The Senses and Society

ISSN: 1745-8927 (Print) 1745-8935 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rfss20

Crossing the Boundaries: Sonic Composition and

the Anthropological Gaze

Jacqueline Waldock

To cite this article: Jacqueline Waldock (2016) Crossing the Boundaries: Sonic
Composition and the Anthropological Gaze, The Senses and Society, 11:1, 60-67, DOI:
10.1080/17458927.2016.1164429

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17458927.2016.1164429

Published online: 01 Jun 2016.

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 The Senses & Society VOLUME 11, ISSUE 1
PP 6067
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The Senses & Society DOI: 10.1080/17458927.2016.1164429
Dr Jacqueline Waldock is a post-
doctoral researcher and s oundscape
composer, currently working
with Horsfall Space Manchester.
Her research includes work on
soundmaps, sonic domestic space,
urban regeneration and sound-
scape methodology. This work was
undertaken whilst at the Music
Department of the University
of Liverpool.
jackywaldock@me.com
60
REPRINTS AVAILABLE PHOTOCOPYING 2016 INFORMA UK
DIRECTLY FROM THE PERMITTED BY LIMITED, TRADING AS
PUBLISHERS LICENSE ONLY TAYLOR & FRANCIS
GROUP; PRINTED IN
THE UK
Crossing the
Boundaries: Sonic
Composition and the
Anthropological Gaze
Jacqueline Waldock
ABSTRACT The performative nature of sound
and sound recording has produced many projects
that intersect and engage with anthropology and
the particular debates around the anthropology of
sound. The development of field recordings and
field recording technology has created a musical
form that invites a reflective response to place
through listening. This article will discuss taking
a trinitarian approach that knits together compo-
sitional practice and anthropological concerns
surrounding place, in order to create an approach
that inextricably links composition and the anthro-
pological gaze. The trinitarian methodology saw
those living in the area (project partners) as taking
the roles of: activist, artist and academic; each
having their own digital records and capturing
their sonic spaces. In practice this produced not
only a sonic mapping of personal space, but also
a reflective discussion of the relationship in those
sonic spaces. The produced recordings sometimes
 Crossing the Boundaries: Sonic Composition

intersected with one another allowing a tracing of broader

sensory interactions and highlighting the establishment of
boundaries beyond the physical (such as walls and doors).
This article will establish how utilizing the trinitarian meth-
odology allows an understanding of sonic domestic space
in a new and intimate way.

KEYWORDS:sonic boundaries, composition, trinitarian methodol-

ogy, re-appropriation of space, anthropology of sound, domestic
space
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Introduction
This article presents work that was produced during my
doctoral study at the University of Liverpool. The work
constructed a new trinitarian methodology that intrinsically
tied together field-recording-based composition and an
analysis of urban regeneration and place. The methodology part-
nered the researcher, in this case me, with the local residents to
capture change sonically and in doing so capture people's connec-
tion to the sounds that surround them. The production process and
the complete sound pieces enabled an understanding of place, par-
ticularly within domestic spaces, that stems from those recording in
the environment and explored together with myself. This article will
present work from one of the partnering areas, the Welsh Streets,
and describe how the recording and editing process (that produced
the sound pieces) enabled a personal anthropological gaze of sorts.
The sonic and often performative nature of sound has often
interlinked music with the anthropology of sound. Landmark stud-
ies such as Stephen Felds Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping,
Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression (1982), in his work with the
Kaluli people, weave a thread between creating, making and per-
forming music, on the one hand and the anthropological gaze, which
studies those interactions, on the other. However within this tapestry
of sonically orientated studies there are several different perspec-
tives: historically orientated social commentary as seen through writ-
ers such as Thompson (2002) and Corbin (1998), and soundscape
researchers concerned with the deterioration of the sound world
and its impact upon place that can be seen in the work of acous-
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tic ecologists such as Westerkamp (1990). The concerns voiced by

these groups extend into architecture, urbanism, musicology and
beyond. Felds work in particular drew in a strand of music research
more distanced from anthropology than most ethnomusicology
because Feld developed his field work recordings into composi-
tions. The use of field recordings as compositions or compositional
tools extends from composers such as Ferrari (b.19292005)and
Schafer (b.1933) through to more contemporary composers such as
61

Norman (2004), Carlyle (2009) and McCartney (2004). The develop-

 Jacqueline Waldock

ment of field recordings in composition has created a musical form

that invites a reflective response to place. The work discussed in
this chapter stems from such composition-based field recording that
took place in the Liverpool from 20092013.
What distinguishes this project from other field-recording-based
compositional projects and makes it particularly relevant to the
anthropological sound debate is that it knits compositional meth-
odology, artistic practice and anthropological (particularly cultural
anthropological) concerns together in a more direct way than can be
seen in past compositional or anthropological work. What is most
often seen in ethnographical field work that crosses into composi-
tion is that the field recordings have found a compositional output.
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In the same way, what often occurs in soundscape composition is

