A Walk, Interrupted
December 2020
Creator
An original binaural audio / headphone theatre piece that explores the act of walking and the sounds that accompany it.
A Walk, Interrupted is a headphone theatre piece that looks at the idea of aural imagination, or simply put, the imagination activated by our auditory senses. The piece explores the aurality of everyday happenings, objects and relationships and how they impact us in ways that are subtle yet impactful. The piece also explores our relationship with sound as as a familiar routine, how we associate certain sounds with certain actions. The first episode under this project takes the listener through an afternoon walk in Hyde Park, complete with its fair share of human, animal and nature sounds while being interrupted by digital sounds, an unexpected Whatsapp call from home, the capricious charm of a streaming music service, among others. The piece makes use of 3D binaural audio recording as well as a combination of video/projection design that accompanies the listening experience in the physical space.
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I was introduced to headphone theatre and binaural recordings as part of my MA unit of scenography at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. I became interested in using the intimate headphone space as a way to bring theatricality of everyday locations to the audience/listener. The initial 10-minute audio piece was conceptualized as my unit assessment and I plan to develop this into a 40-min full-length audio piece that can be listened individually or presented in a site-specific setting.
Listen To The Piece
CLICK BELOW FOR AUDIO: https://soundcloud.com/gauravnijjer/walk-draft
Instructions While Listening
1. Please use headphones, otherwise you will not be able to fully experience the piece.
2. Please play the piece with full volume on your headphones and then adjust it as per your comfort
3. You may choose to hear it while lying down in your room or while taking a walk outside, in the street, park or anywhere else.
4. You can listen to it alone or forward the link to someone else to listen together, but on individual headphones.
Project Overview
First presented at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama on December 1st 2020 for assessment of the Interdisciplinary Practices (Scenography) unit under the MA Advanced Theatre Practice.
Guided and supported by unit tutors Andreas Skourtis and Dan Scott.
Original text written and voiced by Gaurav Singh.
Recorded in Hyde Park, London using the Sennheiser Ambeo Smart Headset. Edited using iMovie.
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