audio by artist james

Car - driving, exiting, outside.

start:
inside driving car
end:
exit car, door closes, birds etc.

1:08 minutes (1.3 MB)

May 12th, afternoon. Ottawa. Peopliness: None, or one if you count me (this is true of all the recordings - ?) Inside a driving car; turn signals, etc; stops, parks, keys out, seatbelt off, car door opens, exit, door closes. Birds etc.

Woods to water

start:
woods, birds, water
end:
water lapping at the shore

1:08 minutes (1.31 MB)

May 10th, late afternoon. Ottawa River. Outdoors. Zero peopliness. medium density. Not the most effective transition in the world - steady sound of rapids in the background throughout (stronger when closer to water); but transition from 'in the woods' (birds etc) to 'by the water' (water lapping at the shore etc) provides some sense of transition...

Lake to woods

start:
lake
end:
woods

1:23 minutes (1.59 MB)

May 10 late afternoon. Mud Lake, Ottawa. Outdoors. Zero peopliness. Medium density. No traffic (well, some quite distant traffic.)
This is an attempt at a transition between two entirely outdoor 'spaces' - an open lake versus within the woods. The spatial shift is a bit subtle, though slightly supported by a shift in the sound sources (less/more birds/frogs/crickets...)

Woods to road/traffic

start:
woods, birds
end:
highway, traffic

1:48 minutes (1.65 MB)

May 10th late afternoon. Ottawa River Parkway. Outdoors. Zero peopliness. Woods (birds etc) to medium-busy highway (traffic - buses, cars.)

road/traffic to sewer/water

start:
highway, traffic
end:
water, tunnel

2:00 minutes (1.84 MB)

May 10th, late afternoon. Ottawa River Parkway. Outdoors. Dense sound activity. Starts with medium-heavy highway traffic; tranisition to the inside of a sewer tunnel - rapidly flowing water in an enclosed concrete space.

Woods, plane passes overhead

start:
woods, birds
end:
same

1:55 minutes (1.76 MB)

May 10th, late afternoon. Mud Lake conservation area, Ottawa. Outdoors. Zero peopliness. In the woods (birds etc); a plane passes overhead, close enough to be quite loud. Does this constitute a transition? I have not moved; my space has not changed. But the shift from natural sound to the sound of the plane is a dramatic shift in cultural space... (Plus the plane has a nice symbolic link with our themes of transitions, different local and geographical spaces, etc...)

Woods to filtration plant hum

start:
woods, birds
end:
industry hum

1:59 minutes (1.82 MB)

May 10th, late afternoon. Ottawa West Filtration Plant. Outdoors. Zero peopliness. From woods (birds etc) to the medium-to-loud hum outside a water treatment facility. (Technically the same 'space', but different sound worlds...)

Traffic to woods

start:
highway, cars, traffic
end:
woods, birds

1:47 minutes (1.64 MB)

May 10th late afternoon. Ottawa River Parkway. Outdoors. Quite dense to medium density. medium-busy highway traffic to woods (birds etc.)

Rapids to woods, with a car in between

start:
water, rapids
end:
woods, birds

1:45 minutes (1.61 MB)

May 10 07 late afternoon, Ottawa river, outdoors, zero peopliness, rapids, car, birds, fairly dense, starts with steady rush of rapids, ends in woods with birds etc. Less a space-transition, more a density/texture-transition maybe...?

Parking Lot/ Grocery Store/ Mall/ Vestibule(Mall Pt 1)

start:
parking lot; grocery carts rolling on pavement; car ignition
end:
small space, doors opening and closing, music playing

1:01 minutes (1.17 MB)

May 12th afternoon. Lincoln Fields Mall, Ottawa. Both outdoors and indoors; much peopliness. High sound density.
Begins in the parking lot; grocery carts rolling on pavement; car ignition; through sliding doors, into grocery store; carts being pushed together, crowd noise, cash noise; out into the mall - crowd noise, similar to grocery space but without cash, carts; push-doors into vestibule on the way outside - small space, doors opening and closing, music playing.

Vestibule/ Outside (Mall Pt 2)

start:
small space, doors opening and closing, music playing
end:
parking lot - seagulls, traffic, voices

1:44 minutes (2 MB)

May 12th afternoon. Lincoln Fields Mall, Ottawa. Both outdoors and indoors; much peopliness. High sound density.
Vestibule on the way outside - small space, doors opening and closing, music playing; to outside - cars, carts; wagon rolls by; voices; to parking lot - seagulls, traffic noise, voices.

Montreal Biodome: Exhibition hall to tropical forest ecosystem

start:
hall, ventilation, voices
end:
ventilation, lighting hum water, birds, voices

0:49 minutes (959.23 KB)

May 16th 2007, afternoon. Montreal Biodome. Starts indoors; ends in an indoor space simulating an outdoor space. Medium to high peopliness. Fairly high sound density.

