Blog #2 Sound Walk

Life on Staten Island is nothing like life in Manhattan. I feel like Staten Island is more like a quiet reserved little brother of charming, outgoing big brother Manhattan. On the island, there are actually undeveloped land still in its primal state, and time seems to pass a lot slower here than in Manhattan. Every time I'm Manhattan, everybody seem to be in a rush, rush to get to work, rush to get off work, and rush to begin a new day. No one takes or even have the time to slow down and appreciate their surroundings. And I become one of them when I'm in Manhattan. That's why I decided to do my sound walk in Staten Island.

My house on the island is about twenty minutes away from the South Beach, so I packed my camera, put on a cap, threw my phone in my backpack and started walking. I think the most distinct sound you hear on Staten Island is that there is no sound. You can actually hear yourself think, and sadly I was more distracted by my random thoughts rather than listening to the sounds around me.

The first sound signal that distracted me from my thoughts was a dog barking at me. It only scared me for a second but after that it was more embarrassing because in that street, the only sound that was audible was the barking, and the reason why it's riled up is because I walked into its line of vision. As I mentioned before there are many undeveloped lands on the island, and because the streets are more catered to cars, I have to basically walk in the middle of the road that is surrounded by weeds that are taller than I am. The mysterious creatures living in those lands create a keynote made up of birds chirping, bees buzzing, and once in a while, cars swooshing.

After about fifteen minutes I finally get to the beach, and the keynotes turned into seagulls, waves, small chatters, and camera clicks, which I contributed to. This walk was really relaxing, and the photos I took preserved the memory of that day.