Recovering Landscape

Soundwalk with Norman W. Long and Sara Zalek

at 

Big Marsh Park

Chicago, IL

We began with introductions and a brief talk about the park and soundwalks, what they are and how to do them. Then we went through a few mediation and listening exercises to prepare us for the walk.

As we walk out route through the park, we were mindful of our movements, the changes in terrain, plant life and function of the park. For Sara and I we wanted to be mindful of how the park changed since our last walk and our last rehearsal/walk-through. We noticed more paths and more gravel paths making the walking paths less muddy, more native plants where there weren't since our last walk. As we walked Sara began her performance as a creature that combined the waste from the park with the form of a prehistoric life-form.

 We stopped along the way to improvise and set an alternate soundtrack to our walk. I used a battery powered "benjolin" style synthesizer improvising with the soundscape a Sara Zalek's performance.

After the performance we as a group discussed the walk and the performance in the context of the history of the site and what the future holds for this community and ecology.

Big Marsh 2018 SoundWalk from normanwlong on Vimeo.