Listening for the Last Day of Summer: a soundwalk

“One day you notice the birds aren’t singing anymore and you realise it’s the end of summer. I look daily to check the swifts are still there, squealing and soaring in the galleries above. Soon I will glance skywards to see they have left for the season, I might see some contrails and realise, just as I didn’t notice the birds stop calling, I didn’t hear the plane either. As cadence is withdrawn from the landscape what does it sound like as we approach autumn and a winter calendar?”

Rachel Henaghan 2023

I seek out places to experiment with sound and resonance made by movement and gesture, engaging in a dialogue with those spaces. As an urban resident I am sensitive to sonic disturbance: some sounds have made me avoidant, others I am particularly drawn to. I have been fascinated by the sounds others don’t appear to hear, tiny drones and hums lost in the volume of the everyday, and equally surprised how we fail to hear, or become accustomed to larger noises. I have been inspired by the “deep listening” practice of Pauline Oliveros, and I would cite Fiona Cullinan’s concept of “extreme noticing” as a prompt for specifically devising a listening walk. 

I invite people to walk with me and participate in an active listening walk on the last afternoon of the summer holidays. There will be experimentation with sound and listening en route with stops for the following 3 interludes:

1. Active listening ‘speed date’ format with prompts
2. Guided listening session
3. Listening for radio using an open wave receiver inspired by Shortwave Collective and built using their instructions

Meet on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal at the seating area behind Sainsbury’s, Selly Oak (B29 6SJ) at 11am on Sunday 1st September. This walk is approximately 3.5 miles long, mostly along canal towpath but also taking in a student village, an upmarket shopping centre, an aqueduct, a motorway flyover and the busiest railway station outside of London. We aim to be finished in Birmingham city centre by 1pm. No need to book, just turn up! The walk will go ahead whatever the weather.

The terrain includes paving, well maintained gravel canal towpath, a small canal bridge with ramp access, steps through Mailbox and entrance to station (lifts available). Please note the route crosses the viaduct over Aston Webb Boulevard which is high up and may feel exposed.