that the composer has gleaned a sociological or cultural concern
in either the recordings themselves or the performance of those
sounds. However what I employed was an approach that inextrica-
bly linked composition and an anthropological gaze. This enabled
the community members I worked with to develop self-produced
pieces and self-reflective analyses that in turn enabled me to under-
stand connections among sound, person and place in a way inac-
cessible to me as an individual.
I developed what I have called a trinitarian approach (activist, art-
ist, academic) to soundscape composition, understanding the role
of artist, academic and activist as equal and inseparable from one
another. The trinitarian position of activist, artist, and academic is
embodied by me as the researcher and by those participants living in
the area being studied, who shall be referred to as project partners.
The work not only aimed to create sound pieces but also to use
the compositional process as a way of understanding the project
partners connections and relationships to the spaces where they
lived. As activists we took responsibility for recording and producing
work as well as setting in motion a challenge and response to the
politically charged situation that the project partners were in (see
below for explanation). As artists, we recorded and edited our own
sound pieces from the environment. And as academics we reflected
upon these sounds and provided commentary on the sounds that
been had recorded.
One of the areas where this methodology was employed was, as
I mentioned above, the Welsh Streets. These terraced roads were
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built by Welsh workers who moved to the city in the late 1800s.
Some of the terraces were damaged during World War II and were
replaced by 1950s homes. The Welsh Streets have been at the
centre of the interest on the part of the UK's national press in Liv-
erpools regeneration, partly because of the popular culture signifi-
cance of 9 Madryn Street, which was one of Ringo Starrs childhood
homes. The national press have called for it to be considered as a
heritage site because of its loose connection to the Beatles. All the
62

houses have been subject to a demolition order, where the residents

 Crossing the Boundaries: Sonic Composition

have been forced to sell their homes and move so that the area
maybe developed into modern housing. This approach to housing
renewal was developed by a UK government scheme known as
Pathfinder and later New Heartlands (http://liverpool.gov.uk/council/
strategies-plans-and-policies/housing/housing-market-renewal
-initiative/).
The project took place in this area at a very unique moment in
time most of the houses lay empty and derelict. A few residents
remained in their homes and fought to save their houses from dem-
olition. The project partners were primarily constituted of those
who wished to stay in their homes and were living amidst streets of
boarded up buildings. The reason for encouraging those still living in
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the streets to partner with me was due to the fact they that they were
the only people inhabiting that environment. There was urgency to
their recordings, as they knew that Liverpool Council could take
action on their homes at any time, and during the recording period
one of the partners had to leave her home.

Capturing, Creating and Analyzing Sounds

The project partners were given freedom to use digital recorders
with complete freedom to capture whatever they wanted whenever
they wanted. This work could also be seen to extend work such as
Sarah Pinks phenomenological approach in her paper Walking with
Video (2007), where she walks with participants as they experience
and tell of their experience as she films them with a video recorder.
However the independence given to the project partners is more
similar to the approach taken by Sarah Baker in her study of pre-
teen girls relationships to popular music as she explains in Rock
on Baby (2001), where she gave seven girls tape recorders and
cameras to allow them to record, listen and produce music as part
of an ethnographic study.
Once the project partners of my study in the Welsh Streets had
captured sound, they would then listen back to the sound either in
their home through the speakers built into the recorders or in the
university composition studio. Unlike the recording, the re-listen-
ing to captured sound usually took place with me. We would listen
together and I would ask them to tell me about their track. When we
were in the composition studio they could edit their tracks with my
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help, choosing to edit, delete or enhance certain sound moments.

This time was particularly significant, both through the conversations
that accompanied the pieces and the editing choices made in the
studio.
What was captured moved beyond simple sonic markers or
quotidian sounds. The freedom for partners to record as and when
they wished saw them recording in private personal spaces as well
moving across spaces and crossing paths with others who were
63

also recording. The capturing and editing of the sounds allowed

 Jacqueline Waldock

an understanding of their environment and how each project part-

ner assimilates and connects to their space. However, when the
pieces and analysis were considered together, themes were formed
between and among various experiences. At times these connec-
tions were more explicit, such as when recordings intersected with
one another.
Their recordings captured their movement through space and
the physical interaction with space; in this sense the recordings are
an aural symbol or trace of broader sensory and physical interac-
tion. For example, one recording was created by the project partner,
(Marilyn, who had found out that she would have to move during
the project.) She recorded the sound of her door locking as she
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left for the last time; the recording captures her action in turning
the lock but also the significance of the sound in order for it to war-
rant being captured. Through the editing process she reflected upon
the reassurance that the sound gave her, the familiarity of the click
that meant she had locked it properly. In many ways the sound pre-
sented a sealing of her domestic boundaries. This short piece was
contrasted by a much longer piece recorded by Marilyns neighbor
and edited by them both together in the studio. The piece captured
Marilyns moving day. It highlighted the breaking down of domestic
boundaries, of removal workmen walking in unannounced through
open doors, neighbors and friends saying their goodbyes and help-
ing with cleaning. The movement of people through her personal
space in complete freedom draws attention to the removal of
Marilyns domestic ownership. The sounds mark a movement

