Author: Meri

Peculiar nocturnal animals

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Last Summer I was lucky to be invited to work with fema group (Hanna Kahrola, Tuija Touhunen, Anna Kupari). I acted as a “conversational shoulder” in the group, discussing about soundscape, public space, feminist methodologies, situational knowledge, the night time, wolves, epidemics, things like that. I’m planning to write about what we did in more detail but in the meantime here’s a video showing one part of the working process.

This was filmed during September. Performers are Kahrola and Touhunen. Edit by yours truly.

“Talk to the machine: Listening to smart spaces” at Sound Environment Centre, Lund University

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References to the lecture:

Bassett, Caroline & Ben Roberts 2019. Automation now and then: Automation fevers, anxieties and utopias. New Formations. DOI: 10.3898/newF:98.02.2019

Beer, David 2010. Mobile music, coded objects and everyday spaces. Mobilities 5: 4, 469–484. 

Bijsterveld, Karin 2018. Mechanical Sound. Technology, Culture, and Public Problems of Noise in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.

Bucher, Taina 2016. Neither black nor box. Ways of knowing algorithms. In Innovative methods in media and communication research, eds. Sebastian Kubitschko and Anne Kaun. Palgrave Macmillan. DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40700-5_5

Crary, Jonathan 1999. Suspentions of perception: Attention, spectacle, and modern culture. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Hayles, Katherine 1999. How We Became Posthuman: virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Kitchin, Rob & Dodge, Martin 2011. Code/Space. Software And Everyday Life. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

Krivý, Maroš 2016. Towards a critique of cybernetic urbanism: The smart city and the society of control. Planning Theory. DOI: 10.1177/1473095216645631 

Kytö, Meri 2019. The senses and the city: Attention, distraction and media technology in urban environments. The Routledge companion to urban media and communication. Eds. Z. Krajina & D. Stevenson. London: Routledge, 371–378. DOI: 10.4324/9781315211633-39

Lahjoita puhetta 2020. Yle. URL: https://yle.fi/aihe/lahjoita-puhetta

Librivox 2014. Karel Capek: R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). URL: https://librivox.org/rur-rossums-universal-robots-by-karel-capek/

Männistö-Funk, Tiina & Tanja Sihvonen 2018. Voices from the Uncanny Valley. How Robots and Artificial Intelligences Talk Back to Us. Digital culture and society, 4: 1.

Paasonen, Susanna 2016. Fickle focus: Distraction, affect and the production of value in social media. First Monday, 21(10). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v21i10.6949

Parviainen, Jaana 2014. Mediakaupungin viettelyn logiikka ja kairoottiset silmänräpäykset. Media ja viestintä 37: 1

Saariketo, Minna 2020. Kuvitelmia toimijuudesta koodin maisemissa. Tampere: University of Tampere. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-1531-3

Santangelo, Marco 2016. A (more?) intelligent city. Noesis. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20983/noesis.2016.12.5

Thompson, Marie 2020. Music in the Post-Mom Economy. Keynote at RMA conference. Script of the lecture: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f105cc8cdeb4f35285b5b68/t/5f59c24e59ab3511edd7aaae/1599717969427/music+in+the+post+mom+economy.pdf

Tonight show with Jimmy Fallon 2017. With guest David Hanson and Sophia. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg_tJvCA8zw

Wiener, Norbert 1961. Cybernetics: or control and communication in the animal and the machine. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Christmas bingo playlist

MeriLeave a comment

Midsummers is two weeks away. What a perfect time to listen to the research material I gathered during last Christmas (sic!), during the 71 days of the #joululaulubingo (Christmas song bingo).

