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TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE (this episode is a mix of English and French, below is the complete English version)
(bell and breath)
Claude (C ): Steven Morin, I invite you to take a sound walk with me.
Steve (S): Excellent. Shall we?
C: So you’re a local councillor here?
S: Yes. From Hull-Wright.
C: Me, I’m an artist in residence here at DAIMON then I create works for the radio-hull 2023. Then I decided to take a walk with a friend, you, in French and English. The idea of a sound walk is to pay attention to all the details. For example, our feet are making a rather soft sound at the moment. It just rained here in Gatineau. You can feel all the details of life through sound.
Claude: And it’s going to be a bilingual conversation because Gatineau is multilingual and I’m bilingual. In fact, my family, my grandfather lived in Hull at the time. So there are lots of stories that we can tell.
C: I’d start with what you’re hearing right now, Steven.
S: I can hear the leaves in the poplar over there. You hear construction because you always hear construction in the city center. I hear birds. I think it was a chickadee. I hear the wind. I hear the wind by itself, I think. I hear the wind in the leaves. I hear the highway and then Montcalm. Someone with a chainsaw, it sounds like.
C: So that’s the idea. But what’s interesting about the sound walk is that you can also interact with the soundscape. So you listen to it, you perceive it, you’re sensitive to… for example, the car that’s just gone by. You can perceive all sorts of things with sound. For example, there are bustards ahead. We’ll see if they make a sound. We’re so used to seeing that our sense of hearing is sometimes a little less developed, so a sound walk is a way of sharpening our…
S: With geese, you can hear them in the sky, but you don’t think about them as much when they’re on the ground.
C: For example, the building here is interesting. The spinning mill was an old factory, the Hanson I forget the name of.
S: Hanson Mills. Socks, among other things? Yes, among other things.
C: Then it was converted into an artist center in the ’80s and now it’s AxeNéo7 and Daimon. I find it interesting that there’s a cultural center in a former industrial site, that it’s a way of giving new life to the building and the neighborhood.
(soundscape of children playing)
S: Ruisseau de la Brasserie was really the center of a whole industrial environment. It was the beating heart of Gatineau industry. The axes were made right there. The distillery was right there and a lot of things happened on the creek. So, when we think of industry and culture, when we talk about places, obviously it’s often post-industrial spaces that aren’t necessarily suitable for housing, so we use them to make cultural spaces. The spinning mill was a perfect example.
(urban soundscape)
S: But it’s clear that in this place, if there was an era. I try to imagine it, and then I hear it in my head: the hammers, the big machines, the saws, and so on. That’s not the case anymore. I mean, there’s no heavy industry of that kind here. The sounds would be completely different. It’s fascinating to imagine what it would have been like back then. Also, you have to remember, just before World War II, there was a big homelessness crisis of what we called the homeless at the time, who were here, who were centered on the West Side. So there would even have been camps. Are those industrial sounds? But it would have been families left in poverty, in this industrial system that left them behind. It would also have been a family place. But not in the same way as now.
(soundscape of children playing)
C: When I came here earlier, there were a lot of children playing with their bikes. I did some sound recording, and for me it’s also a discovery, because I don’t know Gatineau very well. I’m an artist from Ottawa who comes here to listen… and to take part in Radio-Hull. And I find it really interesting to get caught up in Gatineau’s atmosphere, culture and spaces.
(sound of foot on the road)
C: But speaking of sound, that’s a nice one. Yeah. Tell me what just happened here.
S: Cars going through puddles, everybody knows that sound. So typical of after the rain. Yeah. Yeah. But also, I mean, it’s asphalt. It wouldn’t be the same if this were, you know, mud. It wouldn’t be the same if this were grass. A car going through puddles definitely has to do with asphalt. And we forget to think… I always think it’s interesting to keep in mind what was here before we built cities and what were the sounds that were possible then it’s I mean, I don’t think about just sounds, I think about all the spaces, the trees. Of course the sounds come with that. How would this place have been different? It would’ve been totally forested. So you would’ve had a different perspective on everything. It would’ve sounded very different. The sounds of a forest, you know, it would’ve almost certainly been a maple forest. So what were the sounds of that, right?
C: Well, right now we’re above what kind of tree this is, but it’s not the poplars from earlier. It’s a more gentle leaf.
S: This is a Manitoba maple. A really big one, surprisingly.
C: Now on my way here this morning, I was playing with this sound.
(sound of gate)
S: Another sound everybody knows.
