To use the field notes, write the date and your initials followed by the thoughts/weblink/sources you want to share. These can also include discussion questions, provocations, references, etc. Please post the latest thoughts above, blog style.  

8/24

Last two episodes have made me meditate about “utopia” and “nostalgia”--both seem to have categories of affect emerges with scavenged bits of audio (or video). The “no-place” of utopia, and the longing of nostos (home) + algos (pain/ache) seem to be related somehow. Listening to Gena’s soundwalk, and then seeing Dana walk the same “empty campus” that was the spatial signature of our community caused a bit of unexpected deja vu that was reinforced by the odd eavesdropping feelings I get as I browse Cassie, Ru’a and Akana’s footnotes to their piece, Sounds of Home. Both episodes underscore the ways the pandemic works not only to quarantine bodies but experiences and daily life as well. Can’t help that the affective residue of this time is going to be that sense of low-grade longing and fragile (and thus hard-won) connection that permeate all aspects of the quotidian (listen for example to 11:26 of the Discovery Sound Collage, “Swing With Rudy”).

SHOUT OUT TO JOSH for assembling the audiographic data from the Sounds of Home project onto our platform, and the awesome collecting done by the TEAM, to produce the Footnotes section of the project page- a true “sonic-taxonomic work of art!” Would love for folks to think through the various forms of audiography represented so far by the digital salon--what has “resonated” (pun intended?)

“The phenomenon of déjà vu has often been described. Is the term really apt? Shouldn’t we rather speak of events which affect us like an echo–one awakened by a sound that seems to have issued from the darkness of past life? By the same token, the shock with which a moment enters our consciousness as if already lived through tends to strike us in the form of a sound. It is a word, a rustling or knocking, that is endowed with the power to call us unexpectedly into the cool sepulcher of the past, from whose vault the present seems to resound only as an echo. Strange that no one has yet inquired into the counterpart of this transport–namely, the shock with which a word makes us pull up short, like a muff that someone has forgotten in our room. Just as the latter points us to a stranger who was on the premises, so there are words or pauses pointing us to that invisible stranger–the future–which forgot them at our place.”—Walter Benjamin

8/12

@RBL loved reading your own memory re: Vietnamese market, and you're calling the episode an “auditory derive” which it was with a sort-of-imagine gustatory register. I too hope you write more about markets!

8/10

GW: Lili Raygoza’s blogpost Soundscapes of Pandemia: Narrative is the most kaleidoscopic online experience I’ve ever encountered. The platform Lili has developed has this capacity to hold multiple voices, images, and stories simultaneously, setting up for a truly collaborative, international project. I want to see where it continues to go, with the companion dog guiding!

RBL: Hi Brady and all! Thank you for sharing your shopping with us this week - it was such an interesting and engaging episode, like an auditory derive. I really appreciated your ability to weave between personal stories and peeks into your research so seamlessly - the kind of description that makes it even easier to fall in love with this complex, multi-layered city of ours. Two moments really stood out to me this week: one, reflecting back on the LA County/City curfew was stunning. As unjust and raw and frenetic as the city felt in that moment, it is still eerie to listen back and feel so keenly all the ways in which our lives and our neighbors lives have changed under COVID and under an increasingly tumultuous and, well, nefarious political regime. The way that you captured this moment, so striking despite not a hint of exaggeration in your narrative or tone, will be interesting to look back on for years to come: a portal to a moment in history, surrounded by your other portals. The other was your reflection on the way we perceive markets as kids, the boring stop we’re dragged to. This hit home in many ways! Like you, my shopping habits have changed through quarantine and this new relationship with food (almost a newfound intimacy that comes from the increased awareness?) is dredging up all kinds of memories. Most often, they’re of the Vietnamese market my dad would take us to on Sundays on the way home from post-church family brunch. To me it was always hot, humid, and oh-so-boring; so I would sit on an upturned vegetable box while he caught up with (it seemed like) every person around. Now, I would trade 100 Trader Joe’s for just one good local Vietnamese market, and would doubtlessly spend just as long there if it weren’t for quarantine. Thanks for sharing these wonderful stories, connections, thoughts, and questions. I look forward to reading more of your work on markets!

8/8

Congratulations to Dr. Brady Collins for Esta Tienda Me Importa Mucho! Episode’s form gets at the ways narrative embodiment allows us vicariously simulate urban research. Loved moments like noticing how narrow the sidewalk is outside Asian Mart--its those details, along with Scarlett’s ducal beans, that entangle the listener into LA’s cityness cf Abdumalique Simone: “For all the efforts made to ensure order... transparency of how things work ...cityness continues to haunt the city. This is because in the same place and time, another set of conditions...have always already been possible-and in an important way, were always already in place.” Join us tomorrow guys as we trail Brady with....

!!!!!!!

What: The Fabulous Neighborhood Market Crawl AKA  Esta-Tienda- Me-Importa-Mucho-Walk

When: August 9 Sunday 2020, 3PM

Where: Mercado Benito Juarez/ Asian Mart  Map

Why: Change up your grocery trip, and support local businesses

!!!!!!!

Meet up Digital Salon hosts Jacqueline Barrios and Gus Wendel as they follow the trail of  fellow urban humanist, Brady Collins, while avoiding heat stroke. Join us IRL or follow our IG story. Broadcasting live @330PDT!

