Spring Soundwalks – Apr. 2 + 9, 2017
SPRING SOUNDWALKS 2017
Slivers of pavement
Sunday, April 2, 2017; 2–3PM
Led by George Rahi
Meeting Location: Waterfront Station Lobby (601 W. Cordova Street)
FREE
Privately-owned public spaces are widespread in our contemporary urban form, exemplified by squares, plazas, waterfronts, and enlarged sidewalks included in a building’s envelope. These spaces complicate the neat binary between public and private, combining elements of private ownership, securitization, and rules and restrictions, with publicly accessible amenities such as shelter, seating, and open space. Using soundwalking as a way to access and assert the right to these common spaces, this soundwalk traverses various privately-owned public spaces in downtown Vancouver, drawing attention to their spatial, social, and sonic dynamics.
Embodied Emplacement: a multi-modal walkshop
Sunday, April 9, 2017; 2PM
Led by Matthew Ariaratnam and Julie Hammond
Meeting Location: Outside the Anvil Centre (777 Columbia Street, New Westminster – one block east from the New Westminster skytrain station)
FREE
Drawing on Steph Ceraso’s call for “multi-modal listening” alongside practices of soundwalking, field recording, in situ composition, and map making, Matthew Ariaratnam and Julie Hammond will lead a 90 minute “walkshop” around New Westminster’s waterfront. Participants will be asked to explore sensory inputs in select locations via playing, singing, listening, walking, touching, and writing.
Soundwalks take place rain or shine. Please wear appropriate clothing and footwear for the weather.
A Soundwalk is a silent group walk led along a planned route to experience a location’s ambiance and underlying rhythms. All too often the sounds of the environment pass by unnoticed because of our uncanny ability to shut them out. A Soundwalk invites participants to actively listen, opening ears and consciousness to the complex orchestration that the environment is composing at all times. It is a musical-sonic adventure that reveals the banal to be extraordinary!