Montreal Biodome: Large tropical forest ecosystem hall to smaller, tunnel-like space.

start:
larger space, water, birds
end:
smaller space, voices

0:30 minutes (584.23 KB)

May 16th 2007, afternoon. Montreal Biodome. Medium peopliness; high-ish sound density. From an indoor space emulating an outdoor space, to an indoor space.
From the open tropical forest ecosystem hall to a smaller, tunnel-like space (with aquariums etc...). Voices throughout. Starts in larger space with water and birds, to smaller space - voices clearer, water etc recedes.

Montreal Biodome: Smaller, tunnel-like space to larger tropical forest ecosystem hall.

start:
smaller, tunnel-like space with voices
end:
larger hall, voices, water, birds

0:23 minutes (452.08 KB)

May 16th 2007, afternoon. Montreal Biodome. Medium peopliness; high-ish sound density. From an indoor space, to an indoor space emulating an outdoor space.
From a smaller, tunnel-like space (with aquariums etc...) to the larger tropical forest ecosystem hall. Voices throughout. Starts in smaller space, to larger space with water and birds etc.

Montreal Biodome: Tropical forest ecosystem hall to smaller space with music, plus brief return.

start:
water, birds, voices, large space
end:
same

0:28 minutes (541.88 KB)

May 16th 2007, afternoon. Montreal Biodome. Medium peopliness; high-ish sound density. From an indoor space emulating an outdoor space, to an indoor space.
From the open tropical forest ecosystem hall to a smaller space with music. Voices throughout. Starts in larger space with water and birds, multiple voices in various languages, to smaller space with music dominant. Brief return to former sapce.

Montreal Biodome: Laurentian Forest Ecosystem Hall...

start:
water, bird, voices
end:
water, smaller space

0:40 minutes (788.82 KB)

May 16th 2007, afternoon. Montreal Biodome. Medium peopliness; high sound density. Indoor space emulating an outdoor space. In the Laurention Forest Ecosystem Hall: space shift defined primarily by changes in sound of falling water - changing sources, changing distances, and a shift to a smaller space at the end. Bird near the beginning; voices in various languages.

Montreal Biodome: Laurentian Forest Ecosystem Hall to small exhibition hall, including background film/music

start:
larger space with water and ventilation, multiple voices in various languages in background
end:
smaller space with music dominant

0:42 minutes (820.96 KB)

May 16th 2007, afternoon. Montreal Biodome. Medium peopliness; high-ish sound density. From an indoor space emulating an outdoor space, to an indoor space.
From the open Laurention Forest ecosystem hall to a smaller exhibition space with the music and narration from a film in an adjacent auditorium quite prominent. Voices throughout. Starts in larger space with water and ventilation, multiple voices in various languages in background throughout, to smaller space with music dominant. Sounds of automatic sliding doors throughout.

Montreal Biodome: From small exhibition hall to St Lawrence Marine Ecosystem hall.

start:
smaller space with music etc, sliding doors
end:
water, voices

1:22 minutes (1.58 MB)

May 16th 2007, afternoon. Montreal Biodome. Medium peopliness; high-ish sound density. From an indoor space to an indoor space emulating an outdoor space.
From a smaller space with music etc, sliding doors, then large, open Marine ecosystem hall; prominent ventilation/lighting hum; birds; distant water; footsteps; water comes closer, recedes; different water closer, recedes. Voices throughout.

Montreal Biodome: From St Lawrence Marine Ecosystem hall to small tunnel-like space, and back.

start:
open hall - water, some birds, prominent ventilation/lighting hum
end:
same

1:00 minutes (1.15 MB)

May 16th 2007, afternoon. Montreal Biodome. Medium peopliness; high-ish sound density. From an indoor space emulating an outdoor space, to an indoor space, and back.
From an open Marine Ecosystem hall - water, some birds, prominent ventilation/lighting hum - to a smaller, tunnel-like space - water etc from previous space in distance, and back again. Voices throughout.

Montreal Biodome: From St Lawrence Marine Ecosystem hall to smaller space with music.

start:
larger space with water and birds, multiple voices in various languages
end:
smaller space with music dominant

1:07 minutes (1.28 MB)

May 16th 2007, afternoon. Montreal Biodome. Medium peopliness; high-ish sound density. From an indoor space emulating an outdoor space, to an indoor space with music.
From a Marine ecosystem hall to a smaller space with music. Voices throughout. Starts in larger space with water and birds, multiple voices in various languages, to smaller space with music dominant.

Montreal Biodome: From smaller indoor space to larger Arctic ecosystem hall.

start:
large corridor area, voices
end:
hall, loud ventilation/lighting hum, bird sounds, water sounds, voices

1:13 minutes (1.39 MB)

May 16th 2007, afternoon. Montreal Biodome. Medium peopliness; high-ish sound density. From an indoor space to a larger indoor space emulating an outdoor space.
From large corridor area, voices prominent, to the Arctic ecosystem hall, with loud ventilation/lighting hum, some bird sounds (gulls etc), some water sounds. Voices throughout.

