Queens Par, Toronto, ON, Canada

I originate from Toronto, Canada, many people have this perception that in Canada we live completely different from here in the United States. After taking a short one hour flight to New York city you truly see how similar our two societies are. We both watch the same television show, follow the same stars, have the same stores, etc. The only major difference that did cause a shock to me was the number of people that live in such a small space. Toronto is a large city with a population of four million people but everyone is spread out over a large distance.

Upon arriving into the classroom I was greeted by some familiar faces and of some strangers. Chris Stover walked in pulling a group of people together in a rich dialogue about Experience and Meaning. We started off by trying to define “what is experience”. As a group, we came to a resolution of what experience and meaning can be understood as, we started to go into further analysis of two short stories by Tony Hiss and R. Murray Schaffer. After we finished reading the two short story we looked into what was Deep Travel and what is our soundscape. Throughout the analysis we look at the philosophical  similarities that these stories shared with scholars like socrates.

Nearing the end of the Activity we existed the building and headed to one of the local parks, Union square. Once there we collected as a group to discus what we should look for in the park. We where told to go out into the park and find a spot as a group of three to sit and listen to the world of New York moving around and gain a better understanding of our acoustic and visual understanding of the area. After ten minutes of discussion with the people in our group about what we sense when sitting in the park in comparison to our home towns, I found when we were in Union Square that the main difference was the noise level because of the how many car and people are in the area. You couldn’t hear any calmness in the area, only the business of the people constantly moving and busting there way around the hectic park during the food market.

During this whole process one quote from the reading that stood out for me was,

“You cannot control or shape the acoustic universe.Rather the reverse. This is why aural societies are considered unprogressive, they don’t see straight ahead. If I wish to order the world. I must become” visionary.” Then I close my ears and create fences, purport lines, straight roads, walls, maps and diagrams.” This was said by R. Murray Schafer. I guess the reason this quote stood out to me is that how you physical can’t block out the acoustic universe unlike the visual universe where you can just close your eyes. By hearing the sound of the park you start to the create what your surroundings look like. But at the same time the quote questions whether it is possible to only use acoustic or visual to order to understand the world. R. Murray Schafer is forces to use visual description to describe how he would make a world using acoustics.

I find through out this workshop I gained a better understand of my surroundings and how everything is important you can’t just ignore something because you don’t think that it was important, because it still has an effect of the larger society. For example if you are making clothing you must look into the visual aesthetic of your design, the sound the it will make when you walk but as how it adapts to the environment around it. I want to learn how I can produce more appealing products that will stand out in the busy and hectic areas of New York in a positive way.

Union Square, New York City, NY, USA