Audio Walk - "The Unheard"

Download it here

Group mate: Sara S.Manesh

Basically the audio walk takes place in Accolade East building, starting its journey at the Northeast entrance of the building. Then it goes into the lobby then the basement following to Room 001. Then the walk continues to the long and quiet hallway next to Room 001. The destination is the end of the hallway, where a murder happened in 2007.

The story is purely fiction, but the location is real. We chose a new building because nobody would think a new building could be "haunted" too. The whole audio walk is in an atmosphere of Real vs. Unreal and Past vs. Present. Sue's haunted story was back in 2007 but the listener is following BOTH the narrator (the present) AND Sue (the past). The filtered voice of the narrator is to depict the unreality of reality. As you can hear the opening whisper is Sue's voice (the past), the sound effect coming after and the radio-signal tuning noise create an non-smooth motion of time change leading to the narrator's voice (the present). Simply speaking, it's to create the uncertainties between the past and the present.

The narration and some sample recording were done in my home studio. Some noise and effects were made by synthesizers. I didn't include the real soundscape recording of the location because in my opinion, it's pointless to put in something already existed when the listener is already standing at the location. If he/she is using regular earplugs/headphones, regular soundscape noise will still be able to bleed in; if he/she is using good quality headphones which can block all the sound from outside, I would suggest that no soundscape recording should be included because it should be "blocked" as well, the isolated state of sound can be very fascinating.

The background music is a snippet from Krzysztof Penderecki's "Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima", which is an avant-garde piece. Other sounds are original or from music software sound library.

It seems Sue was killed too, but is the listener killed as well? The unheard story can never be heard unless you follow "me".