Chicago Phonography concert and soundwalk at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, October 8th

1—3 p. m. (Central Time), Saturday, October 8

Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore

 

100 N Lake Street, Gary, Indiana 46403
Douglas Center Telephone: 219-395-1772
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contact:
Ranger Julianne Larsen, Telephone: (219) 395-1821 (Tuesday – Saturday)
MSAE contact, Eric Leonardson info@mwsae.org
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Chicago Phonography, contact Chad Clark chadearly@gmail.com
Miller Woods soundwalk
Miller Woods Soundwalk 2010, photo by Noé Cuéllar

The Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology and World Listening Project continues its partnership with the National Park Service on October 8th.

Explore the natural soundscape of Miller Woods Trail with a soundwalk led by the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology. Enjoy a surprising concert of environmental sounds by Chicago Phonography, a collective of artists who gather audio recordings of Chicago and Gary soundscapes. Using a four-channel playback system, Chicago Phonography members collectively mix their recordings in live, improvisational performances. In a sense, Chicago Phonography substitutes microphones and field recordings for musical instruments to create new and dramatic soundscapes that surround and engage listeners in surprising ways; using only real world sounds. Chicago Phonography will host an ”open mic” session for new members. As a part of the Sixth Annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival, sounds collected by the National Park Service will be featured: whale sounds in Glacier Bay, the dawn chorus of Isle Royale in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and forests of the Great Smoky Mountains.

The Paul H. Douglas Center is located in the Miller section of Gary, a short five block walk along Lake Street from the Miller train station on the South Shore Line commuter train from Chicago. South Shore train schedule online: www.nictd.com.

Chicago Phonography is an unusual collective that performs with audio recordings of Chicago-area soundscapes. Using a four-channel playback system, the group will collectively mix their recordings in real time live, improvisational performances. In a sense, Chicago Phonography is a musical group that substitutes microphones and field recordings for musical instruments. Creating new, dramatic yet artificial soundscapes that surround and engage listeners in unexpected ways; made from the real world sounds represented in their recordings. Their July 16 performance on WNUR 89.3 FM Evanston can be heard in the WNUR blog archive.

WLP logo
World Listening Project

 

The Douglas Center opened its doors in September, 1986 and was one of the first centers in a national park dedicated to environmental education. Throughout the last 25 years, the use and support of the Douglas Center has grown by school groups. The NPS has expanded the mission of the center as a west end nature center for the national lakeshore to attract families, neighbors, and adults from the surrounding communities. For more information about the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore visit their website at www.nps.gov/indu.

Useful articles about soundwalking are online. Andra McCartney’s Sounding Places: Soundwalk in Queen Elizabeth Park is a good start: http://emfinstitute.emf.org/materials/mccartney00/walk.html. McCartney’s forthcoming article for The Oxford Handbook of Mobile Music Studies provides a contemporary definition of various soundwalking practices: < href=”http://soundwalkinginteractions.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/soundwalking-creating-moving-environmental-sound-narratives/”>http://soundwalkinginteractions.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/soundwalking-creating-moving-environmental-sound-narratives/