Noise annoys

[imomus]

Back in June 2005, when I was here for a performance art show, I wrote a rather scathing rumination on the poverty of New York textures, wondering why the world's richest country should have some of the world's poorest interfaces. The texture of everyday life -- the tactile quality of the environment we move through -- is something I'm thinking about rather intensely right now because I have to address the AIGA conference at the weekend on the subject of "the future of texture".

Back in 2005 I framed sound pollution as one of New York's textural problems. "Sound is texture too: New York is so noisy I get tinnitus. I'm writing this in a room with an incredibly noisy fan, a deafening garbage truck outside, and a police siren behind that. The examples could go on and on." This year, those examples did go on and on. The clanging, honking, wailing, crashing and shouting was the first thing that hit me in New York. Berlin must be a super-quiet city. Here I have to wear ear protectors the whole time.



A f'rinstance. Yesterday I was at PS1 in Queens. The cafe was shut (even the water seemed shut off at PS1, which felt sadly neglected) so I went to eat lunch at a cheap Chinese place nearby. It was under the elevated subway stop, so every couple of minutes trains would clank round the bend a few feet above us, making an incredible metallic din. Inside the restaurant, though, things were no better. A plasma-screen TV was showing an action movie featuring continuous gunfire.

You'd think the controlled environment of an art museum would be different, but no, it was the same story in PS1 itself. The show Organizing Chaos is described in the blurb as "physically centered around the Luke Fowler video, Pilgrimage from Scatter Points (2006). The 45-minute piece incorporates archival footage and documentary material about British composer Cornelius Cardew's Scratch Orchestra, an improvisational group that utilized found, graphic scores rather than traditional sheet music".



Well, great: Luke Fowler is one of my favourite artists, and his Cardew film certainly fits into the Organizing Chaos sound art theme of ambience and randomness. There's just one problem, though, one step too far into randomness: although the label tells us we're watching "Pilgrimage from Scatter Points", the film being shown is actually "What You See is Where You’re At", Fowler's 2001 documentary about anti-psychiatrist R.D. Laing.

It isn't just the wrong documentary, it's also being shown in the wrong conditions. It's impossible to hear the speech on the Fowler soundtrack (issuing through tiny, tinny speakers mounted high on the wall of the echoey room) because the gallery is filled with overspill sound from the installation next door, mingled with the sound of Christian Marclay's "Guitar Drag" video on the other side of the building. This over-exposed piece shows an amplified guitar being dragged along behind a pick-up truck. It makes a godawful racket, which, at PS1, drowned out the quieter pieces in all the connected galleries.

But if it hadn't been the macho Marclay piece making the quieter, more thoughtful Fowler video inaudible, it would have been the rushing roar of the air conditioners or the absurdly loud, garbled transmissions coming from the guards' walkie talkies (yes, the "paranoid security state" follows you even into the inner sanctum of the aesthetic experience). Even the picture is compromised: the DVD machine's on the blink and keeps flashing chapter heading information in a blue band across the screen. I sit there truly saddened by a missed opportunity to see a really interesting piece.

What on earth were the curators thinking? Is the act of selecting the piece all that matters to them? We didn't even see the film they chose! Is the content of the piece, the artist's intention, and the point-of-consumption experience of the viewer irrelevant? Is running a gallery like PS1 just a constant struggle against various forms of chaotic entropy (the aircon is broken, the DVD player is acting up, the wrong disk arrived from Fowler's gallery in Glasgow, we can't stop the guards getting bored and using their radios too much, we couldn't get insulating curtains to stop soundspill happening...) Do the curators think that we won't notice that it's the wrong film, and that it's inaudible? Do they think we just look at the picture for ten seconds then pass on? Is the fact that Cage is in this show an indication that we're supposed to treat all the ambient sound as "music" and just relax and go with the flux and the flow?

Or is it just that a New York art gallery treats sound pretty much the way the city of New York treats sound? As something secondary and uncontrolled, a vacant spectrum up for grabs according to the Hobbsian rule of "survival of the loudest"?

Comments

[cargoweasel.livejournal.com]

Hey, if it's too loud, you're too old!!

Well, not really, but I just wanted to say that. I am also too old.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

And "If it's the wrong film, you're the wrong person!", maybe?

