Southern California Sound Ecology presents The Urban Soundscape Revealed: Listening to the City, a workshop/salon on Acoustic Ecology and mindful listening, followed by a live, improvised performance by the Southern California Soundscape Ensemble.
Saturday, October 20, 8 PM
Expo Arts Center, Back Room Theater
4321 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach, CA 90807
Workshop Description
The soundscape is the collection of natural and human-based sounds that we experience in our environment as we go about our daily routines. Because we all contribute to the soundscape, we are all invested in its character and quality. The soundscape can even be considered a musical experience if we simply pay careful attention to what we are hearing. By noticing sounds that we typically think of as unremarkable, we learn to identify their sources as well as their unique acoustic characteristics. The act of listening opens us up to the sonic world around us, and, with enough practice, we realize that every sound is worth noticing and that the soundscape offers a unique and ever-changing opportunity to become more connected to the world around us.
In this workshop we will talk about the soundscape, share some of our favorite urban sounds, and learn easy-to-use tools to more closely listen to the soundscape. We’ll close with an intimate, improvised performance from the Southern California Soundscape Ensemble, a group dedicated to the enhanced understanding of the soundscape through the use of (mostly) unaltered field recordings gathered from various sites around the world.
