.

Ace.

It was also great to find this recording of Florida Palm Trees over on Margaret Noble’s Sound is Art blog. ‘Swaying Palms’ is one of the Gentle Fire sounds which I developed by processing the sound of Mark’s chainsaw; it is amazing to hear how real palm trees really sound and this recording is lovely. I think it was made by Michael Raphael whose blog is one of the best.

I was also excited to read this article about the renaissance of the cassette tape; this time last year was spent knee-deep in cassettenalia while I prepared TAPE; one of the podcasts for The Domestic Soundscape Cut and Splice series and I enjoyed this article, refreshing the interest in tape for 2010.

Animal Links

Lately there has been a spree of amazing animal posts around the Internet.

I loved this post on Devon Fine Fibres about a Bowmont Braf Wether called Cuthbert. All my favourite shepherding blogs are full of bittersweet joyous/sad lambing news at the moment and I love reading about all the news from the fiber farms, but there is something especially funny and moving about this post in particular.

I do like it when people write about the bond they experience with their animals and I was reminded while reading about Cuthbert of a lovely post a few months ago on Barbara Parry’s blog, about her Llama, Crackerjack.

I also very much enjoyed Deb Robson’s discussion of different kinds of fibres and the importance of preserving rare breed fibre animals, over on The Independent Stitch.

Relatedly, I was very sad to read recently that Mudchute Farm have lost some of their sponsorship, which has made it hard for them to continue the work they do there with rarebreed animals. I think Mudchute is one of the most important projects happening in London today and I am considering sponsoring a sheep or making a regular donation if I can work out the fundage. City farms are incredible; they help to bridge gaps in knowledge about where food comes from, they provide a very necessary oasis away from the madness, they keep urban spaces green, and they provide vital education.

Mudchute farm; Llamas, Oxford Down sheep and Whitefaced Woodland sheep.

In related sheep news, I was delighted to read this article about a head teacher being reinstated, after having earlier resigned from her position following death threats and abuse. The reason Andrea Charman received such abuse was that she allowed the school’s lamb to be slaughtered, and the resultant chops to be auctioned off so that the school could buy more farm animals. The article explains the whole situation really well; I was just glad that Charman is back in her job and that people are recognising how valuable it is for us to actually explore where our meat comes from.

In other ovine news I was excited (whilst researching the ultimate Nordic knitting voyage of my dreams) to discover the existence of a historic document entitled The Sheep Letter, which was a document drawn up in the Faroe Islands in 1298. The sheep letter concerns the importance of sheep and rules for sheep breeding in the Faroe Islands.

My final favourite animal link is the wonderful Mousehunt detailed over on Rattling On, a wonderful Blog I’ve recently found via Colleen.

Appreciating the Everyday links

Mundane Appreciation are working on a supermarket/food project at the moment which looks very exciting; I love this Mundane Appreciation video concerning Supermarket shopping habits and enjoyed reading through their Food questionnaire.

I Go To The Supermarket from Mundane Appreciation on Vimeo.

On a slightly different note, I enjoyed very much the celebratory nature of The Knitting Goddess’ Printer Ink yarn colourway. The Cyan, Magenta and Process Yellow that make up printer ink rarely get to shine and I really liked the idea for using something so everyday and office/domestic as the basis for a colourway.

Colleen also alerted me to Oliver Burkeman’s amazing article on To-Do lists; this was especially pertinent when I read it a few days ago, but we always need further information on To-Do lists and I did enjoy reading this immensely.

That wraps up the linkage for today, numbers and knitting next week.

Sometimes there’s just so much going on that you have to do a to-do list to get through it all. I have loads of sound-art projects going on at the moment, and I need a list to get through it all! If I place such a list here then A, it is in the public realm so I will therefore be shamed into doing it, B, I can combine organising myself with publicising some of the things I’m working on, and C, have the ultimate to-do list pleasure of ticking things off as they are completed

1. Organise kit for SOUNDBANK ‘darning’ project (there is a large gap between 8th February – 4th March 2009, where I was so busy working on Love Is Awesome that I didn’t keep up with my SOUND BANK recordings…) Kit to include: *new envelopes and notelets *time/date stamp order from 100proofpress ink for new envelopes and card design to be based on fabric plasters and darned sock heels

2. Organise recording schedule for forthcoming performance of Gentle Fire by Alvin Lucier at Sonic Art Oxford. This involves listing all the sounds I already have and working out how/where to record outstanding sounds, then processing the sounds so that they sound like they have come from alternate sources, then developing some sort of visual way of showing the text on the CDs and making a score for the performance. plus a rehearsal on Saturday 27th February. Also, PROMOTE PERFORMANCE

