The Soundwalk

This past weekend, I did a soundwalk around a part of New York City called the East Village. Without my phone or friends for an hour, I took the streets and enveloped myself into the sounds of the neighborhood. It was a Sunday from 2-3 pm, and the first thing I heard were the sound signals of cars racing down 2nd Avenue through some midday traffic. The second sound signal was of course an ambulance. The third sound signal was whenever I passed most bars, I could hear the cheering of football fans as they watched their Sunday football. This happened more often the closer I got to Union Square. Some typical soundmarks were the cars, people talking on the street, people talking outside of coffee shops, dogs barking, and the occasional homeless man asking for change. The keynotes were the sound of traffic and overheard conversations of the people that I walked by. The texture of the sound was loud and on-going. There was never a moment that it was quiet in the East Village streets. The instruments in this symphony were mainly cars and people. The sound clues specific to this neighborhood are the different types of people walking around, whether its families, friends, couples, or homeless people. It’s most common to hear them while walking past the tons of bars and restaurants on these streets. You hear the full range walking around this part of the city. It’s meaningful to me to hear these sounds because they’re very true to this part of the city and what you picture and expect when you think about the East Village, which is why it’s my favorite neighborhood.