Dog Fight

This is my favorite of the five recordings. While walking down the street, I saw a curious puppy run away from its owner and toward two huge yellow labs passing on the street. I quickly walked over as the incident unfolded. The puppy, not being on a leash, playfully ran in circles to avoid its master and continued to bark at the passing labs. The other two animals moved as close as their restrains would allow, pulling the person on the other end with them. One interesting thing that is evident in this recording, is that the words exchanged between the pet owners suggest that this is not the first time their animals have met. Listen here as the people, dogs, and birds all narrate the fight.

The drawing above attempts to show from an aerial view how this event occurred. Because I am no artist, I used stick figures to represent the people, dog bones to show the dogs, and curving "m" looking shapes to represent birds.

Neighborhood Sounds

These recordings offer a variety of sounds, one of those is birds. They can be heard chirping all along the street, however there was one bird sitting in a tree and squawking louder than all the rest. You can also hear people laughing and talking in the distance. Finally, the roar of motorcycle engines can be heard from several streets over. Although these may seem like very different sounds, in this clip they work together to create the sounds and atmosphere of a neighborhood. Listen Here.

In the drawing above, you can see the approximate locations of the tree that held the squawking bird, the roaring motorcycles, various birds (shown with the "m" shapes), and the spot of the people enjoying each others company.

Two Storm Drains

On Newport Ave, I came across two oddly loud storm drains. My goal was to record the sound of myself walking from one to the other. I imagined this creating a natural fade in/out effect as I walked away from one drain and toward the other. This sound however, did not come out as smooth as I had hoped. You can hear the first drain start to fade into the background pretty well, but it is not until I am right over the second drain that you hear the running water come almost all at once. Still, I decided to include this recording because it offers many other sounds as well. For example, you can hear the constant hum of power lines, the hoot of a bird (morning dove?), and a distant rumble of vehicles on adjacent streets. Listen Here

Pictured above, is the two storm drains, the humming power lines, moving traffic, a hooting owl, and in the lower corner, a barking dog. I used a dog bone to represent the dog because it was easy to draw. My mini disk recorder and I are are represented by the odd shape in the middle of the page. This is supposed to look like the headphones, mics, and recorder.

Sounds from a tree

For this recording I put my mini disc recorder in a tree, clipped the mics to a couple of branches, and once again left them to record. In total the recording picked up seven minutes of sound. This is my favorite clip of those seven minutes. You can hear a variety of birds makings sounds that range from soft chirping to harsh squawks. The wind also plays a large part here, not only can you hear it rushing past the microphones, but it also allows you to hear a quiet clicking sound as it knocks dead leaves together. Listen Here.

In the hand drawn picture the birds are represented though the "m" shapes. The leaves are drawn toward the top of the tree and the wind is shown with curved lines to the left of the tree. The shape in the middle of the tree is how I show the location of my mini disc recorder and mics.

The photograph was taken on my drift walk to show how I had my recorder positioned in the tree. What the picture does not show, is that the microphones are clipped to small branches just out of frame.

This is a picture of my mini disc recorder in a tree on Hackett Ave. To listen to what sounds it heard, click the link located on the drift map.

Strom Drian

For my first recording of the day, I put my mini disk recorder on a storm drain and let the microphones hang through the grate. Once I pressed record, I walked a few yards away so I would not interfere with the recording. After several minutes of waiting, I started kicking a storm drain near by. It wasn't until later that I realized the mics could hear me. As stupid as this makes me sound, it ended up for the better. I think the low and distance echo offers another element to the constant running of water. The other sound that can be heard is the passing of cars on the street. This again offers a low and echoing tone. Listen Here


This photo shows how I recorded the sounds of a storm drain. As mentioned, my microphones are hanging through the storm drain grate. This is so they can hear how the sewer listens to life on the street above.