Creatively Mapping Soundscapes
October 22, 3:30–7:30pm, Tideman Johnson Park
Our urban soundscape is quite often jarring, with an increasing onslaught of the sounds of construction, traffic, and other mechanical and human elements. City parks offer some buffer to this anxiety-inducing reality, and new combinations of sonic elements. In this workshop we will work in groups to document the soundscapes of the Johnson Creek through writing and creative mapping techniques. Participants will take decibel readings, make field recordings, and learn to take proper field notes. Each group will develop their own methods to graphically represent this information on a map, and we will share our work at the end of the workshop. The work produced will be shared with the public on the Johnson Creek College blog as a printable sonic field guide, with accompanying audio mp3s. Workshop groups will be provided with blank maps & field guides. Please bring a headlamp or flashlight, warm clothes, rain jacket & comfortable shoes. We will have a limited supply of gear on hand for sharing. If you have the following items, please bring them: a charged smartphone and portable charger, camera, sound recorder, headphones. Once you register, you will be sent a list of free apps to download ahead of time to your smart device. No experience or sound identification skills are necessary!
Taught by Lisa Schonberg
Lisa Schonberg is a musician, artist and natural historian. She started playing drums as a child in Staten Island, NY, moved out west in 2000 to pursue graduate studies on ants and conservation biology, and has since traveled extensively to carry out fieldwork and perform music. She earned her Masters in Environmental Studies at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. Much of her recent work integrates her interests through creative documentation of soundscapes, insects, and habitat. She currently performs in HITS, STLS, The Newman/Schonberg/Reyna Group and solo, and composes for her percussion ensemble Secret Drum Band. Lisa is the author of The DIY Guide to Drums , The Hylaeus Project, and Fieldguided, a series of books on insects and their habitats. She is a regular contributor to Tom Tom Magazine and is the magazine's Northwest Correspondent. Her past bands include Explode into Colors and Kickball, and she has performed or otherwise collaborated with Nadia Buyse/DUBAIS, Thao With The Get Down Stay Down, Mirah, Tara Jane Oneil, Tuneyards, Von Tundra, Neal Morgan, The Need, Thanksgiving, Cloud Eye Control, and Janet Pants, among others. She has performed at MOMA PS1, the Centre Pompidou, High Desert Test Sites, The Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, the TBA Festival (Portland), and Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. Lisa currently resides in Portland, Oregon and teaches private drum lessons at Revival Drum Shop.
The sonic field guides and MP3's created during the class will be made available for download on the Creek College and Johnson Creek Watershed Council websites.