I can agree with the points that were made on the podcast “Ways of hearing” because it is almost like we are all in our private bubbles walking to and coming from our destinations. No one seems to look up and acknowledge what’s happening around them. Krukkowsi says ” Are you really here in this crowd with me? On this sidewalk , Moving together like we are all in the same wave.” Barely anyone says Good Morning or Good anything anymore. People barely want to be looked at or spoken to because they are warped in their phones. Everyone wears their earbuds and walks around like zombies. It’s like we’re all in different zones but standing in the same space. We are a vanishing City as they say on the podcast. In my own experience I can’t really tune out as much because I am a Mom of 2 active boys so when we are out and about I’m most definitely attentive to every noise and every movement around me. I also live in a noisy neighborhood and I would actually appreciate a lot less noise around me. This may also be one of the reasons people move around the city in private bubbles. Sometimes you may wanna get away from it all and putting on those earbuds is a form of escape.
Category Archives: Blog Post #5
blog post #5
Like many students, I took 7 trains to and from LaGuardia Community College. Every day I get off the train at the 33rd Street station and walk westward through Van Dam Street for about three blocks until the school’s main entrance on Thomson Avenue. After the class, I returned to the station and took 7 trains home. As I walked between the station and the school, I could hear the train’s noise on the elevated track every few minutes. In the second episode of “The Way of Hearing,” the author talked about the massive increase in noise caused by cars, elevated trains, and buildings in the cities of the 20th century. Seven trains are a vivid example. At first, I thought that the sound was deafening (the train was exceptionally comfortable to hear in the library on the second floor), and tried to block it by wearing headphones, and tried to be with me, as the author said in The Way of Hearing World isolated. But over time, I realized that the train’s sound is actually part of the urban structure, and by hearing the hum of the train, you can even feel the city’s rhythm. For example, if the train passes quickly, I know it is an express train, which hurries to and from Manhattan. If the train passes slowly, I know this is a local train, and I will stop at 33rd Street. If I am walking back to the station and hear the train passing by, I know I have about 5 minutes or so until the next train arrives. Therefore, instead of turning off my hearing of surrounding sounds, I now learned to embrace the 7 train passing overhead sound. As the train passes by, rumbling and screaming on the tracks, they take people to meaningful work and school activities. Therefore, the train truly represents the lifeblood of the city.
Blog Post #5 Jason H.
Damon Krukkowsi’s podcast named “Ways of Hearing” hit very close to home than usual because it has to do with city life and the many thoughts and sights you see and hear that can cause a whirlwind of thinking. Being a person who isn’t originally from New York the city was a very scary experience for me because of the first time I went. The blinding lights of time square, the beeping of traffic, the constant yelling of people on the street, and most of all the overcrowding. Thinking of what the author and his guests said it brought this sort of nostalgic feeling back to me. The other point of headphones also lines up with my way of thinking. When you wear earbuds it’s like you are alone but you really aren’t as if you had made your own space in one full of people and overcrowding. All of this aligned with Schafer’s argument coincides so well which creates a whole new experience on how I saw the city my first time. It’s just an amazing feeling what listening to this podcast and reading the Schafer argument made in my head and how it all just perfectly aligns with my perception of the world.
Blog Post #5
This week we moved into the “ways of hearing” unit of the course, and you were asked to think about how sound shapes our experience of space and place. You listened to the second episode of Damon Krukkowsi’s Ways of Hearing and read the introduction to R. Murray Schafer’s book The Soundscape (originally titled The Tuning of the World) in which he defines the concept of the soundscape.
For this blog post I would like you to write a brief entry (around 200 words), in which you compare one idea from either Krukowski’s podcast or Schafer’s introduction to your own experience. Some things to think about (Don’t feel like you need to answer all or any of these questions; I just want to get your thoughts going): Does what Krukowski and his guests say about the sounds of the city line up with your own experience? What about how he and his guests describe earbuds? Do they function in this way for you? Is the management of noise an environmental concern, as Schafer argues?
In your pose, incorporate one quotation from either Krukowsi’s podcast or Schafer’s introduction. Use the guidelines from They Say/I Say and the screencasts I posted.
