What does it mean to confront the physical manifestations of our memories?
The following audio pieces, produced in 2007 and 2008 for my college honors thesis, emphasize ambient and environmental sounds throughout the narratives while also addressing questions of identity, creativity, grief, and patterned behavior. There were several goals of the project:
––To compose personal narratives, or stories, that explored my past as a way to bring about a catharsis while also creating an engaging piece of text.
––To emphasize the ambient sounds of those places I was concerned with.
––To reveal the intricacies of place and memory.
Silent City:
Falling in Love with a Memory:
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February 16, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Wren
Hey Pat,
I found my way to your recent posts from Ben’s page, and was incredibly happy he lead me here. Your chapter entry on the farm was intriguing, well written, and heartfelt – it brought my boots to the driveway and I could feel myself thrusting the barn door open with the same sense of wonder and belonging. Thank you.
I’ve only listened to the first piece from your thesis so far, but I was really surprised at how much it made me think about Ithaca as a place; my sense of belonging in this place that I’ve almost always called home. I’ve been exploring these feelings of belonging recently here in Ithaca – both of myself and others – through photography and spoken word.
I’ve been particularly drawn to the power of slam poetry and spoken word over the last year or so, especially the work of Anis Mojgani, and found a connection between your piece and a poem of his – it’s called Here Am I, it’s incredible, genuine, and I think you would really appreciate it for the same reasons as I.
Here’s the link – it’s recorded at the National Poetry Slam a few years back and he performed a few pieces, so skip to around the middle; I think it’s the second piece in the series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMS1SfHx8hk
I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
-Wren
February 19, 2010 at 5:22 pm
The Domestic Soundscape » Blog Archive » Steam Sounds - for my Pops
[...] the fieldsepulchra blog that Michael Raphael runs, and I noticed that near the start of the piece Silent Cities on the Forgotten Ithaca blog, there are some lovely (train?) horns. I am not sure whether a ‘trolley’ is the US [...]
March 5, 2010 at 3:53 pm
serenemusings
Patrick,
Loved this blog and the audio accompaniment. Added the imagery in my mind along with the narration. The contents were lovely too.
The first one ‘Silent City’ was good and reminded me of the John Mayer song ‘waiting on the world to change’…
The second audio felt like I was reading a Nicholas Sparks book like the ‘Nights in Rodanthe’.
Thank you for sharing. Enjoyed it a lot.