Sound scape Binckhorst

I started analyzing the first location, the binckhorst in The Hague. I recorded the environment sounds starting from the The Hague HS station all the way to the cemetery in the center of the binckhorst. The goal of this sound analyze was to capture the atmosphere, find unique sounds and establish the sound borders of the location. The data I have collected I will used to create two different approaches.  

For this approach I take the wave diagram of the recordings and place them over the route I walked. I have placed the routing in a abstract version of the area. In this map I can see the loudness and intensity of the sounds in the area in combination with the locations of the sound source.

But the this map only gives me data in the form of numbers, and not a atmosphere of the location. In order to “catch” the atmosphere I wrote a story, based on the book of Jose Saramago, Blindness. In his book a infectious disease blinds all the people in a city. In order to quarantine the disease, the government locks up the blind in a old asylum, until they can find a cure. After things come to a climax and the asylum burns down, all the blind find them self in the city what now have turned completely blind. Now the book follows the main characters in their journey into the city, but I split up from this point and write a story of three individuals who, after escaping the asylum and found themselves lost in the world, each came to one of the three location I chosen. They will experience the area blind, meaning that my the story will focus on the other senses. These three stories, together with the analytical data from the sound map,  will give me a understanding of the locations not only of the intensity, loudness and source of the sounds, but also about the experience of the area through the senses.  

(beginning of the three stories: "You tell the blind, you are free, you open the door that separates them from the outside world and repeat, you can go, you are free, but he does not go, he stands there in the middle of the street together with the other, they are terrified, do not know where to go, there is just no comparison between life in a rational labyrinth, what a asylum by definition is, and going without guidance in the crazy labyrinth what we call a city, where memory will not do you any good, because at its best it shows you places, and not the roads leading towards them. The blind stand in front of the building, flames come from every direction, they feel the heat waves slamming at their faces, just like the walls before meant also imprisonment as security....

I stand admits the blind, like everyone else confuse, afraid, lost............")

In order to compare these data, and the experiences, with the data of the other two areas (Rotterdam and Schinnen). I create a linear diagram of the map, showing the same information as the first map, together with the experience of the story. Creating this linear diagram gives me the opportunity to compare the three locations.

The blind in greek mythology!

For my research on how we perceive the blind throughout the years I decided to look at the greek mythology. The blind are common in these stories and always connected to the divine. Here is a small summary of blind people in greek mythology:

Polyphemus- What? Cyclops in the story of Odysseus. How? He was blinded when Odysseus escaped the island of the cyclops.

Phineus- What? King and seer in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. How? Phineus was given the gift  of prophecy by the goods, but had to choose between being blind and living a long life or seeing and have a short life. This because he revealed the discussions of the gods to the people. The god Helios, the god of the sun, was angry for Phineus to choose the darkness over 'his' sun and sends his harpies  to prevent Phineus from eating more than necessary. His torment ends when Jason kills the harpies.

Tiresias- What? Blind prophet from the stories of Odysseus, Oedipus and others stories . How? There are two stories of how Tiresias became blind. The first story tells that he got blinded as punishment for revealing secrets of the gods to the people. The second story tells that he was blinded by the goddes Athena, after seeing her naked taking a bath.

Oedipus- What? Son of the king of Thebes and lateron King of Thebes. How? The story of Oedipus is a  tragic story about a prophecy (by the blind seer Tiresias) of the king and queen of Thebes who will get a son, and this son will grow up to kill his father and marriage his mother. After the queen gave birth of a son the king gave the son away to a shepherd with the assignment to kill him, in order to stop the prophecy. Instead of killing the boy the shepherd gave the boy away to another family, who raises him as there own. After a couple of years, when he founds out he is adopted, he travels to the blind seer in order to get some information. Tiresias tells him the same prophecy and scared that he would do these horrors he decided to leave. In his travels, on a crossroad, the father and son meet each other and they quarrel over who may pass first. In the fight that happens Oedipus kills his father without knowing he is his father. Oedipus continuous his travels and on his way he defeated the sfinx that haunted the travelers of Thebes. Because the king of Thebes was dead by a unknown killer and because Oedipus killed the sfinx the people of Thebes crowned Oedipus to be there new king. He married the queen without knowing she was his mother. And together they got 4 children. After a couple of years disaster stroke the city of Thebes and the oracle told that only punishing the killer of the old king could bring back peace. After a will Oedipus found out that the man he killed was the old king and his father. The queen found out at she married her son and killed her self. After Oedipus found his wife / mother dead he poked out his eyes and let his daughter guide him out of the town in order to stop the curses that befell the city of Thebes.

Interesting about all these examples from the greek mythology is that their blindness is a punishment. In the stories of Phineus and Tiresias it was the sin of meddling with the affairs of the gods. While in the story of Polyphemus and  Oedipus it was done by man. Prophets and seers are often pictures as blind men. They are often respected for there knowledge and wisdom, but they where also feared, because of their divinity.