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Seeking Comfort in Covid Times - A Soundwalk
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Duration: approximately 60 minutes
Location: Mount Pleasant Alleyways and Beyond
Route map: http://www.plotaroute.com/route/1296878
Seeking comfort is a 60-minute, self-guided soundwalk that invites participants to stroll, even linger and loiter, and listen to the sounds of Vancouver’s alleys and beyond.
As Frauke Behrendt writes, “soundwalking is a spatio-temporal, embodied, situated, multi-sensory and mobile practice”. Inspired by this and what Jean-Luc Nancy describes as voices possessing a presence that moves and breathes beyond a location, and in particular, Hildegard Westerkamp’s seminal notions on the intermixing of aural ecologies, Seeking comfort encourages listening to the milieu of pandemic life through the lens of public and domestic space.
Seeking comfort is a 60-minute soundwalk that invites participants to stroll, even linger and loiter, and listen to the sounds of Vancouver’s alleys and beyond.
As Frauke Behrendt writes, “soundwalking is a spatio-temporal, embodied, situated, multi-sensory and mobile practice” (Behrendt, 2019, 251). Inspired by this and what Jean-Luc Nancy describes as voices possessing a presence that moves and breathes beyond a location, and, in particular, Hildegard Westerkamp’s seminal notions on the intermixing of aural ecologies, Seeking comfort encourages listening to the milieu of pandemic life through the lens of public and domestic space (Nancy, 1983; Westerkamp, 2020).
This walk is for you. You can do this in the morning, midday or at dusk. There is no pressure to begin, finish or do anything. This is for you.
Take your time. Walk a pet. Walk yourself. Walk with others in your bubble. Walk with kids. Walk with lovers. Walk yourself. But, please be safe and keep your social distance. Move to the other side of the sidewalk if you need to give space.
Take deep breaths. Stop and smell the trees, the plants, the flowers when you do cross their paths.
Listen with your eyes open. Listen with your eyes closed. Listen sitting. Listen standing. Listen while you are walking.
Jump on one foot (yes, I said jump on one foot). See wasn’t that fun? Now try the other one. If this is not your thing, stick your tongue out and let out a big sigh. This Covid stress is real and eats us up inside. Let some of that worry go. Take another deep breath.
When you find a favorite spot. Sit down. Or lean on a tree, building, or on a friend in your bubble. It is nice to share the load.
Take your time. Take your time. Take your time. Even meander and wander and discover something new. Take your time. Do you hear others cooking? Do you hear others laughing? What does that sound like? Is it in your body now too?
prOphecy sun (Ph.D.) is an interdisciplinary performance artist, queer, movement, video, sound maker, and mother. Her practice celebrates both conscious and unconscious moments and the vulnerable spaces of the in-between in which art, performance, and life overlap. Her recent research has focused on ecofeminist perspectives, co-composing with voice, objects, surveillance technologies, and site-specific engagements along the Columbia Basin region and beyond. She hosts Tapes and Beyond on Kootenay Co-op Radio and is the Arts Editor for Ecocene: Cappadocia Journal of Environmental Humanities. She performs and exhibits regularly in local, national, and international settings, music festivals, conferences, and galleries and has authored several peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and journal publications on sound, performance, and the entanglement of domestic spheres.
