I got this sound walk started the way I would have really liked -- completely randomly. I was taking the F train up to 23 street and was going to go do the Met one later (admittedly since it was the shortest), but I figured I'd pass through the east side and might as well do the poetry walk, since that's where it was located.
I didn't realize it was an hour and a half, but that's how life works, and it's wonderful!
While taking the walk, there were three main themes that came to mind: the form of the sound walk itself, the content of the sound walk, and the real world that, inevitably, intrudes upon the sound walk. So, let's tackle each of those.
This gives me a bit of a better idea about what a sound walk is -- they tell you to go somewhere and then there are sounds. The ones I'd imagined were a lot more abstract, but this was pretty concrete. I think it's cool they had such a well-defined area for their walk (exclusively east village). It makes me wonder whether there's a sound walk you could do just anywhere (but would that be any different than just music or ambient noise?)
I liked this! At the beginning I didn't really see myself wandering around for an hour listening to this history lesson, especially since I'd heard the other ones were much more atmospheric and eerie, which appealed to me. But I think this is important history, and the ability to be there walking the same streets is really useful. It keeps the history from becoming dry. I wish they'd had more miscellaneous sounds, though.
Ahhh, real life. This is the most important part, I'd say. There were definitely a few times in the sound walk that I ran into roadblocks (or at least awkward situations) that the creators couldn't have anticipated. Near the start of the walk you need to go into Saint Mark's chapel and walk into the second floor to gaze out of the window. The problem is, there were a bunch of young girls doing some sort of dance class up there, and people were definitely giving me some odd looks. I went down to hang around in the courtyard instead, but... people were giving me odd looks out the window.
Later, I was supposed to hang around outside of a church or soup kitchen or something... but I couldn't find it at all. I legitimately think it was destroyed and replaced by a modern apartment building. Other buildings they wanted me to explore were closed or sometimes I just couldn't find them either.
This definitely makes me think about how I want my sound walk to stand the test of time. Being too specific runs the risk of making a sound walk that can become quickly outdated. At the same time, it reminds me of the importance of time in any piece of audio or visual media.
Here's the link to the soundwalk itself, on Soundcloud. Comments? Questions? Concerns? Email me here!