Montreal Biodome: From Arctic ecosystem hall to large corridor area.

start:
larger space with loud ventilation/lighting hum, birds (gulls)
end:
smaller space, different hum etc, birds quieter

0:37 minutes (732.19 KB)

May 16th 2007, afternoon. Montreal Biodome. Medium peopliness; high-ish sound density. From an indoor space emulating an outdoor space, to an indoor space (with previous space in the distance).
From the open Arctic ecosystem hall to a wide corridor space. Voices throughout, more prominent in the latter. Starts in larger space with loud ventilation/lighting hum, birds (gulls), recede to distance, shift in ventilation/hum in smaller space.

Montreal Biodome: From small public area to large exhibition hall.

start:
small public area - ventilation, lighting hum, close, prominent voices
end:
large exhibition hall - shift in ventilation/hum, voices, plus sounds of people using an exhibit which includes recorded frog calls

0:38 minutes (746.47 KB)

May 16th 2007, afternoon. Montreal Biodome. Medium peopliness; medium sound density. Indoors.
From a small public area - ventilation, lighting hum, close, prominent voices - to a large exhibition hall - shift in ventilation/hum, voices, plus sounds of people using an exhibit which includes recorded frog calls.

Montreal Biodome: From public area to Arctic ecosystem hall.(?)

start:
water&ventilation distant
end:
water&ventilatio closer, voices

0:23 minutes (452.59 KB)

May 16th 2007, afternoon. Montreal Biodome. Medium peopliness; high-ish sound density. Not entirely certain of the exact location here, but it is somewhere around the Arctic ecosystem hall.

Montreal Biodome: Public viewing area, with the sound from the Antarctic Ecosystem played over loudspeakers.


1:08 minutes (1.3 MB)

May 16th 2007, afternoon. Montreal Biodome. high-ish peopliness; medium sound density. From an indoor space, with an adjacent indoor space emulating an outdoor space being broadcast into the space being recorded. A different kind of shift: this recording is all done in one space, without movement: the public viewing area for the Biodome's antarctic ecosystem, while an area behind glass, packed with penguins, is mic'd and being fed into the public area over two overhead loudspeakers. So this is an interior space, emulating an outdoor space, intruding on another interior space.

Montreal Biodome: Exhibition hall to cinema

start:
main exhibition hall - voices, multiple languages, and the prominent sounds of people using the exhibits
end:
the sound of a group of Thai men from the film

0:52 minutes (1 MB)

May 16th 2007, afternoon. Montreal Biodome. Medium peopliness; high-ish sound density. Indoors.
From the main exhibition hall - voices, multiple languages, and the prominent sounds of people using the exhibits - to a small cinema, with the music and narrative of the film dominant. Closes with the sound of a group of Thai men from the film - maybe another (brief) example of one space intruding on another?

carX3Car-streethelsinki

in

1:13 minutes (1.12 MB)

The record lets listen to the following sounds: transport (car), intermittent, motor acceleration, door, stoping the motor and taking out the keys, taking out the belt, door, steps on little rocks, birds, people (middle) and voices in finnish.

Mallmall-Biodome


1:23 minutes (1.27 MB)

It's a mix between some audios inside a mall and the sound of an exposition in Montreal. In the mix it's possible to hear the following sounds : cars, car engine start-up, people, doors, music, doors, country music, ambientmusic.

Minidisc3Region-metrohelsinki


0:30 minutes (468.21 KB)

It's a mix between the audio recorded in a natural opendoor space and the sounds you can hear in the metro station of Helsinki. In the audio file is possible to hear the following sounds: water, saxo music, voices, water.

Helsinki/Ottawa, road/mall/street/sewer

start:
street, music, clapping
end:
sewer, rushing water

4:43 minutes (5.4 MB)

A shift-sequence between Helsinki and Ottawa, moving from the breakbeat-Stockman clip, through the two Lincoln Fields mall clips, to the road/sewer clip. The opening clapping links texturally to the closing water sound; the rhythm of the footsteps closing the Helsinki clip links to the rhythm of the beeping starting the Ottawa clip; plus links between very differenct musics and voices in very different languages...

Helsinki-Ottawa transition

start:
street, blacksmith
end:
sewer, rushing water

1:50 minutes (2.11 MB)

A transition between the Helsinki blacksmith-fountain clip and the Ottawa road-sewer clip.

Helsinki-Ottawa metro-plane transition

start:
voices, metro station, metro arriving
end:
plane receding into the distance, birds

1:37 minutes (1.86 MB)

A transition between a subway train arriving to Kamppi station in Helsinki and a plane passing overhead while in the woods in Ottawa.

Back to top