I will present a paper next week in the Urban-Related Sensoria: Environments, Technologies, Sensobiographies conference, see program here: https://www3.uef.fi/fi/web/urbansensoria2020/program. Here’s my abstract:

‘Tis the season to do listening walks: A methodological approach to seasonal music and urban environments

The tradition of creating a Christmassy atmosphere in city space is a calendrical soundscape event spanning from late November to the end of December in various cities around the world, with different religious backgrounds. This paper focuses on the experience of Christmassy background music in Finnish towns. With local, contextual and changing expectations concerning timing, choice of music, volume, and temporary PA solutions, the public discussion around Christmas background music is vivid and often affective. The end of the year season is an exception in background music practices in the urban commercial space, and this makes it an interesting phenomenon to study as it points to changes in the accepted, overlooked and often willfully ignored musical environment in cities.

In this research Christmas background music is being studied as being an integral part of urban soundscapes, urban space and musical cultures in Finland. The methodology is a combination of sound diaries, listening walks and autoethnography. The preliminary data gathering method was to make note of all music identifiable as Christmas background music I personally heard in my daily life while in public or commercial space during November 1, 2019 to 10 January, 2020. I would detect the piece by using the Shazam mobile application (if possible) and make various notes on what I could hear. Another part of the data collecting method was to ask the public to “report” to me if they heard Christmas music while they were out in town. This material consists of numerous reports from acquaintances and members of the public of where and when they have heard music that they recognize as Christmas music and at times identification of the particular pieces of music. Reports were seldom neutral, but had a note on some aspect of the heard experience or even reports on not hearing any music. During 71 days I kept an online public diary on what I heard and what was reported to me. 

As often happens during ethnographic field research, what was anticipated to be encountered during the field work were not according to the researchers expectations. This study presents a reading of Christmas background music as a sonic ritual of decoration, of consumerist sensory agency, and of sensory labor.

***

I’m collating the list of songs from the material to a Spotify playlist (under construction, much more songs to be added).

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6wj6lel3ultAvIBXIjFWTV?si=2-yWXl4iQfOMk5FRdWIlMw

 

 

Pandemia + Sound/Music + Environment: list of web content from Spring 2020

Meri7 Comments

This is a list of links to online content (audio, pictures, text, “media”) documenting and commenting on the sonic environment during Spring 2020.

As there is a huge amount of content scattered in the web, this is not in any way close to being exhaustive but a resource and a memo you can use. Also as you can clearly see, the list reflects my place in the world (I live in Finland), my research interests, language skills and search engine algorithm bias.

If there is something you’d like to see on the list, please write a comment below.

Thank you for all who contributed to the list, much appreciated!

Corona sound map projects

  1. Radio Aporee Project Corona
    https://aporee.org/maps/work/projects.php?project=corona
  2. Cities and memory: #StayHomeSounds
    https://citiesandmemory.com/covid19-sounds/
  3. Covid-19 Sound Map by Pete Stollery: https://earth.google.com/web/@31.61265225,32.75149559,8133.66958234a,25017742.90688754d,35y,0h,0t,0r/data=MicKJQojCiExN0MwN3o5Y1JIOV8ycjRXOE5IYmlYSkt0cDVFMHBCcl86AwoBMA [Chrome browser needed]
  4. Sound Outside Map: Listening to the world at Covid-19 Time
    https://www.soundesign.info/2020/03/28/the-sound-outside/
  5. Locus Sonus, real time audio streaming
    http://locusonus.org/soundmap
  6. Muuttuvat suomalaiset äänimaisemat Listening Map: Poikkeuksellinen kevät 2020: http://kartta.aanimaisemat.fi/projects
  7. Locate your sound, Italian Covid-19 sound map: https://locateyoursound.com/paesaggi-sonori-italiani-covid19
    (see also related essay: https://ilmanifesto.it/covid-19-il-ritmo-del-silenzio/)
  8. Several recordings (Grenoble) and soundwalks (Turin) on Cartophonies during confinement (search year 2020):
    https://www.cartophonies.fr/
  9. Sound recordings from Fukushima and Sendai, Japan, by Koji Nagahata: https://www.sss.fukushima-u.ac.jp/~nagahata/covid-sp/index-e.html
  10. Freesound Audio Database, with the search word “covid”:
    https://freesound.org/search/?q=covid
  11. Based on the list collated by Society for Ethnomusicology members of hundreds of corona themes songs around the world, Elise Heinisch has made a very accessible map: https://padlet.com/eliseheinisch/a_global_coronavirus_playlist (Because of “national education system she has had to filter certain songs which could be viewed as religious, political, or otherwise controversial”, so it now contains 139 songs from the list. The list keeps growing substantially.)
  12. Lisbon sound postcards in times of Covid-19, a tourist city without tourists: http://www.soundsoftourism.pt/soundpostcards-in-times-of-covid-19-confinement/

