Eli Stine ‘14, Assistant Professor of Computer Music and Digital Arts, spent his spring break on a trip across England and Ireland, making field recordings in acoustically endangered environments as well as public parks and markets. The trip was funded by the H.H. Powers Travel grant, an internal grant from Oberlin that funds faculty travel to two non-North American countries.
Stine designated specific locations of interest using metrics from Quiet Places International, a non-profit organization whose focus is on preserving quiet spaces and promoting opportunities for experiencing quiet nature. Some of the locations Stine recorded include the Soho district of London, a flower garden in Northampton, crashing waves on Dunquin Pier, and the Killarney forest.
The mix of more densely and sparsely populated areas in both England and Ireland gave Stine the unique ability to explore the sonic extremes of both countries.
“London and Dublin are big urban environments quite close to more rural environments, which made capturing the contrast between those acoustic environments easy,” Stine said.
Beyond the variety of recording environments each country provided, the choice of where to travel using the Powers Grant was also driven in part by the logistics of traveling with field recording equipment.
“The fact that both are English-speaking and easy to navigate with equipment by renting a car made them good targets for field recording,” Stine said.
Stine used his trusty Oberlin College backpack throughout the trip to hold recording equipment, which included an 8-microphone OctoMic from Core Sound, which records 2nd-order 3D surround sound, a Zoom f8n Pro field recorder, a tripod, a RODE SM4-R Suspension Shockmount, and, for wind protection, a Rycote BBG Windshield and a Rycote Windjammer. Additional gear included an Aquarian H1A hydrophone used for recording in the Thames River in London and a Tascam DR-05XP portable recorder as a backup recorder.
Stine will be packaging work from the trip alongside recordings from various other locations into an album centered around themes of acoustic endangerment and the acoustic contrast between urban and rural environments.
