Sense Hunting Reflection

Working on sense hunting with Lulu and Tianxu was a great collaborative experience. We each brought our individual ideas and then made something that we could not have conceived of individually. It was exciting to plan out the sound walk “story” and then assign, record and mix the sounds to put the recording together.

In our class critique a point was brought up that I have been thinking about since last week: why did we choose to use the stairwell, was it necessary to the story/experience we were trying to create? As it was pointed out in the critique, stairs (and particularly 4 flights of stairs) are not accessible for some. We chose the stairs because they were directional, the user could either go up or down and because they felt like a “private” place in a very busy building. But after hearing the critique I have been thinking that we also chose the stairs because of our personal bias. It was not actually necessary to the content and success of our soundwalk for it to be in the stairs — it could have been in a hallway (which is also directional). This was an opportunity to be confronted with my privilege and it is a lesson that I will keep in mind as I continue to work as an artist and designer.

Click this link for the Sense Hunting soundwalk.