Night Out In the Parks Virtual Soundwalks 2020

Adapting to the new and unprecedented changes of the coronavirus pandemic, the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology’s series of thematically focused soundwalks in Chicago parks has been realized in a new format. With partial support of Chicago Park District’s Night Out In the Parks arts and culture program, our original plan for seven in-person, on-site soundwalks in the parks led by our team teaching artists will be realized in a series of six videos. The first two were completed in September for release on Monday, October 19 on the Chicago Park District’s Your Night Out At Home site.

“Sound As Sight: Humbold/Columbus” is a 360-degree virtual soundwalk experience by Andy Slater. He wrote, “This 360 immersive audio recording captures the natural and urban landscapes of Humboldt and Columbus parks. The sounds were chosen based on their availability to merge with one another, exploiting the permeation of the urban and industrial soundscapes into each park’s natural areas. It is impossible to block the sounds of the surrounding neighborhoods so why try to abate them? The cicadas are everywhere…”

“Listening With Singing Insects” introduces and invites people to explore soundscapes of Big Marsh Park, with a focus on identifying the many species of singing insects heard each summer. With sound design and editing by Eric Leonardson, we invite you to become citizen scientists and help the Singing Insects Monitoring Program, guided by the audio and visual aids provided by three naturalists, Dr. Carl Strang, Negin Almassi from the Sagawau Environmental Learning Center, and Kathleen Soler, founder of the Singing Insects Monitoring Program.