[(Anonymous)]

New York is loud, but complaining about it is like saying water is too wet. What do you want from a super high density global hub of commerce?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Well, sure. It's just that we tend to think something like an art museum would be a place where the scale of values was reversed, at least while you were in there. But it isn't. (The Noguchi Museum, on the other hand -- I went there after PS1 and a trip to Roosevelt Island -- is a delight to the senses. The main sound in the yard is birds, the wind in the pines and water spilling from the fountains.)

I actually get the impression that PS1, having served its purpose as a stepping stone to get Klaus Biesenbach into MoMA, is now being run down. Even the water fountains weren't working on Sunday.

[desant012.livejournal.com]

I don't like PS1 very much, honestly, and some of the pieces I remember seeing have been shown in improper ways (either due to the curators or people who tampered with them). and you could've just taken the 7 train (the train rattling above you) to Jackson Heights for some good Indian food or a Bollywood movie.

Complaining that New York City is noisy is like complaining that people in Germany speak German. It's a tiny city that supports a region of 23 million people, and of those 23 million people almost 20% live their daily lives taking mass transportation (the really noisy stuff). Only Mexico City has a larger population area than that. Berlin is dramatically less dense - of course it's going to be quieter, it goes without saying.

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Oh, I get it. You added noise in Photoshop! Arty!

[smokebelch.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

Don't know if you're aware of this project.

http://www.acoustics.salford.ac.uk/res/davies/soundscapes/

It's a guy at Manchester Metropolitan University who's in charge of it and Peter Cusack from the London Musicians Collective is involved in some way. Aim appears to be to find a way of quantifying what "good" urban sound is and passing this on to planners.

Here's The Observer on it ..
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2174986,00.html

Lack of Noise

[(Anonymous)]

Lack of noise can be disturbing too. I spent a week in the countryside not long ago, and I actually found it hard to sleep without the familiar sounds of the city.

I guess this really boils down to what you're used to rather than any absolute truth, but I do think the sound of humans around you is quite important to us all.

Re: Lack of Noise

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

I dont think it's the noise that bothers people so much as their lack of control over it.

I have a Sony Vaio laptop. It's *almost* as pretty as a Mac, but it sounds like a vacuum cleaner. The fan is huge.

As I sit here moaning about the sound of fans and Momus grumbles about the sound of air conditioners, other people are buying both sounds on CD (http://www.purewhitenoise.com/) for $12.95:

[ofenheizung.livejournal.com]

I live in San Francisco and I find the same is true here, if at a lower level than New York. One problem is that the acoustics tend to be awful. Trendy bars and restaurants worry so much about having sleek modernist surfaces everywhere that the noise bounces around the room and you can barely hear yourself think.
Another weird thing here is the way that places leave their doors wide open even when it's cold outside. Not much Gemuetlichkeit around here. I always have to wear my jacket indoors.
Dr. O.

[merrow-sea.livejournal.com]

I spent last year living in NYC, thinking of moving back there after years away. Despite a rich experience, one of the (many) deciding factors for leaving was the constant, god-awful, senseless din. And it's not just about density. It's about bad policy, like allowing car alarms to be legal, and not enforcing anti-honking laws... Most of the people who live there appear to be desensitized to it, and passively go about their sad, noise-bombarded lives.
I just returned from 16 days on the Colorado River, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon in AZ. I'm still struggling with re-entry to the everyday world. The noisiest element was the the crashing rapids (and our human presence). It was glorious. Not all luddite nature worship; many nights were spent in mini impromptu raves dancing under the canyon walls... someone had a decent sound system, everyone had ipods, there were laser light pens and headlamps with strobes and colored LEDs. And when the dancing was spent and we straggled off to our tents, perfect silence (and darkness) returned. These are extremes of experience. I couldn't live that primitively forever, but it reminds one of other, better, ways of being. I'm so glad I left NYC.

[(Anonymous)]

This piece had me thinking of the ambient DVD you wrote about some time ago. Yes, that one with the great fire! Make it public!

[(Anonymous)]

the dream house will clean your ears

http://www.melafoundation.org/main.htm

open thursdays and saturdays

City Sounds

[(Anonymous)]

Oooh.. forgot about the dream house! Yes, so lovely. Do make sure to check the website before each visit though, the times change during the year, depending on who/how many volunteers are available to monitor the space. (Young and Zazeela live according to a different day-length than most of the rest of us, and phase in and out of our common hours.)



