Soundwalk

I decided to roam around the streets of the upper east side between Hunter College and my place of work on 72nd street and 2nd avenue. It was around one in the afternoon when I began so, more or less after lunch time. During my walk, I did my best to keep my focus on the ground so that I could really listen and identify what I heard without having seen it first. There was a constant humming of cars, trucks and buses passing by. Depending on the engine sound whether it was a soft murmur almost purring like to what seemed like a dying motor, I was able to differentiate vehicles from one another. There was the occasional honk that startled me causing me to look up to see what had occurred. I quickly lowered my head back down after realizing it was simply the impatience of other drivers. As I passed busier streets with multiple stores, I could here idling truck engines possibly there for delivery of goods. Walking in the city, I wasn’t surprised by the constant swishing of car movement. This for me was the middle ground of sounds I heard. The background noise was this faint drilling noise that was pretty consistent through my entire walk. I knew it had to do with some sort of construction but, for some reason I didn't walk towards it to find out what type of machinery it was exactly.
The most intriguing part of my walk were the little sounds I found in between. I could hear the clattering of heels, shuffling of sneakers, and the material of dress pants rubbing together. It gave the neighborhood a personality. Though on the upper east side filled with well dressed individuals and many business people, I could hear the distinct construction workers. They usually spoke in a different language but I was fortunate enough to identify two polish voices just barely catching a glimpse of their conversation. It made me smile being able to understand their frustration with the project they were working on.

From the machinery to traffic to footsteps, I found a sense of calmness and stillness amongst all of the commotion. The clinging of a dog tag on a collar made me feel like I was in a more suburban area. There was a slight wind with a whispering like sound strong enough to cause the leaves to rustle and all of a sudden with my head still down I almost felt like I was in a park until another car honk brought me back to the busy streets of manhattan. I often go on walks to enjoy and take in my surroundings usually getting lost in my thoughts or having my attention caught to something I see. This was the first time that I tried to keep a clear mind and just listen. It was quite enjoyable to test my knowledge of connecting the sound I heard with an image and then occasionally glancing up to see if I was correct.