Rhythm of the Keyboard

David Harvey (2001) calls attention toward the disappearance of clearly defined urban and rural geographies – physical and social.

Part of Sonic Walden's aim has been to understand how we remember and experience sound. I would like to take a moment to share some findings from my sound survey - 64 participants were asked to select a listening site, and then they described the site and any memories, moods, and thoughts that surfaced during this process. They maintained a journal for 10 days. About half of the students were Internationals and the other half Americans. Surprisingly, the results were about the same. When they were asked to select a listening site for this study, men chose listening spaces with machine sounds and women chose sites that were more people-oriented (perhaps out of convenience, yet the campus is located in a natural setting). Further, participants described natural settings, when directly asked to identify their favorite listening place(s). I have included a couple of journal entries that begin to illustrate how the computer is converging into our natural soundscapes - sounds glide (rather than collide) into one another within the sonic theater of our mind.

"While I was in the computer lab today, I was transported into the woods. As I sat typing, I became aware of the hum that the computers made. This sound remarkably resembled the sound of crickets singing their nightly songs in a rural area. I began to think about fishing at my Grandfather's farm and the sound of wilderness that surrounds the area."

"I heard the sound of my computer, vehicles passing by on this very quiet night. The sound of the vehicles on this empty road reminds me of the place where I came from. There, many street sellers displayed their merchandise with coconut oil lamps. This sound makes me feel peaceful and calm. "

Stay tuned for the next entry - Rhythm of the Keyboard, Part 2 (computer rain).