Black Creek Scores
Below are 5 scores for performing an ethnography of the Black Creek Trail in York, Ontario.
Scroll down to view each of them.
Scroll down to view each of them.
A GUIDE TO GETTING LOST
You will receive a paper artifact that resembles a camera,
To begin, look through the hole in the middle, and start moving through the space, notice that you can zoom in to see something from closer, zoom out to look from a distance, do tracking shots, focus on a certain perspective, etc. etc.
You will now go on to making your ‘film’, to begin, you will allow the images to enter through the frame of your camera. Go wherever your attention and desire leads you.
As you go, also allow your thinking voice, and your sensations to enter your field of consciousness. You can finish whenever you are ready.
Now, you will bring our attention to the sound of the film, You will go back to the same trajectory you did with the camera and will register the sounds through your own body, You can close your eyes, this will help you to allow the sounds come to you.
You can finish whenever you are ready.
Narrating your film and recording it in sound
Now it’s time to narrate your film and record it in sound. The script of your film is the description of what you just experienced.
You have three scripts:
To narrate, you can take and alternate materials from the three scripts: the image, the sound and the thought/sensations, in the order that you choose
While narrating your script, take your time to recall and reflect as needed.
The sounds can be described in words, but can also be done in sound.
The narration of the film can be done in a group, in which case the scripts will be narrated in an alternate, sometimes overlapping manner. It is important here to carefully listen to what is being created collectively.
* When done in a group, the narrating of the film becomes a practice of ‘collective imagination’ to quote Arjun Appadurai’s notion. It is also a way of visiting the others’ sensory environments, through paying attention to the singular qualities of the particular place.
To begin, look through the hole in the middle, and start moving through the space, notice that you can zoom in to see something from closer, zoom out to look from a distance, do tracking shots, focus on a certain perspective, etc. etc.
You will now go on to making your ‘film’, to begin, you will allow the images to enter through the frame of your camera. Go wherever your attention and desire leads you.
As you go, also allow your thinking voice, and your sensations to enter your field of consciousness. You can finish whenever you are ready.
Now, you will bring our attention to the sound of the film, You will go back to the same trajectory you did with the camera and will register the sounds through your own body, You can close your eyes, this will help you to allow the sounds come to you.
You can finish whenever you are ready.
Narrating your film and recording it in sound
Now it’s time to narrate your film and record it in sound. The script of your film is the description of what you just experienced.
You have three scripts:
- the image script
- the sound script
- the thoughts and sensations
To narrate, you can take and alternate materials from the three scripts: the image, the sound and the thought/sensations, in the order that you choose
While narrating your script, take your time to recall and reflect as needed.
The sounds can be described in words, but can also be done in sound.
The narration of the film can be done in a group, in which case the scripts will be narrated in an alternate, sometimes overlapping manner. It is important here to carefully listen to what is being created collectively.
* When done in a group, the narrating of the film becomes a practice of ‘collective imagination’ to quote Arjun Appadurai’s notion. It is also a way of visiting the others’ sensory environments, through paying attention to the singular qualities of the particular place.
SOUNDWALKING THROUGH BLACK CREEK
Below is an interactive text-based score for listening as a guide through Black Creek (NOTE: best viewed on a laptop/desktop)
Controls:
1. Most elements in the screen below are clickable. The main performance is in "index.html"; but you can view other files by clicking on them.
2. Please click and drag on the grey 'index.html' box to make sure you can see it alongside the large text in the middle of the screen.
3. To start: Press the blue triangle at the bottom-left corner of the window.
Controls:
1. Most elements in the screen below are clickable. The main performance is in "index.html"; but you can view other files by clicking on them.
2. Please click and drag on the grey 'index.html' box to make sure you can see it alongside the large text in the middle of the screen.
3. To start: Press the blue triangle at the bottom-left corner of the window.
LISTENING TO LINE 9
This meditation can be done anywhere on the line 9 pipeline which runs from Sarnia to Montreal.
Find an Enbridge sign on the line 9 route
Face West. Stand comfortable , with your feet slightly apart, close your eye.
Line 9 is a oil pipeline caring tarsands oil bitumen in Alberta
First I want to acknowledge the land we stand: "Toronto is in the 'Dish With One Spoon Territory’. The Dish With One Spoon is a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas and Haudenosaunee that bound them to share the territory and protect the land. Subsequent Indigenous Nations and peoples, Europeans and all newcomers have been invited into this treaty in the spirit of peace, friendship and respect." The "Dish", or sometimes it is called the "Bowl", represents what is now southern Ontario, from the Great Lakes to Quebec and from Lake Simcoe into the United States. *We all eat out of the Dish, all of us that share this territory, with only one spoon. That means we have to share the responsibility of ensuring the dish is never empty, which includes taking care of the land and the creatures we share it with. Importantly, there are no knives at the table, representing that we must keep the peace. The dish is graphically represented by the wampum pictured above.