PS @AJ/@MR Thanks for the thoughts re: First Portal, and sharing what aspects resonated (npi). I really think we’re getting together a whole bunch of new adjectives and keywords for the city that your comments get at. Thanks for your generous listening--which is huge component of the endeavor!

PPS Catch the shout out to our very own Anastasia LS in episode 2!!

8/7

AJ: Really loved the first portal and the whole project. It’s been so much fun to be a part of. It’s allowed me to turn “feeling” into something tangible, or rather, audible! It was super insightful to hear Roy talk about the ‘no cost architecture’ around which she grew up, that seemed to just happen around her, organically, and how she contrasted that with the planned cities with their gridded street.

What are everyone’s thoughts about planned versus organic cities, are there hybrids, and as architects and planners, what should we strive for in our work centered around social justice? 

8/6

MR: So many congratulations for this wonderful project! I can’t wait to listen to the rest of the episodes! The first was very inspiring. I loved the selections you chose to highlight from Roy’s novel, especially those that spoke to the emotional entanglements of space. The warehouse as need (and loneliness), Cities as fizzy, effervescent - along with the textures of sound, graphics, voice, cello - a very rich representation of interdisciplinary, multimedia and  multi-sensory creativity. It provides a nice reprieve from the monotony that quarantine presents us with. It also speaks to the human aspects of the built environment. Great work, friends!

8/3

RBL: Soo…. when do we get the whole season soundtrack to download?? Because “I See a Door” is an EARWORM and i would like Gus playing cello as a soundtrack to everything.

Amazing work everyone! I’m still so in awe that you interviewed AR, and as a recent architecture grad her words are hitting in all the best ways - esp “That was how I came to architecture; and how architecture taught me so many things - not necessarily in class, but in my battles with my professors.” Hearing someone else describe the “battles” as part of the process is so validating.

Phenomenal work all around. So much love for the look, sound, and feel of everything.

GW: Adam’s blog post is up! I love the interactivity of it, and the connection to cosmology and Xolotl. I want to see where the spirit dog takes us!

7/31

SR : @JH my angel, YES THIS IS A PUBLIC CHAT ROOM please leave more more more comments or thoughts or love.  

@JJB @GW HELLO well done you guys the pilot is so captivating. With Gus’s cello I feel like I’m listening to this old storybook, you know.
(ɔ◔‿◔)ɔ ♥

ALSO I’m constantly starstruck with Arundhati! Gonna to go back and read the book again.  

JH: I actually don’t know if I’m allowed to add to this but it seems like it’s public! I love this concept and the website looks amazing. Really looking forward to following along for this chat room and your conversations!

DC: UHI Fieldnotes are shared -- so yes, you can add. Just think about constructing a future we want to live in while you contribute!!

Fieldnotes live on as our UH way of life! I love it.

I AM SO IMPRESSED WITH OUR UH ALUMNI! THE PODCAST IS BRILLIANT. GUS AND JACQUELINE PRODUCED SUCH A THOUGHTFUL FIRST EPISODE, WITH ADDITIONAL CREDITS DUE TO HEIDI AND SAI AND JOSH. THIS IS SUCH AN INTERESTING NEW PLATFORM FOR URBAN HUMANITIES -- WITH LITERATURE, MUSIC, NARRATIVE, AND CONVERSATION ALL AT THE FORE.

I WAS SO TAKEN BY WHAT ARUNDHATI ROY SAYS ABOUT ARCHITECTURE EDUCATION - THAT SHE DID NOT UNDERSTAND WHEN SHE STARTED THE PROGRAM THAT THERE WAS AN IMPLIED CONNECTION BETWEEN MONEY AND BEAUTIFUL ARCHITECTURE. HER MOTHER’S SCHOOL WAS PRACTICALLY “NO-COST ARCHITECTURE” (A PLAY ON LOW-COST), AND WAS EXCEPTIONAL IN HER RECOLLECTION. I WISH WE COULD BREAK THAT BOND ONCE AND FOR ALL, TO MAKE SURE THAT BUILDINGS WE DESIGN ARE DRIVEN BY ROBUST CULTURAL RESOURCES NOT FINANCIAL ONES.

JJB: @JH YESSSS! Please do add your thoughts!!! PUBLIC CHAT=PUBLIC SPACE!

WE ARE LIVE LIVE LIVE LIIIIIIIVE! THE DIGITAL SALON IS BORN! Have you listened to the pilot yet??? Tell us what you think about “First Portal: Reading With Arundhati Roy!”  ↑ Super huge thanks to Arundhati Roy for agreeing to talk to us, and shout out to the amazing cello by Gus Wendel! And also my students of class of 2019-2020 for the field recordings conducted for the project Never Say Die: A Tribute to the 92 Rebellion!  Stories about the sounds can be found here And hello Prof@DSS and @KW Thanks for dropping by, come by again!

7/30

DSS: Excited to listen tomorrow! Also, love this field notes doc!

KW: The preview audio sounds amazing...can’t wait to hear more :)

7/29

GW: We’re almost ready to launch! Can’t wait to see what people think of our new podcast.

JN: test test test

7/28

JJB: I’m so excited about SALON 03! I really hope folks jump in to share their thoughts on fieldnotes. For example it would be great to have links here to other awesome online platforms that we are in conversation with, say for example, the sound studies podcast and blog, Sounding Out!! https://soundstudiesblog.com.  Also a quick shout out to our wonderful website designer Josh Nelson--isn’t this green scrollbar great-->

JN: hello

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