Ethnography on Mediation: Musica Mobilis and Sonic Effect
Text: Heikki Uimonen The SOMECO research team organised a soundscape workshop at Nauvo Library on 4 June. We were well rehearsed and prepared to present the project to the audience in Swedish and Finnish, and to play recordings of previous studies carried out 25 years ago. Above all we were also very much looking forward […]
On the Move: Secular and Sacred Tourism
Text: Heikki Uimonen My field notes from the first listening walks on 3 June on the south side of Nauvo main street read as follows: “A lawnmower, a garbage truck and a concrete truck – clearly morning commuter traffic, just after 7 am. Jackdaws and pigeons. As the walk continues, the traffic noise diminishes considerably. […]
Why I stopped my sound diary on the 3rd day
Text, picture & sound: juL McOISANS The sound diary is one of the protocols we use in this village survey with local school children. Like any good student, I started mine on the first day of arriving in Lesconil, noting the first and last sounds I heard during the day, as well as the most […]
Mind the step (by step)
Text & picture: juL McOISANS The rocks of Goudoul are my favorit place in Lesconil. Not necessarily for sonic reasons. 25 years ago I came here to record this famous stereo-speleophonie, when the tide is rising and waves, getting short and shorter, are insinuating through the most little interstices of each rock, suggesting me, with […]
Another Listening Walk After Quarter of a Century
Text: Heikki Uimonen Listening walk is sensory evaluation of the environment. It can be carried out in several different ways. I have tried to combine both quantitative and qualitative approaches: categorising sounds heard and at the same time jotting any potentially interesting sound events constructing the environment. While conducting ethnographic observations, it is advisable to document […]
Acoustic and Imagined Communities
Text: Heikki Uimonen On Saturday 3rd May at 04:00, we started the traffic count and 24-hour recording with our colleagues from Cresson. We were determined to categorise all the vehicles and people in the centre of Lesconil: cars, boats, bicycles, pedestrians, etc., in order to detect any changes in traffic flow compared to the studies […]
Valley Soundscapes Near and Far
Text: Heikki Uimonen A hiking trail from Cembra to Lago Santo is accompanied by the sound of a stream running through the nearby gorge. Before reaching the woods above the village, the hiker is greeted by the sound of the revving engines of mopeds, which can be heard clearly from the valley and for miles […]
How Not to Be Seen: Digital Ethnography and Visibility
Text: Heikki Uimonen ‘The camera is a tool for idlers, who use a machine to do their seeing for them. To draw oneself, to trace the lines, handle the volumes, organise the surface… all this means first to look, and then to observe and finally perhaps to discover…’ (Le Corbusier in Kortan 1997/2005, 28). Le Corbusier’s […]
Illness, Isolation, and Perceptions of Bells in Bissingen
What does it mean to experience a place from a single point of listening? During a field trip to Bissingen, Germany, illness confined me to my room — and offered an unexpected perspective on church bells, isolation, and the fragile rhythms of time. This personal reflection explores how soundscapes are not only heard but embodied, manifesting through the listener’s states of body-mind and creating shifting relations to community and place.
On Silences
Text: Heikki Uimonen Having started the SOMECO fieldwork, it is gratifying to note two recent publications on village environments. The one dealing with Lapland, Finland shows how experienced silences indicate the lack of vitality of the village, and how sounds considered meaningful by the community and individuals have disappeared. Another publication presents the abandoned mine […]