Sunday 11 January 2009

Explosions in the sky

Watching fireworks erupt amongst the crowds at Heaton park, on the day that Obama became president of the united states, I felt a magical sense of hope. Not hope for America, but hope for humanity, as for those brief moments that the skies were alight with colour and rupture, thousands of people came together, all facing whatever lies above, all in awe and all in a moment of temporal peace.

As well as looking up to see sparks and colours disappear into the night we were also surrounded by sound in its most natural form, without barriers, without walls, and without the constraints of technology. The sonic boom created, reverberated with a natural time delay before crashing back to us from afar. Pops, crackles and whirs immersed the sky, whistles and soft thuds turned into puffs and screams.

As well as the sounds of the rockets and candles, were the whoops and wows of the crowd, the screams of frightened children, the splendour of human laughter, the soft chatter of friends and families, the distant pounding of the fair all combining to provide a hypnotising sonic field.

This is sound without limits, uncompressed bass, unconstrained fizz and flare. This is the soundtrack to our lives, and one we rarely choose to listen to.

I have decided to dedicate myself to exploring the soundtrack of my life, my sonic environment, how it makes me feel and how it affects me. Combining theory, stories and sounds I hope to provide valuable insight into the world of the envirosonic.

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