A researcher in Vancouver has created an auditory experience for people to add to their walks of the coastline near Stanley Park this month.
“It is meant to be enjoyed outdoors,” self-proclaimed sound-walker and artist Jacek Smolicki explained to Vancouver Is Awesome.
“Intertidal Room” interweaves historical research, field recordings, and storytelling to conceptualize the many discoverable sounds of Second Beach, including the hum of ship engines during low tide.
The audio tour “is designed to provoke creative ideas for how humans might begin to make amends for their impact on this environment."
Can attentive listening to cyclical rhythms derail our human obsession with the constant, linear growth and progression? The researcher is asking those who tune in to listen.
A Polish-Swedish researcher, Smolicki is in the process of studying how art can raise awareness about non-human habitats through international postdoctoral work funded by the Swedish Research Agency and supported by Sweden's Linköping University.
The audio soundscape, an hour-long, is now available for streaming until Oct. 28 and – but only during Vancouver’s low tide times.
It is intended to be listened to during a period of "slack water," a moment when the tide is at the lowest point and soon about to return.
Walkers are encouraged to use good quality headphones to better listen to the narrative.
