Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

News and Events: April 1, 2022

  Norman W. Long News and Events https://www.eventbrite.com/e/freedom-from-and-freedom-to-7-tickets-288040385547?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=escb Date and time Sat, Apr 2, 2022, 7:00 PM CDT Location Elastic Arts 3429 West Diversey Avenue  #208  Chicago, IL 60647 FFFT returns for its 6th iteration of sound and movement collaborations! LINEUP Musicians: MIchele Blu https://www.instagram.com/michelebluyoga/?hl=en Tom Borax https://www.ultravioletlight.blue/product/tom-borax Hunter Diamond http://ishmaelalimusic.com/ Carol Genetti https://carolgenetti.info/ Bill Harris https://www.billyharris.net/ Mabel Kwan https://mabelkwan.com/ Joey Meland https://soundcloud.com/joeymeland Allen Moore http://allenmooreart.net/ Luc Mosley https://www.facebook.com/fallingflowerarts Olula Negre https://www.instagram.com/olula_negre/?hl=en Janice Misurell-Mitchell https://jmisurell-mitchell.com/ Ivan Pyzow http://w

CALUMET IN DUB

  ALBUM https://normanwlong.bandcamp.com/album/calumet-in-dub EXHIBITION CATALOG Norman-W-Long-Catalog.pdf CALUMET IN DUB I hope this message finds you all well. I am very happy to announce that my new album Calumet in Dub is available for download and CD pre-order. Calumet in Dub is a two-channel mix of an eight-channel sound installation exhibited at the Glass Curtain Gallery in Chicago in 2022. The exhibition focuses on Long’s research-based work delving into the ecology and soundscapes of the Southeast Side of Chicago along the Calumet and Little Calumet River area. Inspired initially by a story that aired on the BBC about the relationship of the Little Calumet River to the history of the Great Migration, Long has investigated how housing, labor, and environmental activism has coalesced in this location and how historic figure, Hazel Johnson considered the “mother of the environmental justice movement,” diligently brought these issues to light. Other inspiration was found in Annea
Earthly Observatory https://www.saic.edu/saic-galleries/exhibitions August 31–December 3 SAIC Galleries, 33 E. Washington Earthly Observatory explores how we sense, portray, and engage our deep planetary entanglements. Through crafted visions, close listening, and histories of conquest and protest, the exhibition examines the contested relations of ecology to economy, aesthetics to ethics that dominate our experience at one moment, and evades awareness in the next. Drawn from diverse practices across art, design, and the natural sciences, the works invite us to question the ways that we - as one among many earthlings - create our understanding of a manifold world. Featuring: Allora & Calzadilla+Ted Chiang, Jonas N.T. Becker, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Kelly Church, Xavier Cortada, Rena Detrixhe, Paul Dickinson, Mark Dion, Jeannette Ehlers, Terry Evans, Assaf Evron, The Field Museum Center for Meteoritics and Polar Studies, Terike Haapoja, Paul Harfleet, Isao Hashimoto,