Habituation, 2020
Kyle Bates
“On every new thing there lies already the shadow of annihilation.”
― W.G. Sebald
Score:
Choose a familiar path that you travel frequently in daily life. Designate the start, middle, and end points of this path.
Take a stereo recording on each day that you traverse the path using a portable field recorder. During the recording stop moving at each of your previously designated points for one minute. Try to stay present with the sounds you are capturing.
When the sound of each traversal is collected add it to a growing project file in your digital audio workstation (feel free to use analog recording and mixing methods if you have the means). Each new day will stack atop the previous days. The sequence is iterative, with each day repeating after it is added: the first iteration will be the first day sounding by itself, the second iteration will include the first and second days sounding simultaneously, the third iteration will include the first, second, and third days sounding simultaneously etc… The days in each iteration begin again and sound simultaneously after the longest recording in the previous iteration ceases to sound.
Continue this process of recording and organizing the sound of your travels until (a.) you reach an iteration in which all sounds have become a cloud of noise with no distinguishing features or (b.) you no longer traverse the path in your daily life.
If you wish, create variations of Habituation as you become familiar with new paths.