It will incorporate the application Audioboo which makes it really easy to upload a sound tagged to a specific location on a map. If you have any recordings of birdsong, please get them prepared for Twitchr’s re-launch (should be up and ready next week – watch this space) OR be inspired to go out and record some birdsong!

Links:

>>> Kathy Hinde’s interview in Gene Pool #24
>>> ‘Blackbird’ recordings on Audioboo
>>> Birdsong and wildlife recordings, so you can identify any birds featuring in recordings you’ve made
>>> Bird Songs at the British Library
>>> great article on reducing wind noise on smart-phone recordings

@displatypus reviews @SpectaCiera‘s “Meadow Return” on Audio Gourmet here >>>http://bit.ly/doI3Zo #ambient #netlabel #ccmusic (you can download the release and listen for yourself here at the Audio Gourmet website)

Joe Stevens AKA @51joe has been involved in a 24-hour long online residency with @soundproof3. The idea is to connect up 2012 Olympic sites via ‘site-specific live Twitterfeed.’ There has been much talk of sounds and sights between the three artists involved in the residency, and you can read these yourself here.

London Sound Survey AKA @LondonSounds has announced many new recordings on the website:

Sound action recording: Soprano sax busker Oxford Street http://bit.ly/9yi04R
Sound action recording: One pound your Pope flags http://bit.ly/clqWxZ
Sound map recording: Gents toilets London Bridge station http://bit.ly/d8GEvR
Sound map recording: Perfect Chicken Blackstock Road http://bit.ly/dho3wB

Tweets relating to other presentations and projects which are going to feature in the forthcoming Sound:Site festival:

Paul made some great Sound Diaries at the Greenbelt festival, which were picked up on by @greenbelt >>>Some brilliant recordings of the Sounds of Greenbelt – http://bit.ly/a0WAah #gb10

Sound Diaries also received a new contribution from @antonmobin >>>
Micro Sound Diary 08 by Anton Mobin http://www.sound-diaries.com/?p=806 Published on SOUND DIARIES

The British Library’s UK SoundMap have also been busy on the twitterfeed >>>

@uk_soundmap tweeted some early statistics from the UK SoundMap which make for interesting reading at >>>http://bit.ly/bapTbt #uksm #soundmap

From Atlantic magazine: The Quest for the First Soundscape http://bit.ly/9pAKki #soundscape #uksm

So there you go, a condensed Sound:Site tweetly newsletter for anyone who isn’t on twitter.

Audio Gourmet, the only net label that complies with UK workplace legislation. Each Audio Gourmet release fits into the 15 minute statutory tea break.

SoundFjord Gallery is gaining lots of media interest since it’s recent opening as a sound focussed gallery space. Curator, Helen Frosi talks about the gallery’s web archive and online projects.

Soundart Radio 102.5FM are a community radio station based in Dartington. Their programme streams on the web and they will discuss differing attitudes to listening on air and through the digital stream.

London Sound Survey collects and archives the diverse spectrum of urban audio from places and events in the Capital, licensed through Creative Commons on their web site.

Joe Stevens/Sound of Seaside started as a World Listening Day project inviting people to contribute their own sounds of the seaside to the site.

The first episode on 8th Sept, presented by Martin Franklin & Felicity Ford, features discussion of the London Sound Survey, Sound Diaries and a telephone interview with Kathy Hinde about her work and the presentation of “Twitchr” at Sound:Site.

The following week 15th Sept, sees sound artist and performer, Jonathan Coleclough come in for a talk, where he demonstrates the filtering and processing technique he’ll be using to generate sound material for performance from the all night recording we took in the Recital Room at South Hill Park.

Dartington-based, Soundart Radio 102FM broadcasts to the Totnes area and on the web from: www.soundartradio.org.uk

Gene Pool is also available as a podcast and you can subscribe via the iTunes Channel. We also post links to individual episodes at www.digitalmediacentre.org  here.

Watch out for this 8th page beauty in the October issues!

The building where Sound:Site is to be held is wonderfully old and characterful. It has many hidden corners and architectural features, including a very old passage around the back of the Studio Theatre upstairs with notably creaky floorboards.

I recorded the sound of these floorboards on Wednesday and uploaded it to the UK Sound Map. Walking on the floorboards produces an amazing sound because this part of the building is very old, and so I spent a good 15 minutes wandering about on them in my bare feet, appreciating the sonic qualities of the old wood. A longer recording is being sent to Jonathon Coleclough, who may use it in his performance at Site:Sound.

