The Domestic Soundscape making, listening, thinkingfelicityford@outlook.com
Making
Gentle Fire
Gentle Fire is a bit of an obsession for me; it is an Alvin Lucier score which I have written about before, and what fascinates me is its imaginative, material treatment of sound. I find it really interesting that realising any version of the score involves collecting sounds from life – a process which me […]
Maudette
I was extremely taken with the Maud when Kate posted about it originally, and immediately vowed to make one once I read her directions on this traditional garment. Additionally, I was struck by both Kate and Rachael’s posts about Harris Tweed, and decided my Maud should be made with this stuff. I went in search […]
Good weekends
I’ve had two good weekends on the trot now, and it’s made me think about what makes a weekend good and what things I love doing on the weekend – especially when the weeks are extremely busy! Last weekend it was Lara’s birthday and so after my day spent at Didcot Railway Centre recording the […]
Steam Sounds – for my Pops
My Pops – more than anyone else in the world – has fostered my geekery for trains, I SPY books and random obsessions, and it is his birthday today, so this post is for him. I spent the day last Saturday working on a feature that will be included in the April series of The […]
February FOs – Love Is Awesome
Progress continues on the to-do list; I had a fruitful day of designing packaging for the sonic tuckshop at Sonic Art Oxford, and my recorder is filling up with sounds for Gentle Fire by Alvin Lucier. I will be performing Gentle Fire in the afternoon on Saturday 27th February at Oxford Brookes University in the […]
The (Anti) Valentine
Posters at Love Is Awesome, group show, February 2009, Gallery 10, St Mary’s Butts, Reading Last year around this time of year I was working on the Love Is Awesome show, and I made these anti-Valentine’s-day cards in celebration and recognition of my (then) very Broken Heart. I am feeling much more positive about Love […]
Sound Art To-Do list:
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 […]
Cotswold Woollen Weavers Mill at Filkins, & the marvellous Richard Martin
Yesterday I finished editing a radio feature on The Cotswold Woollen Weavers Mill at Filkins – just over the Oxfordshire border – in Gloucestershire. I learned about this woollen mill when I saw that Robert Jarvis had used the sounds of the loom there in his composition – sounds of Oxfordshire. Robert kindly sent me […]
I SPY / I HEAR
I SPY in the country has become my most entrusted creative companion. For the past month I haven’t left the house without it, and my knowledge of the countryside around Oxfordshire and Berkshire has genuinely broadened through organising interviews and visits connected with investigating all the items contained within its beautiful, vintage pages. I was […]
Site specific socks
I really enjoyed reading Kate’s recent post on walking and how we build up imaginative representations of places as we patrol them. It made me think about my familiar routes, the places which I habitually visit, the things I note along the way, and how I remember places. Pigeons in the snow in Palmer Park, […]
Indoors
I have been loving reading people’s posts about how they are spending the cold and snowy spell indoors, and I’m really loving seeing so much appreciation for domestic space in the blogs that I follow. It is a time for loving the sheltering qualities of home. Nobody appreciates these sheltering qualities more than our mascot* […]
The Hub returns to the air tonight at 9pm.
Meerkat snowburrow The Hub is an independently produced radio programme, broadcast on BBC Oxford 95.2 FM, and celebrating local music, art, culture and other joy and it will be on BBC Oxford tonight at 9pm, featuring – among many other things – the creator of this season’s mascot, a knitted Meerkat produced by Niftyknits for […]
Discovering a love for snow
Looking at all the beautiful photos of snow on other people’s blogs of late, I have been feeling a little ashamed of my own comparitively negative response. You see I have not until today, been especially enjoying the snow. I have not been able to muster up the enthusiasm to create an amazing snowman or […]
Listening in on the walk!
I experimented with posting a sound and pictures account over on the 2012 walk blog, but if you fancy listening to our short audio logs from the three days, they are here. I have been very inspired by the inimitable Ramblings programme, created for Radio 4 by Clare Balding and I want to work on […]
2009 in knitting…a tangled yarn
I so much enjoyed reading Ruth’s knitting of 2009 post that I wanted to write one of my own. I also thought this would be a good time to see what came of the Knitting Resolutions that I penned this time last year… *WARNING! This post is Long and full of Ravelry links, so if […]
Feasel & the Bear
I am not sure when Mark started calling me Feasel* or when I started calling Mark Bear, but time has consolidated the myth of Feasel & the Bear into several drawings, many little stories, and finally, a piece of knitwear. Exhibit # 1 – a drawing by me Exhibit # 2 – a drawing by […]
FO and Happy Christmas!
I am very excited to be typing from the midst of our Christmas celebrations and to be sitting here for the Big Day in my most recently finished FO. Mark took a few moments out from the basting, roasting, chopping, pouring, simmering and infusing in order to take some photos of me in it; here […]
Scratches on records
There is a perfect DOT of sound when the stylus on a record player hits a scratch. Sort of prickly and bassy at the same time, the scratch quickly tails off into a kind of whispery, rustly, fizzing noise. But that first contact with a deep scratch – the “Bd” sound, is quite unique
Supermarket
If anyone reading this has been caught up in the last-minute provisions purchasing of Christmas, you may be familiar with the soundscape of the Supermarket at this time of year! BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP Out of my way… fsh… sorry… aaaargh… sigh… OUT OF MY WAY… SORRY… AAAARGH! SIGH! SORRY… SIGH! FSH… This year’s trip […]
Pine needles, Scratching
While replacing decorations the cat had knocked down & repositioning various baubles & decorations on our tree, I noticed the very bristling, brushlike, rasping sound of the needles brushing against my fingertips & the ribbons. This made me think of & remember the specific sound of pine-needles dropping onto the ground on Xmas we had […]
Car engines on TV: “Top Gear” sounds + “BADDIE’S” car in Tarantino film
Watching TV tonight, the sound of car engines & their specific tones or aural qualities stuck out for me. On Top Gear, the sounds of a 3 V8 engine bellows was discussed, while in Tarantino’s “Deathproof,” the menacing sound of The Bad Guy’s car-engine became a very important sound in terms of building anticipation & […]
Different kinds of paper in pass-the-parcel
When playing pass-the-parcel today at The Oxford Bluestockings Xmas party, I was struck by the different sonic qualities of various types of wrapping paper. The foil papers have an almost tinny quality; a kind of treble, high-pitch (relatively!) rustle with a metallic twang. The brown or duller papers tend to make buckling, woody, more bassy […]
Bubbles in the bath
The sound of bubbles fizzing and popping in the bath is miniscule & dainty. A brittle, wet sound. Tiny bursts of sonic, watery waves.
Twig snapping in fire
BASS TONE TREBLE AFTERMATH
Copyright statement
You may transmit content found on this website (excluding my knitting patterns which are protected under International copyright law) under the following conditions:
- You always attribute my work to me, Felicity Ford, including a link back to this site
- You do not alter my work
- You do not use my work for commercial purposes
To discuss any other uses of my work, please contact me directly on the telephone number and email address provided at the top of this blog.
All the work shown here by Felicity Ford is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
From time to time I feature images, sounds or words on this blog which are not my own: in all such cases the original copyright owner is named. International copyright law requires that in order to republish their content, you must seek out their permission.
Thank you for respecting these terms and conditions.