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SOUNDWALKS
Michelle Nagai (treetheater.org) 1. Stuyvesant's Ghost Walk 2. Farm Waterways Walk Archived Elements About Soundwalks and Deep ListeningThe soundwalk is a practice of focused listening that can take place anywhere, at any time. These particular walks (lasting about 1.5 hour, including a short talk providing historical/environmental information) will uncover layers of New York City history in short, guided segments. Deep Listening is a practice originated by the composer Pauline Oliveros that turns attention to sound, bringing an intense awareness to the minor details of the environment. Deep Listening supports the work of composers, improvisers, and artists--and everyone with a passion for listening and a desire to experience NYC in an unusual way. Soundwalks, which are done mostly in silence, encourage the mind to wander freely through space and time. Is there only the sound of a busy intersection, crowded with cars and pedestrians, or is something else audible--echoes of a rustling meadow, filled with crickets? Are the gentle waves of the East River lapping at a marshy shoreline? Can the sound of rustling branches reach through traffic, in a memory of winter orchards? To hear and feel multiple realties, and to imagine another kind of place right here, right now, is to liberate the medium of history and to enliven the present moment with all that came before.- Michelle Nagai composer and sound artist; co-founder of the New York Society for Acoustic Ecology/treetheater.org ImagesThe images below coincide with how the walk progressed.
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