I have been excited about the idea of the UK Sound Map ever since I first heard about it several months ago. I think the project is an accessible, inclusive and participatory way for the whole country to get involved in documenting, celebrating, noticing and recording everyday sounds. And I think the collective, sonic portrait of the country that will be created through people’s uploads will be an important document for posterity – rather like the texts which Ian Rawes presents on the London Sound Survey from earlier centuries, which tell us so much about the way that London sounded in previous eras. The sound map is going to be a sonic snapshot from Summer 2010 – Summer 2011 of Britain, and what makes it so amazing is that anyone can contribute sounds to it.

Sound-recording is a realm that has historically been the province of a few geeky specialists and extremely costly equipment, but with the increasing availability of affordable recording devices and software, it is becoming an activity that more people can participate in. Partnering up with Audioboo means that anyone with an iPhone or a phone that uses the Android platform can join in with the project. Alternatively, if one doesn’t have a smartphone, there is an easy uploading interface at the Audioboo website and any configuration of microphone + computer + internet connection can be used to contribute to the map like this.

Over the years there have been several projects which documented the soundscapes of a region or a district – some of my personal favourites include the London Favourite Sounds project by Peter Cusack, and the Sounding Dartmoor project, by John Levack Drever. Projects which incorporate mapping software – such as the Gordon Soundscape project by Pete Stollery, or Trevor Cox’s Sound Tourism project – are growing in number, as software and technology for mapping and uploading sounds develop.

All of these ideas feed into long-established cultural ideas concerning our relationship to everyday sounds, and the relationship between one’s sense of place, and sound, and I am really excited to see a project that extends these ideas on the scale of the UK Sound Map. I am really looking forward to hearing what the British Library will say about the project on 2nd October at Sound:Site.

So far I have most enjoyed listening to the following sounds on the UK Sound Map;

The time and tide bell from the Outer Hebrides, recorded by Vergette (because I am obsessed with the Outer Hebrides and the knitting traditions which surround that region)

Ironing. Yet again. – recorded in Richmond (because it is such a familiar sound, and because this is such a lovely, clear recording of something we normally take for granted)

First notes of the day – recorded by swiftly (because I type like that, too, and I think it’s really interesting how specific people’s different typing styles are)

The Watermill at the Weald and Downland Museum in West Sussex – recorded by rranft (because I have been to this mill and made bread from the flour they grind there, and because listening to this reminds me of those happy times)

Beside the sea near Tenby – recorded by walk2010 (because it was a lovely surprise to find this recording up there from my other half!)

What sounds are you enjoying, and what sounds are you uploading?

Sound:Site gets a whole page of it’s own with Felicity’s cool “speaker maps” photo as a backdrop. We wanted to use another image to represent the evening “Framework 250 Remixed” concert, and with the haste of the venue print production cycle, turned to the Internets for help.

I came across the image of Jonathan Coleclough performing live in the photo-stream of US photographer, Greg Cristman on Flickr. We mailed Greg, who kindly let us use the image in exchange for a photo credit (it’s on the final print version, honest) and copies of the venue print. You can see more about Greg’s activities on his blog: gregcphotography.blogspot.com/ (he’s just put up some shots of Dub legend, Lee Scratch Perry which are well worth a look! )

The deadline for 9 x 5 submissions has now been extended to Wednesday August 25th; presenters will be notified of acceptance by the 26th.

Full details and details on how to submit your web project for consideration are given here.

10.30 – Brief keynote address from Felicity Ford, introducing the idea of The Internet as a destination for sound-based works, and some of the issues surrounding online/offline creative practices

10.45 – 11.00am: Address from the British Library on curating from sound archives and The Internet as a destination for the UK sound map project

11.30- 12.00 – Coffee break

12.15 -13.00 – Patrick McGinley presentation on folk communities, The Internet as a destination for sound-based works, Framework radio show as a focus or hub for a global community of artists etc.

13.00-2.00pm – Lunch

2.00 –2.45:  9 x 5 minute presentations from a curated selection of practitioners using sound on their websites. These are micro-presentations, where each presenter gets 5 minutes to introduce their website and their work, introduce the key things they considered when they built their website and how/why they have chosen to showcase their work on The Internet (see call for submissions page for further details)

3.00 –4.00pm: Kathy Hinde and Ed Holroyd present twitchr in 2 parts; part 1 is a presentation about the background of the project, part 2 is a walk around the grounds of South Hill Park, experiencing and making the work in realtime

4.00 – 4.30pm: Coffee break

4.30 –5.00pm: Sound Diaries – Felicity Ford and Paul Whitty talk about sound diaries and wrap up the day with some reflections on experience, documentation, and recording life in sound

7.30pm: Evening concert – Framework 250 Remixed, featuring remixes of the Framework 250 CD release by contributors Simon Whetham and Jonathon Coleclough, as well as a performance by the project’s curator and instigator, Patrick McGinley