Listen to sounds in the distance and follow the sounds until there are barely audible, and listen to sounds on the location.
{breathe and listen}
You have two contact microphones attached on the tip of roots growing out of your feet. They grow down in search of the pipeline. Once you found it, place the contact mics on the pipeline, gentle you don't want to puncture it. It is old, and now carries a bitumen, which is diluted with benzene, n-hexane, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to make it flow. If punctured, the chemicals will spill into the Black Creek, which flows into the Humber River, and ends in Lake Ontario.
Can you hear bitumen flow?
{breathe and listen}
You facing West to Sarnia , home of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation , their reserve is for a large part encircled by chemical industry.
How do they listen to their land?
{breathe and listen}
Turn 180 degrees, be careful to not tangle your roots. Keep your contact mic firmly but gently on the pipeline
Does the bitumen sound different ?
{breathe and listen}
East all the way to Montreal the pipeline cuts through Indigenous land. It crosses rivers, sneaks underneath communities. It presence hidden to only marked by pipeline signs.
It is so silent.
Can you hear the bitumen flow?
{breathe and listen}
Carefully bring the contact mics and roots back into your feet. And don't walk away.
Find an Enbridge sign on the line 9 route
Face West. Stand comfortable , with your feet slightly apart, close your eye.
Line 9 is a oil pipeline caring tarsands oil bitumen in Alberta
First I want to acknowledge the land we stand: "Toronto is in the 'Dish With One Spoon Territory’. The Dish With One Spoon is a treaty between the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas and Haudenosaunee that bound them to share the territory and protect the land. Subsequent Indigenous Nations and peoples, Europeans and all newcomers have been invited into this treaty in the spirit of peace, friendship and respect." The "Dish", or sometimes it is called the "Bowl", represents what is now southern Ontario, from the Great Lakes to Quebec and from Lake Simcoe into the United States. *We all eat out of the Dish, all of us that share this territory, with only one spoon. That means we have to share the responsibility of ensuring the dish is never empty, which includes taking care of the land and the creatures we share it with. Importantly, there are no knives at the table, representing that we must keep the peace. The dish is graphically represented by the wampum pictured above.
Listen to sounds in the distance and follow the sounds until there are barely audible, and listen to sounds on the location.
{breathe and listen}
You have two contact microphones attached on the tip of roots growing out of your feet. They grow down in search of the pipeline. Once you found it, place the contact mics on the pipeline, gentle you don't want to puncture it. It is old, and now carries a bitumen, which is diluted with benzene, n-hexane, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to make it flow. If punctured, the chemicals will spill into the Black Creek, which flows into the Humber River, and ends in Lake Ontario.
Can you hear bitumen flow?
{breathe and listen}
You facing West to Sarnia , home of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation , their reserve is for a large part encircled by chemical industry.
How do they listen to their land?
{breathe and listen}
Turn 180 degrees, be careful to not tangle your roots. Keep your contact mic firmly but gently on the pipeline
Does the bitumen sound different ?
{breathe and listen}
East all the way to Montreal the pipeline cuts through Indigenous land. It crosses rivers, sneaks underneath communities. It presence hidden to only marked by pipeline signs.
It is so silent.
Can you hear the bitumen flow?
{breathe and listen}
Carefully bring the contact mics and roots back into your feet. And don't walk away.
BLACK CREEK GRAPHIC SCORE
What struck me the most about our walk was the way the concrete path choreographed me, and how it asserted human industrial power. I was reminded of Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier's chapter in A Different Kind of Ethnography, especially her discussion of Alyssa Grossman's film Lumina Amintirri. How do paths move us? How do they decide the frame of our photographs, videos, captured sounds, experiences? I chose to record these questions in a graphic score. Unlike traditional music notation, a graphic score allows objects outside of quarter notes, whole rests, etc. to be sounded by instruments. In my score, I include apartment buildings, the flow of the river, the concrete path, and an airplane. I have considered multiple ways that these could be sounded; the airplane by timpani, a recorded airplane engine, or trombone; the path by percussion, strings, or the sound of footsteps. The height of the score could stand for pitch, intensity, tempo, or any number of other variables, as could width, length, and colour. I used green, yellow, and blue to indicate "nature" and orange, pink and black to indicate "man-made" sounds. The score focuses on the interplay and overlap of the two; I use traditional notation in the space between the flows of concrete and water, hoping that whoever plays this score focuses on the tension between what is "natural" and what is "man-made." I do not think that this score should be limited by my imagination - players and analysts can choose whatever instruments and guidelines they would like to use while playing this graphic score.
What other objects could be added to this score? How do you imagine it being played? Can you imagine other graphic scores based on your experiences in Black Creek?
What other objects could be added to this score? How do you imagine it being played? Can you imagine other graphic scores based on your experiences in Black Creek?
