Perception, Mind and Reality

The sonic map is your graphic depiction of the sounds and musics that you hear in downtown Olympia. The purpose of this assignment is threefold. First, it will familiarize you with the downtown area and teach you how to go there quickly and easily via public transportation. Second, it will enhance your awareness of how we perceive sounds, and what both sounds and musics teach us about who and where we are. Third, it will refocus your attention on the aural element of your life -- away from the visuals that guide us so powerfully.

If you would like to use an existing map of downtown Olympia as your guide, feel free to do so. However, be aware that it will quickly be covered with illegible scrawls, because downtown Olympia is full of sound. Note that your student ID allows you free access to the bus.

1. Start your exploration at the downtown bus station. What do you hear? Shut your eyes for at least a minute and see if the accuity of your hearing improves. Write down ALL the sounds you hear.

2. Begin moving away from the station. Take in all of the following features of downtown Olympia (not in any particular order): the Heritage Park Fountain, Traditions Fair Trade (right next to the fountain), the waterfront, Sylvester Park, the Olympia Timberland Library, the Capitol building rotunda (note: you can take the "Dash" bus up there if you don't want to walk), five shops (of different types), one restaurant or cafe. Listen closely in each place, making notes of everything you hear, from conversations to music to traffic to "ambient noise." Pick a landmark of your own choosing as well. This part of the assignment should take you no more than two hours to do.

3. Go home. Sit down with your notes and your map, and develop a series of symbols to indicate the variety of different sounds you heard. Create a hand-drawn map and place the symbols where you heard specific things. Do not listen to music while you are completing this assignment, as it may interfere with your sonic memory. You may certainly be creative with colors as well. Write your name, date, and seminar leader's name on the back of the map!

4. For seminar on Thursday, September 27, bring your map and your written ideas about the following: how the choice of music in the businesses you visited has an impact on the customers it attracts; how each series of sounds and musics you heard made you feel (welcome? anxious? restless? relaxed? uncomfortable? delighted?); and what paying attention exclusively to the aural element of your experience did to your perception of downtown. Your writing should be no more than one page (typed, double spaced); include your name, date, and seminar leader's name.