Soundwalk

I started out my walk in Gordon Park on the corner of Locust Street and Humboldt Boulevard, admittedly not the most secluded area though I was surprised to find that the sounds were less overwhelming than I had predicted. I chose to start here as I wanted to listen to sounds close to home and then progress further down the park path in the wooded area around the Milwaukee River.

The most dominant sound seemed to be the hum of the airplane engines. Once I noticed this and focused on it, it seemed to really drown out and take a strong precedence over all other noises. As the airport is so close the planes fly low and the hum is loud. Through this I could hear things like a bike bell chime through clearly. Perhaps the airplane drone wasnt the highest frequency but it did seem to override most other sounds

From where I was standing on the path I could see the large assisted living complex on Locust. There had been some sort of electrical mishap (or so I heard while in line at the corner store) and the area was surrounded by about 6 firetrucks and a few ambulances. Despite there being so many vehicles, the area was surprisingly calm and the sound that came through as low frequency was a strange sort of vacuum humming sound which I assumed to be something to do perhaps with the hoses though the hoses were not in use shooting water at the time. The vacuum noise I don't think would translate well however without the visual was not interesting separate from the scene

The tiny sound was a bit hard in this location but it seemed to just be the shifting of the items in my purse which sounded like plastic bottle tops bumping or being jostled together. I did notice though, that when I focused on the tiny sounds my sense was heightened and other sounds seemed to ring more clear such as a child somewhat quietly banging a beat on a toy in the park sandbox and a dog barking.

Then I proceeded down the path into the wooded area. I think I was lucky today, because of the fire at the apartment complex the Locust Street bridge was closed down so I did not have to go far into the woods to be more separated from the sounds on the street. Normally I think the traffic over the bridge would have been a constant. This was nice.

-Rustling leaves both in the air and on the ground
-listening closely gave me a bit of paranoia as I couldnt see at this point what was making the sounds animal or what not and city woods are mildly scarier than country woods I think
-ice cream truck music from way to my left, opposite of Locust St bridge
-cricket or insect drone
-voices at times all around, hard to pinpoint distance in the woods until closer, came from my left until they passed me and somewhere vaguely in front of me
-I couldnt hear the river really at all, no distinct river rhythms
-the airplane drone traveling across the sky