I just returned from Brisbane, where I encountered an interesting temporary installation in their gorgeous Queensland State Library. Someone had taken recordings of various street sounds, and sent them to the bottoms of those large water bottles that sit upside down on office coolers. At the opening, on top, they had attached long purple tubes, (like giant bendy straws, those children's toys that you can whip around to make different sounds?). People would go up and listen through the tubes individually, very cute. I sat nearby waiting for a friend to come in from the deluge outside where there was a dancer and two sound artists playing in the rain, not moving. Gradually, oh so slowly, the sounds started to seep out of the tubes and into my ears. They had of course been there the whole time, but they were so delicate that I hadn't separated them out of my internal thoughts and memories. I heard a tiny honking, and a tiny beeping walk signal, and tiny people rushing about, as if I were a bird, high above, on a windless day. I did not see anyone else sit for so long, and am sure that even in the quiet library most people did not get to hear those distant city sounds in that way. It was like the opposite of everything. I liked that part most.




I regret that I still have not posted my pictures of that part of my trip.



Also in Brisbane, I took a boat down (up?) the river to the Lone Pine Koala reserve (not a fan of grumpy wooly narcotic addicts, I go there to pet the soft, sweet kangaroos and wallabies). We passed under a bridge, the end guardposts (what is the word?) of which they had converted into apartments. One family has lived there many, many years. The bridge rattles and shakes with the noise of the cars and the trucks and the wind. The guide said that the man who lives there now cannot sleep when he goes out into the country, he is so used to the racket.



Stuart Dempster here in Seattle can also provide you with a thorough and sound ear cleaning. (He would have liked that awful pun.)

[onthemoon.livejournal.com]

One of the major problems relating to noise in New York is highlighted by several of the comments up above where everyone seems so quick to say "It's New York, don't like it? Too bad!" I see this on an every day basis where so many people, including the mayor, seem completely content to write off serious quality of life issues as being an inevitable, un-fixable part of life in New York City. Undoubtedly there is a certain degree of sacrifice one must make when living in an over-populated environ, but there is no excuses the overwhelming lack of an effort on the city's part to curb unnecessary noise, especially when it is, technically speaking, breaking the law. Whether you're talking about noisey neighbors, booming car stereos, car alarms, or, what I find to be the biggest problem these days, horrendous construction going on at all hours (the DoB may be the city's biggest joke of all when it comes to enforcing illegal construction). Given a little effort and care on both the city and citizens part, a lot can be done about noise and it doesn't come at the cost of the 'character of the city.' I don't know about some folks, but not being able to sleep or think while pile drivers and my neighbors' ever so delightful music choices rock the walls and my brain certainly doesn't contribute to my 'genuine new york experience.'

[(Anonymous)]

Where were you born and raised? If you don't like it, leave - seriously. It's like moving to a Puerto Rican neighborhood and complaining that they're playing raggaeton too loud - what would happen if you walked out there and told those kind, dear sirs to turn off that racket?

People have done enough to make this city sanitized and boring - and now they want to take it further and get rid of the noise. There are plenty of places that are peaceful and quiet in New York City and the area. Just move there. Some people like it, some don't - if you're one of those who don't, fix your life and move.

Anony-mouses

[(Anonymous)]

Are non-bloggers gentler and kinder people because they don't contribute to the opinion-noise of the internet? Some of us don't like the macho rough and tumble of it all.

[wildbirdcall.livejournal.com]

There's a whole lot of merit to bringing up the issue of noise saturation. Some of it can't be altered in a place like New York, sure, but it seems then that the side-effect is so many folks being de-sensitized to their aural environment, and you get this unnecessary clutter of noise in environments where it could be more deliberate.
I was in Montana this summer, in Glacier Park, and one of their goals is to provide a really deliberate soundscape so that we understand what a place sounds like without the din of the constructed landscape.

[violet-hemlock.livejournal.com]

buuuuurn. nice scathing...loved it.

[(Anonymous)]

you might check this out, perhaps you have already read it:

Ocean of Sound (http://www.amazon.com/Ocean-Sound-David-Toop/dp/1852427434)

quite interesting.