C: But this, this is so rich. And it’s a gate. And we’re gonna go through this gate and back to la filature…
S: This makes me think it’s school: The sound of school. Absolutely. I mean, ’cause I never worked in a factory, but I think people worked in factories, that’s the sound of the factory closing all those probably more of a sound of beep as you slide it rather than closing like that. But that for me is the sound of school. Every school has a fence like this. Right. The click click and the,
C: Is it cool in a good way or a bad way or just whatever, right?
S: I love school, I’m a parent, but I love school. When as a kid maybe I would’ve had a different idea of it.
C: You see as an artist, to me, this is a very interesting sound that I would play with, right? I would say, okay, this is a barrier. So what is the notion of what is, who’s being left out? What, what, what’s being protected? The sort of conceptual side, but then just the sound itself and it’s, it’s the richness of, of the shaking and, uh, sort of, it’s really interesting artistic material.
S: And funny, this is obviously metal, but I don’t think you can hear the metal. Yeah, you can hear the metal in the after shake, but during the, this sound isn’t necessarily clearly metallic.
C: Alright, Steven, let’s continue. What I’m going to do with this sound walk, this is a special way of doing the sound walk, is I’m going to insert sounds and do a little bit of composition with it so that your, interventions will bewith closeups of the sounds, which is a, a fun way to play with the notion of a space because that’s what artists do is, is interpret and be playful with aesthetic experiences so that audiences can have different sensations and different ways of, in this case, listening to…
(sound of a cart passing by)
C: What do you hear?
S: I hear a plane
C: So it’s going to pass over us. stereophony to pick it up.
S: It’s obviously something specific. In this part of Hall, there’s a certain height that planes are at because they’re landing or departing from the Ottawa airport. That’s one thing we hear. The other thing we hear is ‘biplanes’, often small fun planes, coming out of the Gatineau airport. They’re lower, but a different sound comes with them. But it’s still a very specific pitch.
C: Interesting. You’re good. You pay attention to the details, because it makes a difference to know where a sound comes from, at what height is it clearer if there are clouds or not? It’s all really important and interesting details, I think. So I promised at the start of our walk that I’d tell you a little story. My father, Maurice, who has sadly passed away… His father’s name was Maurice and I remember we used to come here to Hull on Roy Avenue, which isn’t far from here. I have a childhood memory of a fire, a wood-burning stove, because in those days, most people heated their homes by wood-burning stoves. Good morning, sir.
S: Can I hear the fridge? Very typical of a convenience store.
C: Is it? How’s that?
S: Listen? Do you know that sound? Are you in a convenience store, sir?
C: Can we come in? Okay, this fridge here. Wow. Hi, I’m just taking a sound clip for a sound walk.
S: He’s just taking a sound clip. OK?
C: Want to record the fridge.
Convenience store owner: Go ahead.
C: Cheers. Tell me more Steven.
S: You hear the fan that is very typical of the fridge. Low ceilings. The small areas, it’s very typical. I love depanneur. It’s something that we take for granted.
Owner: For Youtube?
C: It’s for a radio station.
Owner: Ah, radio station 106.5 ok cool. Thank you.
C: You’re welcome…
S: I think we need to think about the role of the convenience store as a community center. Convenience stores are an endangered species. I used to live in Montreal, but that’s the case in Hull too. Convenience stores have played and will continue to play a central role. It’s what they call the third place, where people gather because there’s something to do, they talk to each other, they recognize each other, they see each other. These are becoming very important community places, especially with the shrinking of public space and state-owned spaces. These third-place spaces are super important. I think we need to think hard about the role of convenience stores.
C: And the sound of convenience stores.
S: That’s part of it. You know, the smell you get in there. The vision, it’s an addiction. It’s a convenience store. Everybody knows it. When you walk in, but a very typical sound. You know, the ‘sloche’ machine has its noise. It’s a refrigerator, it makes a noise. There’s always the crooked lights that make noise. All the cash coming through the counter, it makes a noise. A sound.
C: Steven, it’s fascinating. I’m so glad we were able to discover this. There’s another sound phenomenon that happens here, and that’s dogs.
S: Hello, hello. Hello.
C: The little dogs make a particularly high-pitched sound and when there are three of them like that together. I call it an interesting sonic presence.
S: I’d say so. You can also hear the noise of the machines, the buildings around. I don’t know if I can hear them, I don’t think it’s air conditioners or heating, but you can hear this background noise that’s really ‘white noise’. I think we still need to think about sound and noise pollution, because we’re in a poor neighborhood next door. The sounds would be very different. In my opinion, there’s always something to be said for that. When you think about the city, you always have to think about that.
