Soundwalk Blog
Brief background summary: Every Monday, Wednesday and
Thursday morning I make my way through Penn Station and through the streets to
the 34th and Herald Square subway station and then every night back
to Penn Station from the subway, so I decided to split my sound walk into two
pieces to compare and contrast the same area at two different times.
Blog post:
Arriving in Penn Station in the mornings are always very hectic. It’s always loud, a mixture of phone conversations and footsteps making their way to the street or to the subway. The sounds are quick and rough due to the rush hour traffic coming from the people flooding off of peak trains. No one is stopping their movement creating a never ending rumble of footsteps and bags being wheeled across the floor. Leaving Penn Station and walking on the streets to the subway station is a whole different level of loud and busy. Taxis are blaring their horns trying to make it through the next stop light, people are rushing to get across the street yelling at the person blocking their way or rambling something over the phone and the subway rumbling from below creates an endless wall of incoming sound that can be so overwhelming yet so familiar and comfortable.
Blog post:
Arriving in Penn Station in the mornings are always very hectic. It’s always loud, a mixture of phone conversations and footsteps making their way to the street or to the subway. The sounds are quick and rough due to the rush hour traffic coming from the people flooding off of peak trains. No one is stopping their movement creating a never ending rumble of footsteps and bags being wheeled across the floor. Leaving Penn Station and walking on the streets to the subway station is a whole different level of loud and busy. Taxis are blaring their horns trying to make it through the next stop light, people are rushing to get across the street yelling at the person blocking their way or rambling something over the phone and the subway rumbling from below creates an endless wall of incoming sound that can be so overwhelming yet so familiar and comfortable.
Going back into Penn Station at
night after all of my classes are over and I have to wait till my train comes
to take me home is the complete opposite of my morning adventure. The atmosphere
is visually different and also audibly different. There are still taxis driving
by and people walking around but the sounds coming from the people are happy
and cheerful, calm even, completely different then the morning, it's mainly tourists exploring the streets and locals going home after a long day. Penn Station is
visibly less crowded and audibly the only sounds are the quiet phone
conversations and the track announcements coming over the loud speaker. No one
is in a rush, no one is irritated or grumpy like in the morning. Everyone is
tired and ready to go home therefore peaceful, serene and what I like the most,
nearly silent.
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