subjective listening
2020, ongoing by Till Bovermann
According to Hildegard Westerkamp,
conscious listening and soundmaking is a way of placing ourselves inside the workings of our cultures, societies and landscapes as involved, living participants.
Thus, sound and (augmented) listening is a powerful instrument to convey feelings and evoke emotions. Being conscious of sonic utterances helps to keep being empathic, slow, and open to to the other. Subjective Listening proposes a way of listening that is not about capturing an objective representation of a sound, but rather intents to convey the subjective experience of a place.
In difference to the intention of common field recording to either be as transparent as possible or to induce a coloration to help with the creation of a certain feeling, Subjective Listening intents to facilitate a more holistic experience that includes not only the sound itself, but also the context in which it is embedded. This particularly includes the listeners themselves.
![Subjective recording toolkit as of 2023.](media/20230819_IMG_8902_Till%20Bovermann_3000px.jpg)
Subjective recording toolkit as of 2023.
Several approaches were developed to facilitate this kind of listening:
Listening with tree ears Link to heading
![](media/rotbuche.jpg)
as far as we could remember — 52°31’55.4”N 13°22’16.0”E — Rotbuche/copper beech (Invalidenfriedhof). From Resonance Fields
During the work on resonance fields, there was a moment, where Sybille and I attached a contact microphone to a blood beech tree in the Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin. Although there was relatively little wind, we still were able to hear the tree’s bark and leafs creaking and cracking.
Small-scale microphones Link to heading
![hand-made microphones](media/20191210_20191210-IMG_6348_3000px.jpg)
hand-made microphones
Using small-scale microphones allows for a more intimate listening experience. We build some of these microphones ourselves, using small electret capsules and custom enclosures made from brass.
Wooden cones Link to heading
![Hand-turned wooden cones that can be used as sound-shaping “ears” for the above-shown microphones.](media/cones-raw/20200206-IMG_7508.jpg)
Hand-turned wooden cones that can be used as sound-shaping “ears” for the above-shown microphones.
Two or more microphone capsules are embedded in uniquely shaped wooden elements. The wooden structure and shape adds not only a unique coloration to the sound, but also lends itself to a unique way of handling and pointing the microphone.
Integrated listening Link to heading
![Several electro-mechanic listening devices combine into an integrated listening experience.](media/20220607_IMG_5069_3000px.jpg)
Several electro-mechanic listening devices combine into an integrated listening experience.
The use of mixed recording techniques allows for a more integrated listening experience. For example, a small-scale microphone can be used in combination with a contact microphone, a hydrophone can be combined with a common stereo microphone to listen to water from outside and from within at the same time.
Pieces Link to heading
A series of Sonic Memories was created using these techniques.
Research questions Link to heading
- How does a branch perceive its sonic environment?
- How does a tree-trunk‘s bark hear ants approaching?
- How is it to listen, sheltered, from below a tinder fungus?
- Do we then listen as a tree or rather with a tree?
- How to approach a complex environment?
- How to navigate a place while considering its unique interrelations and cultural connotations?
- How to be open for mutual encounters, possibly friendships?
- How to be sensible about an environment’s history, its politics, its inherent dynamics?
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