(cricket sound)
C: Well, we’ll be back. We’ve done a bit of a tour of the building. The spinning mill, which is spinning, I think it has to do with thread and mending and all that. We’re going to go into the building for a moment, and then we’ll finish with a sound sculpture that’s on site, here in front of the Daimon Artist Center.
C: Hello Philippe, you know, part of the Radio Hall team, so I’ve been very well received here… so inside, here, it’s just to feel the difference between the outside and inside space. So, what do you hear here inside?
S: It’s silent. It’s more than silence. It’s what we call it. We stop the noise. Everything is organized to stop the noise. Very typical inside buildings. We’re going to lower the noise, so the walls, it’s as if they’re eating the noise. You hear people talking, playing with wires, someone like that, pieces of metal, which is still someone talking. A telephone, I think. There’s a noise. It’s the sound of light.
C: Then there’s a fan over there that makes a little sound here. Yeah, that’s it. S: That’s what I was hearing. You can hear people.
C:. the contrast between an indoor and an outdoor space, something that’s really interesting, something that happens to us every day and that we don’t pay much attention to. But it’s a really nice experience to just stay inside. Outside.
(silence)
C: There’s a sculpture in front of the building here by a Montreal artist. I’ll find out his name.
S: There isn’t. There isn’t a little sign.
C: It’s Adam Basanta. It’s called Triad. Then I’m going to put my mic on like this. I invite you to listen.
S: Super interesting experiment. And if you do two different ends.
C: I can tell you about it.
S: Sounds like different frequencies. But tell me about this one.
S: You want me to tell you about here? That’s interesting. Yes. Wow!
C: Let’s sit here and try it out. I’ll go to the other end. Go ahead.
S: Hi Yes, you can hear me. It’s a fascinating noise in here, but there’s actually something in this pipe here. I imagine it changes the sound slightly. It’s fascinating the interplay of frequency and length. There’s a mathematical game going on here, which we ignore or listen to, because it’s so natural. But length changes frequency.
C: Well, we’ll stop here, since there’s a work of art that has helped us listen more closely to the space here. Thank you for the sound walk. It’s going to play, obviously. a Radio-hull 2023, but also on my conscious podcast because it’s part of the series I’m exploring, on the sounds of modernity. So we talked about all that this morning. Thank you very much Steven Moran.
S: It’s always a pleasure to talk about Hull, and then it’s fun to see too.
C: See you soon. Thank you, Steven.
*
Recorded at La Filature, Gatineau, August 30, 2023. Warm thanks to Steven Moran for his collaboration.
This episode was created while I was in residence during the summer of 2023 at the Centre de production DAÏMÔN in Gatineau Québec as part of the fourth edition of Radio-Hull 28 days of programming from September 7 to October 4 2023 showcasing local artistic practices.
With thanks to the Centre de production DAÏMÔN production team: Manon, Coco, Philippe and Simon and DAÏMÔN’s funders and partners.
I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this episode. (including all the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation and infrastructure that make this podcast possible).
My gesture of reciprocity for this episode is to the Canadian Red Cross.
The post e141 filature – what does gatineau sound like? appeared first on conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.
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About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer
The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.
I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.
The term “conscient” is defined as “being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations”. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016-2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.
season 1 (may – october 2020) : environmental awareness and action Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie”s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.
season 2 (march – august 2021 ) : reality and ecological grief Season 2 (March 2021 ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that “I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, “the state of things as they actually exist”, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way”. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.
season 3 (october 2021 – february 2022 ) : radical listening Season 3 was about radical listening : listening deeply without passing judgment, knowing the truth and filtering out the noise and opening attention to reality and responding to what needs to be done. The format is similar the first podcast format I did in 2016 with the simplesoundscapes project, which was to ‘speak my mind’ and ‘think out loud’. I start this season with a ‘soundscape composition’, e63 a case study (part 1) and e64 a case study (part 2), a bilingual speculative fiction radio play, set in an undergraduate university history seminar course called ‘History of 2021 in Canada’. It concluded with a soundscape composition ‘Winter Diary Revisited’.
season 4 (1 january – 31 december 2023) : sounding modernity
About
I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I”m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca
acknowledgement of eco-responsibility
I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.
a word about privilege and bias.
While recording episode 19 “reality”, I heard elements of “privilege” in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like “ecological mansplaining”. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.
View the original: https://www.conscient.ca/e141-filature-what-does-gatineau-sound-like/