FIRST LOCATIONSitting on the balcony outside, I wanted to listen to ten minutes of outdoor activity from a very high distance (9th floor) at 11:30pm. My neighborhood is full of condominiums, so naturally, many people live in the buildings around me. Here is what I heard:
- Moving cars below
- Rustling plastic bags from my balcony furniture
- Honking in the distance (echoed)
- Laughing in the streets below, sounded like youth
- Tires rolling against the pavement
- Vehicle engines
- Motorcycle roar
- Faint crosswalk beeping
- Braking wheels
- Mom cooking / pans colliding faintly in the back within the unit
- Very, very faint TV noises, coming from Chinese drama parents are watching
- Air conditioning, the soft hum of it from where I'm sitting (near the balcony door)
- Hollering some place far away: man's voice
- Jumbling... truck? Sounded heavy
- A passing bus
- Wind; very soft moving air brushing against the ears
- Flapping curtains
- Screeching tires a distance away
- A vehicle with a turbo engine speeding down the street
- Distant, faint talking in the streets below, echoed
- Someone from one of the above floors (probably a few floors above) flapping something... except I couldn't quite tell what it was
- Sliding balcony screen
I noticed that everything was much quieter & fainter at night. The sounds usually comprised of simply vehicles and distant street noises, and you could tell that at this time traffic had already lessened and fewer people were on the streets. You also only heard more local noises like the sounds coming from within my own unit. It was a very consistent noise level, and the night would grow silent before picking up the light noises again. The sounds were very soft, light, yet echoing.
I definitely became more aware of noises I wouldn't have expected before, like the sounds of people resting on their balconies a few floors above my unit. (I usually thought that people were inside at this time, not on their balconies.) I also didn't expect to hear noises from indoors too, as this was supposed to be my outdoor location.
Distance seems to be quite key in the level and type of noises you hear. Upon reflection, the time of the day also contributes a great deal to the noises that people hear. Everyday sounds will always indicate what is happening within that area, and will indicate important details about the people who are frequently there, the activity level of the area, the distance of the location, time, etc.
SECOND LOCATIONOn the long bus ride home today, I managed to get a good hour of exposure to the sounds that take place on the TTC bus, even though we were only supposed to do ten minutes. It was approximately 9:30pm, and around this time many commuting students were taking bus route 60 home. Here is a documentation of what was heard:
[First ten minutes]
- Footsteps of people boarding
- Rumbling of bus
- Squeaking tires
- Conversation, whispers
- Crinkling paper
- Shuffling backpacks
- Bus engine
- Sneezing, coughing, sniffling
- Creaking seats
- Zippers being undone and done
- Bottle caps being twisted
- Automated announcer (female)
- Passing vehicles
- Cell phone ringtone
- Headphones and overplayed music
- Shifting of passengers in their seats
- Tires running over pavement
- Honking
- Decelerating and accelerating of bus (increased humming, etc.)
- Stop request ringing
- Opening doors
- Closing doors
- Clothes brushing against clothes
- Screeching tires
- Laptop handling: man next to me took the lid off his machine
- Laptop beeping: something weird happened and it started beeping
- Laughing
- Loose metal piece moving somewhere behind me
- Shuddering windows
- Chatter of children
- Typing
- Door beeping
[Remainder of my ride]
- A guy drinking aloe drink in front of me: plastic contacted seat
- Bag contacting the railing when he put it back
- People sitting/getting up
- Guy next to me kept tapping his fingers against his laptop
- (Annoying) humming of engine- grows quite loud
- Different languages being spoken: Mandarin, Cantonese, English, Korean
- Zippers clinking against the metal/bars
- Yawning
- Someone dialing their cell phone
- Voices gathering in unison (when reaching Yonge, most people getting off)
- Jingling (keys? something was jingling.)
- People talking with their mouths full
- Plastic bags / Paper bags
- Someone snapping their bag lock together
- Velcro
- Bags sliding over fabric and clothes
- Collision of wheel against curb
- High heels
- Engines quieting down, making some kind of steaming noise
Noticeable patterns included: frequent chatter, the stop requests, door closing, opening, beeping, footsteps, etc. They often occurred in short time intervals because of the frequent stops the bus had to make to let passengers off. These sounds were definitely more prominent than others. Noticeably though, the level of noise and conversation were greatest when we reached Yonge St. because many people get off at this stop to transfer off of the 60. People are often talking, getting up, shuffling about, requesting stops, and stepping off, so the sounds happened accordingly.
The noises I heard were also all very mixed together, so it often sounded like a murmur and fusion of noises. Everything was very clear though, unlike the distant faded noises that I heard on the balcony. There were many different noises, and they revealed a lot about my setting than I ever expected, like the people, students, activities, and materials on the bus.
