Abstract

I am preparing a seminar for my class on Auditory Culture and have decided to focus on two works in particular. The first is the interactive sound-essay Window (for John Cage) by the British composer and sound artist Katharine Norman (see http://www.novamara.com/window/). The work, only accessible on the Internet, consists of photographs taken daily by Norman over the period of one year at different times from a window at the back of her house, accompanying sound recordings of the same environment, and short texts. For each of 12 months, seven virtual dots are connected to seven randomly selected sound recordings, each recorded in the month concerned, and the visitor can mix them according to her or his wishes by moving the dots up (more prominent) or down (more in the background) and to the left or to the right (balance). What we get are some visual and aural impressions of a rather ordinary land- and soundscape of a town.