Make some noise on Burrard Bridge as part of Soundwalk Sunday
Credit to Author: Shawn Conner| Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2019 18:00:57 +0000
Soundwalk Sunday Soundwalk: Playing the Burrard Bridge with Sound
When: Sept 1 at 2 p.m.
Where: 999 Beach Avenue (Green Streets Community Garden, located under the Burrard Bridge)
Tickets: free
A soundwalk is a group walk that is led along a planned route to experience a location’s ambience. Participants are usually silent to better engage in active listening. As part of an international day of soundwalks organized by the UK organization Museum of Walking, Vancouver New Music and the Vancouver Soundwalk Collective are inviting people to take part on a soundwalk on Burrard Bridge, but with participants making noise with various implements. We talked to Helena Krobath, an organizer who has been working with Vancouver New Music since 2015, about the event.
Q: You’ve been doing these soundwalks for a few years now. What can you say about the differences and similarities between them?
A: They can be really wide-ranging. A lot of the ones I’ve designed in the past have focused more on infrastructure, like rail yards, and I’m really interested in the port. This one is much more playful. I was on another soundwalk where some people were banging a water bottle against the Burrard Bridge railings and I noticed they had multiple pitches. It was beautiful to walk behind them. So I thought, why not spend the whole soundwalk making noise together?
Q; Are you supplying all the instruments?
A: Yeah. We’re bringing a little treasure chest, a tickle trunk full of things. One of the other facilitators put out the call for some dampeners, or softer items that can stop the sound if necessary. My favourite one that I’ve created is a coil that I’ve pulled out of an old notebook. And I have an oversized tuning fork that could be fun. The water bottle was really good, so there’ll be another one of those.
Participants in the 2018 soundwalk Parks, Trees, and Tankers in New Brighton Park. A new soundwalk takes place on Burrard Bridge Aug. 1. Photo: Vincent Andrisani
Q: Is there any rehearsing? How do you prepare for something like this?
A: We’re going to go on a scouting mission. From the soundwalk that led to this, we got a sense of what the sounding will be like. We want to expand it a little bit and maybe do noisemaking on either side of the bridge. We’re going to take the team and do some casual experimentation to see what kind of implements work best and if we need to make any adjustments, like how far apart people are standing. But I think it’s going to be pretty open and playful.
Q: How many people usually turn out for a soundwalk? Do they need to register?
A: They usually just show up. There’s always a core, but random people show up too — people who are looking for something free to do that’s a little different. Usually the range is from 15-30, and 30 is large. But with this event, I’ve gotten a lot of feedback anecdotally that people are coming, so it might be a better attended.
Q: How much does it depend on the weather?
A: There’s always the diehard contingent. I’ve never seen less than 10 people show up.
Q: Is this the last Vancouver New Music soundwalk for awhile?
A: We have two soundwalks that usually happen in the fall. There’ll be one on Sept. 22 (details TBA) and the 29 (also TBA). That one is part of B.C. Culture Days.