Field Recording and ‘The Roadtrip’

I recorded some field recordings at home of the fence boundary of the garden/field to use in my paper.

sound of the road, animals

Link to the rural futurism blog

Im not very well travelled person. Last time I left the uk was February 2018 when I went to Norway with my Nan. I don’t know when the time before that would have been. Maybe when I was 11 or something.

When we would go on holiday it would usually be around the uk, for a few days camping in a motorhome or VW camper van, or maybe day trips where we would go to beaches like Mersey, Clacton (for the pier), Wrabness (theres a nice beach that coincidentally is near a building designed by Grayson Perry that I think is quite awful) or Brighton. My mum comes from a costal town so I suppose I have quite a link to them even though I generally dislike beaches.

Im not a very good passenger in cars and the like. It got even worse once I learned to drive a scooter/moped. For one, Im quick to motion sickness and often have the window open, and when Im not feeling queasy of headache-y from that, Im anxious from over acceleration or abrupt braking. The worst of it is unknown narrow country lanes in hilly environments.

I remember being in the back seat trying to sleep on the long journeys home, listening to the sound of familiar roads, feeling the sway and combination of certain bendy roads, the winding hill and hard right of Halstead Road. I never paid much attention to the roads and location when traveling, each glance out of the window a new unconnected frame, locations as nodes, yet sound would always link these together.

I kind of get the same sensation from listening to music. I often listen to music at night in the pitch black with headphones, just laying in bed. I sure it’s how I first heard Dark Side of the Moon, or Lift Your Skinny Hands. It links once again to my experience with migraines – of sensory isolation and overwhelm.

I aim for my audio paper to be somewhat of a roadtrip plunderphonic soundscape.

I recently went to see Henry and Harley’s band a the George Tavern. While walking through Whitechapel I was wondering about the fact my grandad used to work for tower hamlets social services, had he walked these same streets? I don’t really know my grandad very well, other than stories of his short fuse, as he has always lived in New Zealand. Although my life has been mostly detached from London (I would visit my uncle who lives here maybe once or twice a year) probably more than half my family history can be traced back to London. Deptford, West Ham, islington, Wandsworth, Camberwell, Rotherhithe.