Memory Soundscape
By Mia Date: 10/25/2020
It was my personal experience that I went to Jiangxi to go on my first journey as a volunteer teacher. When I went there, the floods had just ended, but there was still going to be heavy rain. And unfortunately, this just happened to me. It was morning, and the thunder appeared unexpectedly and was followed by increasingly heavy rain. The mixed sound by the thunder and heavy rain really made me hesitate whether to go to school or not because I’m afraid that the heavy rain might let the students don’t be school. As I hesitated, I paced up and down the room. Finally, I decided to go to school. However, when I walked out of the room, I found that the original road had been flooded with water. The only way that I could get to school was boating. On my way to school by boat, I was hearing the rain colliding on my umbrella, struggling with whether I had made the right decision. But, when I was about to reach the school, the laughing from the kids in the school could be clearly heard, which made me feel shame about my previous hesitation. Walking into the school, shaking off the water from the umbrella, and taking a deep breath, I rang the bell to begin the class. This experience impressed me greatly, due to children’s’ passion for gaining knowledge and insistence without considering the horrible weather condition, which motivated me to continue this project until now.
By manipulating the sound from the boxes and the clubs, I hope to imitate the sound of the thunder and the heavy rain, which can represent the terrifying weather condition at that time. I will use the fast-moving steps to show my inner hesitation. And I’m going to imitate the sound of rowing by stirring the water. Finally, I will use the sound of kids’ laughing and bell to do the contrast with the former sound that consists of uncomfortable elements to highlight my delighted feeling of seeing the kids and also arouse people’s imagination of what’s going on.