MAPPING THE SOUNDSCAPE – THE MEADOWS

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When approaching this project initially, I found it particularly challenging to come up with a way of presenting sounds without creating abstractions. Also, I struggled in finding the focus of the project, which had not been the case with earlier elements.

For the first week of work, I knew I wanted to include actual sound – something I hadn’t done before. When it came to focusing on one clear aim, inspired by walks around Edinburgh, I was drawn to The Meadows. A place where people meet, a place people travel through, but also a place central to the city. Consisting largely of open parkland, The Meadows includes tree lined walkways, areas for sports, and wonderful views across to Arthur’s Seat.

When looking from an aerial perspective, what became immediately clear to me, was the triangular shaped sections created by pathways across its surface. The shapes, enclosed in by roads and pathways, could be a field layout in the middle of the countryside, but it sits less than 1km from Edinburgh Old Town.

Working with sound, I used my mapping of the meadows to separate the ‘shapes’ into sections. Using these sections, I walked around each one, recorded – using Voice Memos – a minute’s worth of audio. In the editing process I found that a minute was too long, and scaled them down to around 10 seconds each. In some, all you hear is the wind and weather, and in others cars and other transport. I tried to include those with people to make it more interesting, but, for me, staying true to what was recorded was important. The final video file came to life, playing back areas where most people were circulating, which was often near big roads or where big paths intersect.

 

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