Initially after reading the briefing for this project, I began to brainstorm how affects each person as an individual, and therefore how I could use this individuality of sound within my project. Whilst attempting to define the meaning of a soundscape, I came to the conclusion that a soundscape, to me, is a multitude of nosies and sounds from one’s surrounding which inevitably create a mental picture in your mind, and therefore has the power to control one’s imagination. From this, I became hooked on the idea of sound as a trigger for memories or nostalgia, with a single sound, for examples waves lapping onto a beach, often causing an individual flashback to a point in one’s life.

From this, I ventured on a sound walk throughout the city of Edinburgh, and attempted to note down snippets of sound which I believed had the power to cause a nostalgic memory to appear in one’s imagination. These sounds included the squeaking of swings in a children’s playground, the sound of roller-skates across the pavements, the displeasing and often shrill mechanical noises of rubbish trucks, etc. From this, I also wanted to distinguish sounds of the city which were a communal trigger for memory, as those mentioned previously, compared with sounds that are individual to myself, for example from my own childhood memories with friends and family.

I intend to continue to explore and develop the idea of sound as a trigger for memory and nostalgia within the project, and I would be interested to explore the medium of creating an audio file, potentially accompanied by a short film for my final piece.