Articles or blog posts about “change in soundscape” or similar

  1. The quiet life, article on The Monthly:
    https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2020/may/1588255200/nicola-redhouse/quiet-life#mtr
  2. Article on Toronto Star:
    https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/04/18/in-these-disquieting-covid-19-time-hushed-cities-are-making-a-loud-impression-on-our-ears.html
  3. Scientific Sonification – The Sound of Corona, essay by Holger Schulze:
    http://passiveaggressive.dk/scientific-sonification-the-sound-of-corona/
  4. Less seismic vibration on Earth (YLE, in Finnish, references Nature journal):
    https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11295684
  5. Birds sing louder (Iltalehti, in Finnish, references Reuters):
    https://www.iltalehti.fi/ulkomaat/a/70a94312-3615-48a4-a33d-ccef6de2100e
  6. Reduced marine noise (The Guardian)
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/27/silence-is-golden-for-whales-as-lockdown-reduces-ocean-noise-coronavirus
  7. Essay on Istanbul, by Burcu Yasin:
    https://terrabayt.com/expat-life/the-soundscape-of-covid-19-in-istanbul/
  8. Essay on various places, by Matt Mikkelsen
    https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/changing-sound-of-cities
  9. The bagpipes at Lauttasaari, Helsinki (in Finnish):
    https://www.lauttasaari.fi/suurenmoinen-sakkipillinainen-esiin-soitan-kannustukseksi-ja-valittamisen-osoitukseksi/
  10. Silent Helsinki (YLE, in Finnish):
    https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11259414
  11. Silent Kuopio (YLE, in Finnish):
    https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11313383
  12. Not so silent Helsinki (HS, in Finnish, mentions the legendary Corona Bar):
    https://www.hs.fi/kaupunki/art-2000006449033.html
  13. Silent day care centers (MTV, in Finnish):
    https://www.mtv.fi/sarja/kevennys-10-4-2020-33001002004/korona-on-hiljentanyt-paivakodit-ja-paasiaisaskartelu-on-jaanyt-vahaiselle-aleksin-paivakotitadit-askartelivat-ikkunaan-lasten-paasiaisvisan-1243021
  14. Silence retreats by Tampere parishes are cancelled between March-May (in Finnish):
    https://tampereenseurakunnat.fi/tutki_uskoa/retriittielamaa/retriittikalenteri
  15. Music for corona generation (in Dutch):
    https://www.thisisourhouse.nl/features/muziek-voor-een-corona-generatie/
  16. Seismograf article compilation on sounds of 2020, essays collected through a writing competition  (Lyden af 2020, in Danish): https://seismograf.org/fokus/lyden-af-2020
  17. A collection of written experiences with the sonic environment during lockdown (in English and Dutch): https://urbansoundlab.nl/listening-to-the-city-in-times-of-corona/ (see also the related open call: https://soundtrackcity.net/open-call-how-do-you-experience-a-quieter-city/
  18. A blog by field recordist Arnoud Traa in Amsterdam: https://deauditievedienst.tumblr.com/ (tags #corona recordings and #coronarecordings)
  19. The Observer: Why lockdown silence was golden for science, June 20th, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jun/20/why-lockdown-silence-was-golden-for-science
  20. “Missing Sounds of New York: An Auditory Love Letter to New Yorkers”, New York City library’s list of sound recordings from NY “before Covid-19”. https://www.nypl.org/blog/2020/05/01/missing-sounds-of-new-york, see also a story by Ashawnta Jackson at https://daily.jstor.org/recalling-city-sounds-during-a-quarantine/ 
  21. Jez riley French’s blog diary on listening during the pandemic: https://jezrileyfrench-aquietposition.blogspot.com/2020/03/552020-i-first-posted-about-this-during.html

