Spring Soundwalks – April 29 + May 13, 2018
If You Lived Here: An electroacoustic exchange through East Vancouver
Sunday, April 29, 2018; 2PM
Led by Helena Krobath and Danica Evering
Meeting location: in front of 1950 Triumph Street (one block south of the Princeton Pub). Near busses #4 and #7 (stops on Powell), or #14 and #16 (stops on East Hastings)
FREE EVENT
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: This walk requires participants to bring their own portable device that can play audio (e.g., smartphone, mp3 player) and headphones. The day before the walk (April 28), please go to: http://soundcloud.com/mutinyandmayhaps and download the track ‘East Van Soundwalk’ (will be available by April 28). If you are not able to provide your own listening device and/or headphones, please contact heather@newmusic.org. A limited amount of equipment may be available for the walk.
This Soundwalk listens to a dense neighbourhood of East Vancouver known for its mix of industrial, commercial, and residential activity. Like all of Vancouver, these spaces are changing with gentrification. Still, the Saturday-Sunday flows of diners, weeknight microbrewery clientele, and high-end condos also overlap the industry of the harbour, the busy commuter throughway, and the rental housing alongside warehouse space and scrapyards. This walk layers electroacoustic ‘postcard poems’ from Montreal’s Olympic Stadium and work-week East Vancouver over an acoustic exploration of weekend ambience in the Powell and Victoria area. Through this layered listening, we can explore ways that “world city” projects not only reshape local spaces, but recast absences and presences, rhythms, and forms of inhabitation.
Accessibility: Up to one hour of light walking, moderate incline, uneven pavement, and short staircases in places. If you have any mobility concerns or requests please contact heather@newmusic.org.
Renfrew Ravine Soundwalk
Sunday, May 13, 2018; 2PM
Led by Jorma Kujala
Meeting Location: German-Canadian Heritage Plaza, at the intersection of Atlin Street and East 29th Avenue (across from 29th Avenue Skytrain Station)
FREE EVENT
Renfrew Ravine Park is a hidden jewel stitched into our city’s urban fabric that includes a delicate balance between parkland and urban development. Its natural ravine setting is also home to a section of Still Creek, the longest of the few daylighted streams remaining in Vancouver. This soundwalk will negotiate the urban/parkland equilibrium as it traverses alongside and through both uses in the Renfrew Collingwood neighbourhood. Note, this walk will wrap up near the Renfrew Park Community Centre.
What is a Soundwalk?
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!
Soundwalks take place rain or shine. Please wear appropriate clothing and footwear for the weather.
Soundwalks are presented in association with the Vancouver Soundwalk Collective.
