Silences and not silences

Silences

It is silent in my flat while I stare at the cobweb on the ceiling (apart from the sound of the radiator clonking) and it is silent just before I start work and it is silent while I think about what to have for lunch and it is silent while I feel nervous about meeting someone the next day.

Listen to Silences on SoundCloud.

Not Silences

It is not silent in my flat when there are magpies and parakeets in the trees outside my bedroom window, and it is not silent when the washing machine spins, and it is not silent when I can hear workmen outside, and it is not silent when planes fly by, and it is not silent when there are fireworks, even though I can’t see them.

Listen to Not Silences on SoundCloud.

What I did in October 2020

I wandered around Richmond Park and found some nice fungi.

I went to a (virtual) Ingress First Saturday at the Magic Circle Headquarters, and enjoyed trying to find the portal locations to help solve the decoding challenges.

I played games with friends and learnt how to play Dominion. Some friends and I did a quiz and each person had to take it in turns to be quizmaster and read out their questions. Mine were too difficult!

I went to (online) Maraoke and sung along with songs about video games from home.

I visited Kent and went for walks in the woods and in fields and across a golf course. I saw a pheasant one day.

I saw some members of my family for the first time since March and it was lovely to see them! We went for a walk in the woods and I hid treasure for them to find.

I played Kentucky Route Zero with hovis.

I learnt about numbers stations and listened to UVB-76 on an online radio.

I carved a space invader into a pumpkin.

The sound piece I created went live! Earlier in the year, I remixed a field recording of the Sadovaya Subway in Saint Petersburg, as part of the Future Cities project: https://citiesandmemory.com/future-cities/ My remix is now live on the site and you can find it on the map or listen to it here: I jumped aboard the train and everything changed.

I started attending a Sonic Arts class at City Lit and learnt more about sound art. One of the things we did was make a collaborative sound piece, by us all following a simple score and playing items at the same time and recording them with Audacity and then the teacher combined them together. I played a coffee pot with a lobster, and jingled some bells.

I met up with hovis and we watched spooky movies.

I ran past squirrels and by the river, and geese flew over me, honking, and I saw a heron.

I went to a talk run by the IxDA (Interaction Design Association) on Art, IxD and Our Relationships with Computation and Media with Matt Nish-Lapidus, which was interesting.

I spent a few weeks in the countryside, wandering the woods and fields. The woods were full of fungi! Various different kinds, including magpie fungi, so I photographed some of those. There was at least one really nice sunset.

My mum and I walked to the next village on a long route through woods and fields that we had not walked for many years and then got the train back.

I was invited to take a Covid test by the Join Zoe app. I did this and it came up negative.

I ran laps of the football field and then ran by the river.

I reached level 15 in Ingress again!

I connected up a lolo-ball and pressure mat to an Arduino. If you bounce on the lolo ball onto the mat, it makes a "boing" sound.

I wandered along the Southbank in the sunshine one morning and it was lovely at that time, on the way to a dentist’s appointment. I actually went to my office for the first time since March, while waiting to see the hygienist. It felt strange to be back there.

Photos on Flickr: October 2020