3. Rui Chen
You will be walking with me, hearing what I have heared, from the Strawberry Creek and the Codornices Creek in Berkeley CA. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to Professor Joel Wanek from UC Berkeley Geography department with helping me finish the work below.Strawberry Creek
In this soundwalk, you will be walking with me along the Strawberry Creek. As one of the major landscapes of UC Berkeley, Strawberry Creek is flowing throughout the campus.
As you might notice in the audio, we will be starting from the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden (one of the most plant diverse place in the world!), follow the sound of the creek to the campus, then walk through the downtown Berkeley where the creek goes beneath the ground, then come to hear the creek sound again in the local residential area where the creek gets daylight again, and end in the Strawberry Creek Park where now is a community amenity.
While producing the final soundwalk, I intentionally used hard cut to create a contrast between the nature and the city. I also use people’s conversation to guide the tour, letting the conversation telling audiences where we are and what we are hoping to “see” - to create an image in mind by only listening to the sound piece. It is a sound documentary of Strawberry Creek.
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Codornices Creek
In this soundwalk, you will be walking with me along the Codornices Creek. As one of the major landscapes of Berkeley, Codornices Creek is running out of Berkeley Hill.
As you might notice in the audio, we will be starting from the Codornices Park where you could hear the sound of the creek and the waterfall. Along the route, you also could hear me reading out loud the text on the wall and me singing to represent the mood I have for that moment. Then getting out of the park, you could hear the construction sound in the community, but also the sound of decoration people put in their yard. As we walk further, you could hear we come to a community leisure spot where dogs and children could play around the creek. Finally, we will go further to the Gilman St & Neilson St where the Bart goes through, and end in the community where the creek ends.
While producing the final soundwalk, I intentionally highlighted the interaction between the community and the creek.The community is the people who lives there, but also me who participate the interaction: walking through the grass, playing with water, etc. And I really enjoyed the end part - a lovely image between generations who living around the creek - the creek is not only the water we see, but the connect it has with our ancestors.
I also created a pure sound audio file, so you could hear the peaceful creek sound by listening to the link above.