I’m doing a series of field recordings in Gesundbrunnen this Saturday morning. This recording is done at the traffic crossing in front of Uferstudios. I hear cars that stop and wait at the traffic light, and head of again as they get the green light. Some pedestrians and bikers pass by, and overhead at a distance airplanes approach the Tegel airport.
Field recording is to intervene in the public space. Pedestrians take note of me and the microphone. Some are afraid of disturbing, and ask if it is OK that they pass by. Others move in circles around me not to interfere. Every now and then I am asked what I am recording, and why. Although no camera is to be seen, the most common assumption is that I am involved with film production.
This morning a lady asks what bird I am recording. The idea seems widespread that the microphone can zoom in and focus on one and one only sound source. Pierre Schaeffer distinguished between several different listening modes. The mode of the microphone is to capture everything, similar to the act of perceiving using Schaefffer’s terminology1. The microphone has no ability to discriminate or filter between sources. Microphones may be directional, and predominantly capture sound arriving from certain directions, while attenuating sound from other directions. But the microphone hears everything coming from its preferred direction, and have no idea of what objects may cause the sound, so that it can choose to focus on the bird rather than the car engine a bit further down the road in the same direction. The microphone has no selective perception, and have no ability for indexical listening. An important reason why I am using the SoundField ambisonic microphone is exactly to be able to capture sound coming from all direction, and get a holistic and all-inclusive spatial impression of the unique sound surroundings at this specific place and time.
A man stops and ask what and why I am recording. I try to explain, and I ask if he would like to have a listen. He excuses himself and says that he is in a hurry and doesn’t have the time to do so.
At some point in the future I want to extend this kind of encounters, and engage in field recording sessions more directly as a social practice. I would like to invite others to join me. In such sessions, the shared listening experience will be the most important element, rather than the resulting recordings.
A biker stops next to me and hands me a note. It contains an email address and a Soundcloud link. It is Fritz Schlüter, a cultural anthropologist studying the sonic environment. In addition to field recordings and sound art works, he is the author of a number of publications that I want to check out further. A pleasant surprise!
1 Michel Chion: Guide To Sound Objects: Pierre Schaeffer and Musical Research. English edition translated by John Dack and Christine North, London, 2009. Published by the ElectroAcoustic Resource Site (EARS) project. Available online.