The Domestic Soundscape making, listening, thinkingfelicityford@outlook.com
Listening
My busted Atlas
A not-very-useful-anymore Road Atlas. Liz and Ellen were both amused when I texted them to enquire whether either of them possessed a Road Atlas ‘since I made a collage out of mine.’ I think Ellen thought I was joking until she pulled mine out of the passenger door on the way to Stirling, opened the […]
a POP post
Yesterday I received a most pleasing packet in the post; this one came from smallPRINT records and contained an order I placed last week in the midst of working on The Sonic Tuck Shop book; apropos, a hand-packaged CD featuring the Sonic Catering Band’s live popcorn-performance in Linz, entitled Popkorn. I am very much enjoying […]
The Domestic Soundscape
The Sonic Tuck Shop believes that food sounds tasty, that we should play with it, and that the everyday routines of cooking and eating are full of sonic interest. The Sonic Tuck Shop reframes every meal as a potential concert of sounds in its making and consumption, and every foodstuff as an instrument in the […]
The Sonic Tuck Shop Book at SoundFjord – EDITED
On Friday I put the finishing touches on the first 21 editions (of 40) of The Sonic Tuck Shop book. On Saturday, I packed them all into a suitcase along with some other hand-made goodies and made my way to Seven Sisters for the SoundFjord gallery launch, which was taking place in Unit 3b, Studio […]
Around the A4074 this month…
I’m clearing out my camera and finding evidence and reminders of all the things I’ve done so far this July in my explorations of The A4074. Firstly, I’ve been trying to discover what plant this is. It grows all along the verges beside the road for miles around Ipsden, and it looks to me like […]
Chris Watson workshop at Kew Gardens
On Monday I went to a most instructive workshop led by Chris Watson. The workshop was organised by Sound and Music and was held at Kew Gardens where an extraordinary work by Watson entitled ‘Whispering in the Leaves‘ can currently be heard in the Palm House. The work was made through making recordings in various […]
Soundwalk – 18th July 2010, World Listening Day
I have been busy handprinting maps for the forthcoming Soundwalk this Sunday, 18th July, which is to take place in Warborough, Oxfordshire. There is a permanent page about the event here. The Soundwalk has been designed to coincide with World Listening Day, which has been organised by The World Listening Project. Here is some information […]
The hunt for owl sounds and a mystery bird…
Last Friday I once again walked the length of the A4074 overnight, using the surrounding footpaths. This time Mark came with me and he has posted a beautiful account here of the experience from his perspective. He took some amazing photographs (which you can see in his post) – my favourite one being this one, […]
Speed and time
One of the things that is amazing me about the A4074 walks, is how fast things moves in nature, and how quickly things change from week to week on the ground. For instance these poppies – which were only just out a couple of weeks ago – have finished flowering now and are already nursing […]
Soundwalk 5: the meta data
What do the RAF Base at Benson, my Type Trumps birdthay present from Mark, and the designs I have been working on for my Soundwalk have in common? Type Trumps 2: image held here, and game available to buy here. The answer is, the Transport font by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert. You can read […]
Maps then and now
My proposed soundwalk on 18th July is going to hopefully coincide with The Warborough and Shillingford Festival; I am working this out with the organisers and would love some feedback from you folks. I am thinking about 10 people is the maximum number of people for a listening forray; if the numbers get a lot […]
Soundwalk 4: coinciding with a festival!
So it turns out that my proposed soundwalk in Warborough is going to be taking place on the same date as the Warborough and Shillingford Festival. I’m treating this as a really joyous coincidence. I have telephoned the festival chairperson and the man responsible for sound and music on Sunday to ask if there is […]
Soundwalk 3: The Kit
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) […]
Soundwalk 2: The Nocturnalist
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 […]
Soundwalk 1: researching the pathways
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 […]
31.14 miles: the A4074 walk part 1
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 […]
The London Sound Survey
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
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 […]
Thursday’s numbers
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 […]
Sonic updates
There is an rss feed which connects ONLY to the sounds in my posts here, so if you read at work or elsewhere where you can’t turn on speakers, and then can’t find the sounds later, you can always subscribe seperately to the RSS feed for this site’s podpress. I will sort out a permalink […]
The Recording Kit
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 […]
Sonic Death Monkey
Several online sound projects have come to my attention and it seems that either my subscribing to sound blogs etc. has reached saturation point, or else every other website I look at has suddenly decided to develop a sonic element to their online presence. I have been planning my ideas for World Listening Day, and […]
FO: Swaledale Socks #2
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 […]
Music as Local Produce
Mark took this photo of me a couple of weekends ago; the gentleman in the photo is from the Alvechurch Morris side. I learned in this discussion that in former times, his black-face and raggedy clothes were a necessary disguise. Apparently border Morris (from the Welsh/English borders) originated in cold Winter months, when agricultural labourers […]
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