–––kyle (http://disconnection.blogspot.com)

[(Anonymous)]

WHY MUST YOU ALWAYS POST PICTURES WHERE YOU'RE INVITING PEOPLE TO HAVE SEX WITH YOU? YOU ARE SLOWLY DESTROYING MY SANITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This City Never Sleeps - 1983

[pay-option07.livejournal.com]

Wait till they have a Grand Prix in the core of your town,OH YEAH BABY!

[microworlds.livejournal.com]

You complain about the noise in New York, but have you ever had to endure watching Kristeen Young open (http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=1443d43&s=2) for (http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=o8zcwy&s=2) Morrissey (http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=f29bsx&s=2)? Much less twice in one year? Go see her in concert and report back to me, mister.

Seleena (councilestate) and I were discussing this at length (more like trying to yell over Kristeen's wailing) and we came to the conclusion that we would win the noise battle. I mean, even the merchandise booth advertised ear plugs next to the advertisement of Kristeen's album.

>:(

[councilestate.livejournal.com]

my ears are still ringing from that :(

[(Anonymous)]

Oh god, New York is SO AWFUL! But I keep accepting invitations to come here! You have to listen to me whine about it again and again!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

It's more interesting than listening to you whining about me whining about it!

[eclectiktronik.livejournal.com]

re: noise annoys
Being based in Madrid I agree! Spain in general (or at least the Spanish) is/are probably the noisiest European country/society.
Thing is, i don't mind city noise per se, I do accept it is inevitable when you get millions of people in one small geographical area, but what pisses me off (and I suspect many others posting earlier in this thread) is the sheer 'gratuitous' side of things, which amounts to a lack of civil consciousness or awareness of others, even selfishness. We need to distinguish between inevitable or even 'necessary ' noise from this.

I am talking about people standing next to one another, in an almost empty bar, and shouting their conversations unnecessarily; people bellowing from balconies down to someone in the street for ages, people blaring (almost always shit!) music from cars late at night in the tragically misguided assumption that whoever hears/sees them is going to think how wonderful they/their car/stereo/music taste are.... and above all: TVs in bars, shop fronts, on public transport and other public spaces blaring out stuff nobody is even paying attention to. I've even been in bars/restaurants here where they have had the TV AND the stereo on! I mean, WHY...?

I think as Kumakouii says, it's our lack of control over noise which makes us irritated. And when it is noise for noise's sake, well....

Anyway with that rant in mind, I am planning a series of 'art events' on this theme. After all, wasn't it the dadaists or situationists who said that we need to use our experience-as-lived as a canvas, creating a reality, making the revolution of everyday life...going beyond art and politics, as anything art can do life can do better.....etc.

I will put the project up on the website soon, in fact there are a few preliminary ideas for such projects already there at www.eclectiktronik.tk if anyone is interested! I'd love to hear from potential participants too.

Ben

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry to hear of your unhappy PS1 experience. I run the bookstore there (on behalf of D.A.P., the art book distributor and publisher), and while I do feel fondly towards the museum, I can only agree that the Fowler film cock-up is bizarre, and the Marclay drown-out almost comical. Fortunately the show came down yesterday. And you caught the place in between exhibits, which is why the cafe was closed... it was the very tail-end of a season of interesting shows (Linder and Jim Shaw especially). Anyway, just a note to say that I always enjoy reading your blog, and next time you come by please say hello. (I think we have friends or acquaintances in common from Edinburgh [I'm an ex-pat]). I'll give you a discount as a reparative gesture on behalf of P.S.1!

Thomas Evans

助けて！another viewpoint

[(Anonymous)]

I moved to Berlin and I can't sleep. They are gutting one of the buildings behind me to gentrify it so young professionals will fancy it and pay more to live there; I hear huge chunks of debris falling in the morning. The street side...in my dreams the M1 is rumbling over my face, and the U-Bahn is a blinding yellow bandanna over my eyes. The jackhammers from the intersection which have been continuing for days add some unpredictable rhythm, at least. My roommate mentioned living near Frankfurter Allee before this apartment, he said they couldn't even leave their living room window open because otherwise they were unable to have a conversation for the noise. You'll tell me I need to find a better apartment or a better neighborhood, and you're probably right, but one has to admit, I'm in Berlin and I have a headache. Apparently anything is possible, anywhere.
patrick

Why going to a gallery to see a film?

[(Anonymous)]

I don't get it.