  22. “Singing Together, Apart”, by Rachael Beale, blog post at London Review of Books site: https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2020/june/singing-together-apart

Silence in pictures: empty cities photo reportages

  1. Istanbul (Sabah, in Turkish): https://www.sabah.com.tr/galeri/yasam/istanbulda-korona-sessizligi/13
  2. Istanbul (Milliyet, in Turkish): https://www.milliyet.com.tr/galeri/corona-virus-sessizligi-istanbulu-hic-boyle-gormediniz-6173749/1
  3. London (Financial Times): https://www.ft.com/content/e2b314aa-69d2-11ea-800d-da70cff6e4d3
  4. Segovia (El Norte de Castilla, in Spanish): https://www.elnortedecastilla.es/segovia/estridente-silencio-ciudad-20200405121429-nt.html
  5. Paris (Le Point, in French): https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/en-images-coronavirus-paris-ville-morte-17-03-2020-2367562_23.php

Social media videos / streams of sounding out, playing, singing that have caught my attention

  1. How I’m Handling Online Teaching (Original Screaming Teacher Video)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy_y9yOrgxk
  2. HUS (Helsinki University Hospital) doctors choir (in Finnish):
    https://www.nly.fi/pida-huolta/
  3. Saturday evening music by Lauttasaari church, Piia Maunula on baroque oboe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHJndfPdUA0
  4. The Lahti Symphony Orchestra: Sibelius: Finlandia op 26
    https://youtu.be/Sh1L-8T5hu0
  5. Virtuaalikuoro (Virtual Choir project, in Finnish)
    https://www.facebook.com/virtuaalikuoro/
  6. Vaskivuoren lukion kuoro (Vaskivuori High School virtual choir, in Finnish):
    https://www.vantaa.fi/uutisia/101/0/150216 and
    https://youtu.be/OrThp_wFI7k
  7. Covid-19 parody songs FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2717954571809688/
  8. Darude Sandstorm on your balcony (in Finnish), FB group with videos: https://www.facebook.com/groups/669917093758944/
  9. Video from early March with a hazmat dancer and people cheering in Spain: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=521289605463875&id=361430174733
  10. Balcony scene from Germany, a commentary on balcony singing: https://mobile.twitter.com/MusicIsPeople/status/1239500328862695425 (Searching social media platforms with “balcony singing” provides lots of videos.)
  11. Spectral Electric: Pandemic Response Division album
    https://spectralelectric.bandcamp.com/album/pandemic-response-division
  12. Alex Ross essay on pianist Igor Levit’s home concerts:
    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/18/igor-levit-is-like-no-other-pianist
  13. The Boccaccio Project, a ollection and commision of musical performances by the Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/concerts/boccaccio-project/

Research projects or surveys about the same subject

  1. Year of Sound 2020 response to Covid-19:
    https://sound2020.org/news/soundscape-under-covid-19-and-wiki-for-sound/
  2. Silent Cities: A participatory monitoring programme of an exceptional modification of urban soundscapes:
    https://renoir.hypotheses.org/files/2020/03/Silent·Cities-Project.pdf
  3. Survey by Paola Moscoso:
    https://es.surveymonkey.com/r/RQ69GXZ
  4. The Hellenic Society for Acoustic Ecology’s International Survey: https://forms.gle/tHd4WZ3EgKXx7smz7
  5. The Collegium Hungaricum Berlin Open Call for making a collective soundscape compositions:
    https://www.facebook.com/events/2489926544601566/
  6. Invitation for sound contributions for Live Release, open call:
    https://livereleaseconvergence.tumblr.com/
  7. Call for works: Sonic, Social, Distance and Soundtracks for Strange Days, curated by Maile Colbert at Sonic Field: https://sonicfield.org/2020/05/call-for-works-sonic-social-distance-and-soundtracks-for-strange-days/

