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Fall Soundwalks: In Pursuit of Clairaudience
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Dedicated to the memory of composer R. Murray Schafer who passed away on August 14, 2021.
Sunday, September 26, 2021; 1-2:30PM
(approx. 1 hour total walking time, followed by a half hour open discussion)
Meeting Location: By the chandelier under Granville Bridge, NW corner of Granville St and Beach Ave.
Soundwalks are free, but capacity is limited. Participants MUST register in advance. If you do not register we can not guarantee that there will be a spot available for you on the day of the Soundwalk.
Schafer coined the term soundwalk and was the first to propose it as a form of active participation in the soundscape. All this happened right here in Vancouver in the early 1970s, when Schafer taught at SFU, headed the World Soundscape Project research group and wrote his seminal book The Tuning of the World. On this walk we will revisit some of Schafer’s early approaches to soundwalking and will test and contemplate their relevance and application through our own present day listening in times of Covid and the Climate Crisis.
Accessibility information: Light to moderate walking, possibly some stairs. The route can be adjusted around stairs with advance notice. Please contact soundwalks@newmusic.org if you have any accessibility concerns or other questions.
This Soundwalk was conceived and will be guided by Hildegard Westerkamp, with assistance from Jorma Kujala, Jennifer Schine and other members of the Vancouver Soundwalk Collective.
Note: This walk will end near the north side of the Vancouver Aquatic Centre, about 1km from the starting point. We invite you to stay in the area following the Soundwalk to take in Ben Brown’s Sound Sculptures performance beginning at 3PM at The Swimmer public sculpture near the Vancouver Aquatic Centre.
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Hildegard Westerkamp came from Germany to Vancouver in 1968 and has lived on these ancestral lands of the Coast Salish peoples ever since, gratefully acknowledging that her career as composer, radio artist, educator and sound ecologist blossomed on these lands. Her work with the World Soundscape Project at SFU and first broadcast experiences on Vancouver Co-operative Radio in the 1970s gave her inspiration and creative tools for a lifetime. She is a founding member of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology and was chief editor of its journal Soundscape between 2000 and 2012. Westerkamp’s pioneering musical works and writing at the intersections of environmentalism, acoustic communication, radio arts, listening practices and soundwalking activate an awareness, that sound is a decisive dimension of the world, an idea that underpins contemporary thinking across social, political, artistic and scientific practices of environmental respect and concern.
