A Summer of Listening
what sounds are no longer here?
I often struggle in summer. The intense heat, the abundance of insects bumping into me, being an adult with a schedule that resists a true summer reset.
Sometimes I pine away for the few summers of my childhood when the summer seemed to last for a year. If I drift back into those memories I can hear the sounds of those summers filled with people I no longer see, who are no longer here, places that no longer exist like The Little Viking drive through where I would gorge myself on blackberry milkshakes while sitting on my grandparents front lawn listening to the park sprinklers chit-chit-chit, bored teenagers cruising back and forth, rural small town summers.
This Sound Will Disappear
What sounds of this summer will not be here next summer? This could be an invitation into grief but also to listen with a depth of presence for what and who is here now.
How might we allow the sensory experiences of this summer to undo us so we can be with this moment in time?
Summer listening can only be about this summer, even if it brings us into memories of previous summers past. This summer there will be new sounds, sounds previously unnoticed, sounds you expect but have disappeared, sounds you hear in other seasons, sounds that only emerge in this season. And sounds we carry in our bodies, a cry stuck in our chest, or maybe a sigh forged in awe of being here for one more day.
Call in for June’s Listening Practice
Have you called the phone line yet?
June’s listening practice is up and waiting for you. These tiny practices are poetic invitations to expand your listening, to remind you to listen, and to become even more immersed in the project by leaving a message of sound.
Your message of sound can be your own voice in word or sounds or if you have consent, record the sounds around you and play them back as your message. I dare you.
I realize this might feel weird to do, or maybe you call and your mind goes blank (mine did several times when testing it out). Truly, you can’t do it wrong. Leave some silence, leave a moan, let it be what it wants to be.
Here’s a simple way to engage:
Call 505-557-2445
Listen to this month’s practice
Press 2 when prompted and leave a message of sound/voice/field recording
Maybe this is a sound that came through from the month’s invitation
Or maybe you just want to (or need to) leave any type of sound
Maybe this sound lives inside of you
Or maybe this sound is around you
And if you’d rather talk it out, leave a message about the sound, describe it.
Leave a field recording. Record using your phone, play the message back on the phone line.
Once enough sounds are gathered from your messages, I’ll weave them into a little composition to share with you, a gift of our collective murmurings.
Cool People Doing Cool Things
A Home for Creating - If you haven’t checked out the beautiful work of Chloe Almeda, go right now and explore her digital world on Notion. Chloe is a multifaceted human with so many creative expressions, she gives me endless inspiration and is so generous in her sharing with others. If you’d like support in building your own digital world, check out Digital World Systems Support , I’m excited to see what you create!
Listening Yet To Come - Bureau for Listening is one of my favorite groups of folks exploring all aspects of listening. Last weekend I joined a small online gathering to ponder the significance of creating research titles for listening and how this simple act of creating and sharing with each other might offer more than the research itself. Share your research title (imaginative and speculative titles encouraged).
Electromagnetic Fields: Artistic Research and Radio Waves - I have been impatiently waiting for this all-day symposium on-the-radio, and it’s happening next Tuesday! And it’s FREE. Fifteen contributors present work exploring natural radio phenomena, electromagnetic listening practices and questions of spectrum access. “How might electromagnetic listening bring sound art, environmental research, and scientific sensing into closer relation?”
Choose Your Sonic Field Trip
If you haven’t had a chance to send in your sonic field trip assignment, the first 2 assignments are still open, choose one or both. Like the phone line, let it be easy, let it be weird.
Submit Assignment #1
Submit Assignment #2
This is a practice in play, in imagination and imperfection. I wonder what you will hear?
As always, I love hearing from you, reply back to this email anytime.
Listening with you,
Adrienne
