From "It’s the Summer of Soundwalking. He Is Your Sherpa. 'We may be hearing but not listening,' Jacek Smolicki said, showing a reporter how sound travels through tree roots in Central Park and amplifying the scraping of aquatic snails" (NYT gift link)(lots of photos and sound recordings).
August 8, 2026
"Sound carries faster through water than through air, and soon we heard a plink-plink-plinking. It was followed by what sounded like bacon..."
"... sizzling in a frying pan, which turned out to be a bubbly photosynthesizing elixir of microbes, decaying muck and insect larvae. Then there was a clicking — possibly aquatic snails... — and the quiet pops of fish mouths opening and closing, a miraculous sound that this lapsed fly fisherman thought she would never hear. Somewhere in the humid thickets a bullfrog croaked... During the pandemic, he... started listening to tidal pools along the sea walls — hearing nothing at first and then drawn by a 'persistent scraping.' It turned out to be limpets: aquatic snails that have teeth stronger than Kevlar to feed on algae and excavate rock. (He said he wouldn’t mind being reincarnated as a limpet.)... On our walk, we 'ear-witnessed' a Sabrett hot-dog stand’s hot buzzy generator before taking the subway to the Brooklyn Bridge, where he captured its vibrating walkway and staccato of speeding cars clip-clopping over metal plates."
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8 comments:
"Sound carries faster through water than through air..."
What does that have to do with anything in the in the "soundwalking" experience?
the sound of bacon frying? there's BUGS!
IYKYK
We all know about the vidual chronostasis. "A temporal illusion... after a rapid eye movement."
There is also a lesser known audio chronostasis. "A temporal illusion where the brain overestimates the duration of the very first sound heard after a sudden shift in attention. It is the acoustic version of the famous "stopped-clock illusion," which occurs when you look at an analog clock and the second hand seems to freeze momentarily before ticking normally."
Our brain means well. Keeping us from some of the disorientating aspects of raw reality, which may be disturbing to some listeners/viewers.
I'm not sure what this is supposed to be about, but it does inform us that Wallace Stevens wasn't the only one plink-plink-plinking.
I'd rather be reincarnated as Henry Limpet.
It was pleasurable for me to walk in NYC, immerse in it's sights, sounds and smells. There is a palpable energy coursing through the city that is... kind of intoxicating.
YouTube: Manhattan (1/10) Movie CLIP - He Adored New York City (1979)
“ 'We may be hearing but not listening,' Jacek Smolicki said, showing a reporter how sound travels through tree roots in Central Park and amplifying the scraping of aquatic snails"
Sound is very interesting, I have been told by reliable sources that American Indians could listen to railroad tracks and tell if a train is coming, how many passengers in each car, and the male female ratio.
And it it is very important for me to tell you that sound travels faster in steel than it does in water.
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