Exercise: Listening

This exercise suggests going to somewhere very quiet (always tricky in London) and thinking about what can still be heard. I spent some time thinking about the sounds to disassociate them from the object that made it.

I would recommend the movie Berberian Sound Studio (dir Peter Strickland, 2012) for anyone thinking about this - it is about an English sound engineer, Gilderoy, (played by Toby Jones) working in an Italian Giallo studio. He has to create sound effects to match the action on the screens in front of him (which fortunately we never see). We watch Gilderoy, pale with disgust, stabbing cabbages and ripping stalks from vegetables to create sounds of hair being ripped from a woman's scalp etc. 

Having recorded some of the ambient noises within earshot, I tried to use other sensations to describe the sounds:

• Flavour/smell (thinking like a wine taster)
• Colour
• Emotion
• Physical texture

Bird song
Sharp; pointy; happy
Jewelled; citrus; sweet; tangy
Undulating texture
Festooned; yellow-green; lime
Fresh

The fridge
Grey; octagon
Salty; ocean smell
Tense/boring
Rough

Car engine on nearby street
Linear shapes
Bland
Metal-smell
Industrial
Anticipation
White

Kitchen noises (someone unloading a dishwasher)
Fractal
Spicy; chilli peppers
Uncertainty
Firm; unyielding texture
Blue light
Petrol fumes

Angle grinder in workshop next door
Zig zag shape
Parmesan taste
Industry
Silver
Sawdust smell

Sounding of a power sander
Orange
Pointy mesh
Zest
Hot oil smell
Anxiety

It was interesting to see from other student comments that some similar themes come up (sound of a beach and the taste of parmesan!)