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Project 2: Public/Private Soundscape

Proposal 

New York City residences are often bordering the line between public and private spaces. Apartment buildings neighbor the local yoga studios, bodegas, clothing stores etc. creating an environment that easily blurs the lines between the personal and communal. My current residence, in the Upper Eastside, is connected to a community center. For the project, I want to record the sounds heard transitioning from the public locations of the building to the residential portions. There’re constantly lectures, conferences, shows, and field trips taking place at the center which effects my private space. Whether it’s the way I have to dress when going throughout the building or the level of which I speak there is a difference in my performance once I enter into the public or private. One’s public self is curated with each action representing a greater meaning about who they are as an individual and the person they want to be perceived as. Wheres in the privacy of your home or other intimate spaces, you feel safe to express exactly who you are without any barriers or judgment. These contradictory worlds will be merged into one soundscape for Project 2.

92Y Residence

Soundscape Graph

 

First Draft

Final Version: The Mix

The Mixdown takes listeners on a journey from public places to private spaces. In the beginning, you’re sitting inside The New School’s cafeteria (private to New School students and faculty) listening on as an older Hispanic woman is talking on the phone. The ambient noise of students operating utensils and having group discussions is also heard. You’re then transitioned onto the public NYC streets and subway carts, turnstiles are digging, cards are swiping, and subways are approaching. As it continues to play listeners find themselves inside the elevator of 92Y hearing the intimate conversations of a mother who picked up her child from daycare, allowing them to witness actions that take happen within private space. The Mixdown ends with sounds of keys jingling, doors unlocking, and things being placed down as I enter my bedroom, the ultimate private place of my immediate world.

Creating a soundscape and working with audio equipment is a great skill that’ll help me with future projects. Whether its videos or doing interviews on the street for research. I definitely preferred recording audio recording in public than taking photographs of random people–less awkward.

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