Author Archives: Ladin Bölük

Backyard of House

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Location: Backyard of house 05/09/2020 1:15 pm, Bodrum, Turkey 

 

Recording setup: An iPhone 8 was placed on the outside of a window frame, about 1.2 meters above the ground. 

 

About the soundscape: The recording was taken in the backyard of a house located near a moderately busy street. It was a rather open space, only surrounded by trees and neighboring two-story houses. Multiple cars passing by and some speech of the neighbors can be heard intermittently. These are the two most frequent sonic events, as can be seen from the spectrograph. The most prominent sound throughout is the chirping of the birds, which is the archetypal sound of this house in spring and the keynote of this recording. The soundscape also features the very complex sound of “ezan”, which is a call to prayer in Islam. Its cultural and historical significance makes it a soundmark. It is an archetypal sound of Turkey, heard in every city multiple times in a day. Moreover, it qualifies as a signal, as it signals both the time of the day and that it is time to observe the daily worship, to its listeners. One interesting sound heard at the very end is the rustling of the plastic grocery bags we hung outside for disinfecting them before we take them into the house, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Other than that, all the other sounds are present in lockdown times and non-lockdown times alike. There is a breaking of sound in the middle of the recording, likely due to a dysfunctioning in the microphone. There are also some sounds throughout which are difficult to identify, which might be people in the street moving around and carrying things.

Coop Fountain

 

 

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Location: Coop Fountain 2/28/20 5:58 pm, 37XP+QH Claremont, California

Recording setup: The microphone was set up on the back table alongside the south windows. It was pointed toward the register at the front of the Coop (on the east side).

About the Soundscape:

This recording was taken in Coop fountain right before closing. The building is comprised of two conjoined rooms divided by a wall. Both the spaces are filled with tables, chairs, booths and sofas. The southern room also houses the kitchen. The outermost walls on both sides are almost completely glass. Students were studying as well as ordering food before the kitchen closed. The most prominent feature of the soundscape is the music that is playing over the speakers. The music, as well as the chattering, would be the archetypal sounds of the Coop. As Coop is a very busy location, it is possible to hear the doors opening and closing as people enter and exit. The speaking of the students is also heard intermittently throughout the recording, but it is difficult to decipher more than a few words at a time as the background is very loud. The dialogues are heard more as mumbles. There are also various sounds that are hard to identify, which are mostly people moving things around (pushing chairs, dropping books etc.).