audiowalks

The audio walks are visually marked with wood signs and trail markers in industrial heritage areas, urban parks and commercial zones. The signs indicate the start of a specific audio walk and direct participants to listen to the recording with headphones on a smartphone. Directions for each walk are indicated within the recording and are set at approximately 5-20 minutes in duration.

The audiowalks present an alternative experience to familiar routes and encounters by combining intimate sound recordings with unique sites. The result is a heightened sensory experience; listening, looking and rethinking the immediate environment and contemplating conventional knowledge systems. The geographical, historical and cultural context of a site or object are often central themes to the recordings while physical spaces become areas of exchange and exploration. The virtual recorded soundscape mimics the real physical one in order to create a seamless world as a combination of the two. The recordings play with sensations of space, hearing, intimacy and presence. The mediated walk triggers feelings of presence/absence and touches on themes around the commons, loss and shifting perceptions.

Through moving sound installations participants experience their environment in different ways and are challenged with new sensory interpretations. The virtual recordings raise questions about established truths and histories.

These place based audio recordings are intended to be experienced as a compassionate and creative approach to sharing memories. They are hybrid mixes of narrative history and fantastical storytelling.