Since my last blog post, I have been reconsidering the direction of my portfolio project. My original idea focused on returning to Hilly Fields and exploring how the park compared with my memories of it. I went to the park and made a list of sounds I anticipated. This made me question whether I was really discovering something new about the sound of the place, or whether I was really listening for things that I already associated with it.

Following this, I decided to move away from focusing on one particular location. I realised that the feeling I was interested in was not exclusive to Hilly Fields. Growing up in the Nottingham countryside, I associate natural environments and green spaces with home. Now that I live in London, I often find that visiting parks gives me a similar feeling of comfort and familiarity. This has led me to explore why places that are geographically and acoustically different can still make me feel connected to home.

My new project is therefore focused on the relationship between sound, childhood memory and a sense of belonging. Rather than trying to recreating the exact sounds of my childhood, I want to investigate how the sounds of London parks can bring back a feeling associated with growing up in the countryside.

research and influences

I have started researching a number of artists, writers and approaches to souncthat relate to these ideas.

One artist I have looked into is Christina Kubisch and her work Voices of Memory. The piece uses recorded voices reading the names of people who died during the First World War. I find the use of the human voice particularly interesting because it turns written names how recordings can preserve traces of people and how listening can create a connection with something that is no longer physically present.

I have also looked at Steven Feld’s Hiroshima, the Last Sound. Feld combines recordings of the Hiroshima Peace Bell with the sound of cicadas recorded at Hiroshima Peace Park. He then plays the composition through vintage 19402 radio receivers and records it again. I am interested in how I could use recordings from my current surroundings to communicate memories of somewhere else. Although Feld’s work deals with specific historical tragedy and is very different from my personal experience, I am interested in his approach to combining recordings, memory and place.

Another reference is Sean Street’s book The Memory of Sound: Preserving the Sonic Past. I am interested in its exploration of how sounds can trigger memories and how recordings can preserve a sense of the past. This relates closely to my project because want to understand why certain environments sounds can make think of childhood and home.

I have also been looking at Susan Philipsz’s sound work, particularly The Distant Sound. I am interested in how sound installations can use recorded voices and sounds to create an emotional experience within a physical space. This is something I would like to consider when thinking about how my own recordings might be presents.