through space that traces a shift in place from personal, private and
domestic to public and open, reflecting the increasing paucity of the
space as home.
Almost all of the pieces created through the project were recorded
within the residents homes. This is not to say that all the sounds
were intrinsically domestic, nor that they were individualistic to that
home. What became clear through the recordings, rather, was that
the community had shifted from being established over the fence in
the street or at the park to becoming increasingly internalized. The
surrounding derelict homes were referred by the project partners as
unsafe and frightening. There was an increasing amount of arson
and other antisocial behaviors taking place in the empty homes. In
response to this, social interactions took place in peoples homes.
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For example, Marilyn and Barbara, who lived a couple of houses

from one another, recorded themselves making dinner together one
evening.
Memory and sound were strongly connected and intertwined with
the partners pieces and their editing. The layering of sonic memories
created by living in the place distilled their understanding of the sonic
present. Helmi Jrviluoma in her chapter Soundscape and Social
Memory in Scruv discussed the connection between sound and
64

memory through accompanying participants on local sound walks.

 Crossing the Boundaries: Sonic Composition

As I noted above, most of the sounds were recorded at home and

as such the memories connected to the sounds were often deeply
emotional. For example, a neighbor recorded Marilyns house being
boarded up in advance of its demolition. Marilyn knew of the record-
ing but stated that she couldnt bring herself to listen to it. In this
instance it is not even the sound itself that provokes emotion but
rather the potential of the sound to stir emotion that makes it difficult
for Marilyn to hear. In another area studied with the same methodol-
ogy, a partner became visibly upset talking about the familiar sound
of the stairs, which triggered a disturbing memory of his abusive
father climbing the stairs to his room. The emotions connected to
the original and recorded sounds are highly complex including con-
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cepts of safety, fear, nostalgia and intimacy. Understanding these

connections required the partner themselves to reflect on and inter-
pret their own pieces. My own recordings would not carry the same
significance. It would be difficult for me as an outsider to access their
homes freely in such a deliberate way. However the project part-
ners accessed and in some way re-appropriated their own spaces
through recording, and this allowed a more personal reflection and
understanding of place.
The studied environment was only a few streets wide, with all
of the partners living on one street. Despite primarily recording as
individuals, the pieces they created and sometimes even the record-
ings themselves intersect. As already discussed, Marilyns neigh-
bor recorded the boarding up of Marilyns home from in her home,
and Marilyn and Barbara recorded together, including their dinner,
in Barbaras home. Marilyns neighbor attempted to record Marilyn
listening to her radio through the wall and Marilyn recorded herself
listening to the radio but also her neighbor singing through the wall.
My instant reaction to these recordings was that noisy neighbors
sounds were perhaps more prominent when ambient sounds had
diminished. (The lack of ambient sounds due to the absence
of residents on the street is something that I had noticed in my
recordings.) However they were referred to and used by the project
partners as positive sounds, how great it was to hear your neighbor
through the wall, how good it was to still have a neighbor.
The project was completely reliant upon the activist nature of
those living in the area to be willing to record and talk about their
recordings, but the activist element of the project was not solely a
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tool to enable me as a researcher to access their space. Their desire

to be active began before the project and extended beyond it. Those
who chose to record shared their work with others and on the local
radio, giving a voice to their plight. The activism shown in a willing-
ness to partner with me continues into their desire for their work to
be performed. Some of the partners have kept their recorders and
continue to capture, sound and share it with neighbors and friends,
creating a community led archive and analysis of their environment
65

that continues independently of myself or the institution that funded

 Jacqueline Waldock

it. They do not wish to inhabit a passive informant position to my

research. Instead they are active partners reflecting and understand-
ing the shifts that occur in their environment through the regenera-
tion process. Their pieces and analysis add to their fight to challenge
their position in relationship to the council and stand against the
asymmetrical power relationships at play.

Conclusion
I have presented an approach that utilizes composition as a tool
for capturing and understanding peoples connections with sound
and place. The work challenges the boundaries of artistic practice
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and academic study both by combining them into an integrated

approach and by allowing a high level of autonomy and partnership
with those living in the areas being studied. By giving the partners
digital recorders, by taking them into the studio to learn to edit their
own recordings, and by discussing the recordings and the feelings
and experiences behind them, both individually and in groups, I ena-
bled the partners to inhabit relationships with the study that are unu-
sual. The pieces produced, where the partners and I are artists, the
commentary that accompanied them, where we were all engaged
as academics, and the sharing of work with others outside the
community raising awareness of their situation as activists, allowed
an understanding of domestic space and the shifting of the space
during regeneration in a new, intimate way. Both the compositions
and my thesis and the articles like this one that come from it
allow us to understand both the emotional and physical connections
between sound and place in important new ways that reflect the
thoughts and experiences of the project partners living in the Welsh
Streets. Instead of listening in on them, this methodology makes it
much more possible to listen to and with them.

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