Sound art works on the subject

  1. A radiophonic sound work “Poikkeusaika” by Taina Riikonen on life in quarantine: https://areena.yle.fi/audio/1-50513054
  2. “Poikkeustila” soundscape work by Mikko Haapoja under the project The routes of Helsinki (Helsingin reitit): http://mikkohaapoja.net/helsinginreitit/poikkeustila.htm
  3. Ricardo Huisman’s (DJ Sensescape) compositions of his contributions to the Aporee sound map, published as an album: https://ricardohuisman.bandcamp.com/album/sensescapes-in-the-pandemic-disruptive-transparencies

Stepping lightly – more episodes to come

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My podcast series “Keveät askeleet” (“light steps”) has come up with a small obstacle, now that there shouldn’t be much “stepping” done outside the house for a month or two.

The idea of the show is to take a scholar out for a walk, to which ever place they want that would be in their comfort zone, research-wise. We then walk about and discuss what they see, hear or “read” from the environment. This obviously being something else than I would, having a different disciplinary background. There is an emphasis on soundscape and sonic narration. The aesthetics of the show follows roughly the aesthetics of field work: no fancy editing, definitely not studio quality, but maybe a refreshing take on mediated auditory realities. At least I hope it might be refreshing. It could also be annoying for all I know.

So far I have had the pleasure to walk with four scholars. With architect Jenni Partanen we walked in Nekala, an old industrial district in Tampere, talking about entropy and change. With cultural scholar Anu Laukkanen we walked in the University of Turku campus, pondering situated bodies and power in different kinds of spaces of learning. With sound artist Petri Kuljuntausta we walked in Tukholmankatu, Helsinki, where his sound art gallery is located. With sociologist Juhana Venäläinen we walked around Tampere city centre, discussing the commons, cycling and urban space as a location for encountering. We also had some donuts.

If everything goes as planned tomorrow the fifth episode will be online: media scholar Minna Saariketo (while walking her dog in Turku) will accompany me walking around the garden in Tampere, and we will talk about the landscapes of code. This will be executed by all recommendations of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.

ka_tausta
Pic: Mirkka Hietanen from Vastapaino (the feet are mine, the photo was taken by Miia Collanus). Jingle by Väinö Jylhämö.

 

#joululaulubingo 71. päivä

MeriLeave a comment

10.1.2020 Tampere ja Turku

Kaupungilla on jo muut musiikit, en missään törmännyt jouluiseen musiikkin. Ehkä tämä bingo vähitellen loppuu, vaikka Nuutinpäivänä.

Päivitys: Ei kyllä bingo loppui nyt. Merkkinä tästä olkoon alla oleva kuva Hietalahdesta (kiitos Josephine), jossa jo lasketaan päiviä seuraavaan jouluun.

joululaskuri_josephine1801.jpg

#joululaulubingo 70. päivä

MeriLeave a comment

9.1.2020 Tampere

Pian loppuu tämä  bingo. En ole kuullut tänään joulumusiikkia, mutta pääkirjasto Metson lehtiosastolla on vielä joululehdet esillä (varastotila on sen verran täynnä että niitä ei vielä mahdu pakkaamaan takaisin, kertoi kirjastonhoitaja).

Musiikkiosastolla oli vielä kyltti joulumusiikille, mutta nuotit ja levyt oli siirretty jo pois, kirjastonhoitajan arvion mukaan Loppiaisen jälkeisenä tiistaina. Lindgrenin ja Löytyn tuotanto oli tulossa tilalle.