3. Printing sound effect bags for the interactive installation, POP MUSIC at forthcoming Sonic Art Oxford event; this involves printing firework sound effects on the front of paper bags and then serving popcorn in these bags at Sonic Art Oxford. Also, buy exploding candy

4. Collating Framework radio show from assorted explosion noises… roman candles, splooshing stones, exploding mouth candy etc. Order paper bags draw designs to be printed, book time in the printing studio

5. Work on ZINE ideas, starting with making a mock contents page and pinning it somewhere prominent in my home environment so I can see it and get more ideas from it

6. Organise recording/production schedule for April series of The Hub Contact Oxford Guild of Spinners Weavers and Dyers to organise a recording date, let all the Guild members know I am interviewing at the Guild on 20th March and learning how to spin a Cotswold Fleece! Contact the Pitt Rivers Museum to organise Knit Weekly with them set up I SPY / I HEAR recordings/features for production meeting on 18th

7. Timetable production schedules for I SPY / I HEAR podcast, 3 x Framework shows I have promised to create

8. Work on funding applications and correspondence and branding and programming line-up for a conference planned for October

9. Collate Gentle Fire version of Framework Radio Show

That lot plus the 2 teaching jobs I’m working on this semester should keep me pretty busy!

In this week of finishing things off, The Fantastical Reality Radio Show in association with Mundane Appreciation has officially been completed. You can download all 5 shows as mp3s from our website at www.fantasticalreality.com

It has been an amazing project, a collaboration in which I’ve learned hugely. Kayla and Claudia of Mundane Appreciation are an awesome team and it’s been really brilliant to work alongside them, to produce something together.

For our Grand Finale we sent each other loot bags, which we used to develop sonic postcards. The Sonic Postcards feature has ended up being so much about our personal communication with each other, and has reflected where we have all geographically been at various times in the development of the show; I want to make a page all about the sonic postcards because they were the feature I enjoyed making the most and the one that I feel has underscored, for me, how I wish to continue composing with sounds in the future. But for now, I’ll just tell you about the loot bag and ther postcard I made from it, by way of celebrating in my own blog style, the completion of the EXPO commission.

Everything came in a freezer-bag, where Claudia had helpfully itemised the contents of the package.

I’m not sure this featured in the recording, but it was a very pleasing container for the rest of the joy.

The Hessian effect sticky-back-plastic, for instance, that I used to cover my gardening diary for water-proof-ness. Do you like the manner in which I concealed the join with amusing sellotape? I thought you might. This DIY exercise made some wonderful scrunchy, plasticky noises.

An interesting fact about Castle Cary that I circled using the bic biro from the package. The tourist brochure was one of the things in the package. I enjoyed learning that Castle Cary used to have a thriving textile industry and is also a fair trade town. The pen has been used for making lots of scribbly writing sounds in my postcard.

In the loot bag I also discovered this incredible leaflet for free tea gifts, which is like typeface porn for me. Look at that beautiful, sans-serif lettering.

The household gifts list contained inside sent me scurrying immediately to the kitchen cupboards, for items to record.

Oh for a ‘Univeral Grater’ or a ‘Miracle Tin Opener’ (does the tin have a miracle in it?)

There were also cabbage and onion seeds contained inside the package; I planted these and recorded the pleasing sounds of the seeds rattling around inside.

Then I watered the seeds, recording the lovely sounds of the watering-can filling. This reminded me of recording the same sound a couple of weeks ago for the sound parade. That was difficult to record because the very confident Blackbird in our neighbourhood kept singing, very loudly, right above me. I had to wait until he was all puffed out to record the sound without his input. I do love the blackbird, but he is all over the show!

This is the incredibly useful telephone pad that Claudia supplied in the loot bag; I now have no excuses for not keeping a record of calls. In the recording, I check my telephone messages.

I sent a very similar pad to Kayla; something that rubs off from working with Mundane Appreciation is an enhanced love of everyday stationery.

With the lovely paper that came in the lootbag, I painted and drew. The sound of a wet-paintbrush going over paper is truly lovely.

Since it was so very late and since I was so very tired, I decided to paint a simple and motivating message for myself, to get me through the night of editing.

This was just the boost I needed. At dawn, when I surfaced from the studio, completed show uploading, this is what the world was like.

I can’t quite believe it’s really done, but it is.