Author Archives: Derek Jin

Lake Poway Recreation Area

Image taken from recording spot.

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Recorded 4:50 PM (PDT) on May 16, 2020 on iPhone at Lake Poway Park.

Lake Poway Recreation Area is the closest park to where I live. The lake serves water supply to nearby resistants, while the park contains an archery range, a baseball park, picnic areas, fishing and boating areas, and hiking trails. Its a little crowded on a Saturday afternoon despite the coronavirus pandemic.

This recording captures the soundscape of a typical afternoon at Lake Poway park. The sound of birds and nature sounds form the background, with occasionally a bird or two breaking into the foreground. Sounds of people can be heard when they enter a closer proximity to the recording spot. Due to my unfamiliarity with bird calls, I can not identity the species of birds 1 and 2 labeled in my graph.

I completed missed the unknown sound in the graph when recording. In my mind I have associated it with wood hitting something and I had suspected it to be boats hitting the dock, but they seem to be too far away for that sound to be captured.

-Derek Jin
May 2020

Family Soundmark: Cooking and Chanting

Recorded around 5:43 PM (PDT) May 11, 2020 on iPhone in my kitchen.

This is a recording of the sound of cooking with my dad doing meditation chanting in the background. It is an interesting sound combination one would perhaps associate with the kitchen of a Buddhist temple, but it is a unique soundmark of my family observable daily around dinner time.

I classified this as a soundmark for several reasons: the first one being its uniqueness. I have yet to come across a similar soundscape anywhere else. It also serves as a representation of our family culture, where spiritual practices (the chanting is derived from Buddhist meditation chants using the vowels ah, oh and uh) are found mixed in with daily life. A third reason is the consistency. Since I went back home in March, I have found this soundmark to appear everyday around the same time consistantly. It also serves as a signal to alert family members that dinner will be served soon.