Field Recordings and Archival Sonics
Words by Angela DiVeglia and Jeremy Ferris
Each spring, Providence Public Library (PPL) in Providence, RI, assembles an exhibit of Special Collections materials with related programming. For the 2021 exhibit Sleep Mode, we created a series of audio essays which led to a wide-ranging exploration on the theme of sleep. Alongside virtual, interactive curator talks, the resulting exhibit used sound and conversation to reflect the slowness, intimacy, and vulnerability of both the early COVID-19 pandemic and of archival practice itself. This practice of deep, connective listening during a unique historical moment offers ongoing lessons in how to use sound to enrich exhibits and foster stronger relationships between library users and historical materials.
A page from Ed Wolff’s 1936 book Practical Hypnotism, a straightforward manual designed for the novice hypnotist. All book illustrations are from Providence Public Library Special Collections
Angela DiVeglia: In early 2021, I was charged with curating the annual exhibit of Special Collections materials at PPL. But with the library’s exhibit gallery closed to the public due to COVID-19, I had to consider how to create an exhibit without displaying any physical materials, with limited funding for developing or purchasing online tools or platforms, and at a time when most local repositories weren’t doing external loans. In lieu of an exhibit catalog, I collaborated on a series of audio essays backed by instrumental music and field recordings. Our aim was to play with closeness and distance, and to explore how sound can create a sense of intimacy and introspection. The essays invited listeners to dive into exhibit topics and move at a thoughtful pace with research and archival objects as their guide. PPL’s Digital Projects Librarian Jeremy Ferris helped me wrangle the necessary digital tools and platforms and served as an essential sounding board.i
The essays invited listeners to dive into exhibit topics and move at a thoughtful pace with research and archival objects as their guide.
Audio essay for “Beds, Pillows, and Blankets.” Essay and narration by Angela DiVeglia; original music by Jason Calhoun
Jeremy Ferris: Angela and I had collaborated previously on an illustrated zine-style reading list to accompany a library exhibit about vacant spaces and a comic book guide to archives for artists and makers, among other projects. We share a fondness for immersive audio soundscapes, and Sleep Mode was a great way to incorporate this approach. Our work as archivists is necessarily creative, and I believe that audio is an underused medium that holds a lot of possibilities. Field recorders (handheld digital audio recorders) and field recording (making audio recordings outside of a studio) are particularly appealing. These tools bring directness, simplicity, and humanity that complement my goals of digital preservation and dissemination.
Our work as archivists is necessarily creative, and I believe that audio is an underused medium that holds a lot of possibilities.
AD: There’s a lot of overlap between PPL’s approach to exhibits and my own creative practice: getting people to slow down and think deeply about everyday things and using history to illuminate aspects of the present. I organized Sleep Mode into six somnambulant subtopics: Beds, Pillows, and Blankets; Hypnotism and Trance; Hibernation and Introspection; Visions, Warnings, and Instructions; Dreams and Dreamscapes; and the Science of Sleep. We reached out to ambient musicians Hypnagogue (James Rosato) of Cape Cod, MA, and Jason Calhoun of Philadelphia, PA, to create music for the essays.
Excerpt of the poem The Night Wind by Eugene Field from his 1897 collection of children’s poetry, Lullaby-land: Songs of Childhood.
Since 2010, Jason Calhoun has released more than two dozen albums, previously under the moniker “naps.” In collaborations with others, Jason patiently opens space for musical expressions to build and resolve. It is with this ear that he approached the "Beds, Pillows, and Blankets" essay. A humming organ evokes the hospital whose presence is never far in Sleep Mode. Gentle noises - the rumble of a laundry cart, voices muffled by PPE, machines monitoring blood oxygen levels with impassive precision - transform the sterile surroundings into a safe haven with watchful caregivers and warm beds.
Jeremy is also a musician and sound collage artist with a robust field recording practice, working under the name Cla-ras. He created the musical setting for two of the essays, and Hypnagogue provided music for the remaining three essays.
Instrumental version of Jason Calhoun’s composition for the “Beds, Pillows, and Blankets” essay.
Jason Calhoun and Cla-ras performing at Fox Point Community Library; drawing by MJ Robinson.
JF: In the "Science of Sleep" essay, I referenced the caves in which circadian rhythms were studied by slowly dripping water into a metal cooking pot in my bathtub. I attached a contact microphone to the side of the pot and ran the microphone to the recorder via a 1/4" cable. I layered the drips over guitar, synthesizer, and Angela’s voice in Audacity, a free and open-source audio editing program available for both Mac and PC. It’s a project that I could only have done while working from home.
AD: My own audio recordings were made using a Tascam DR-05 recorder borrowed from the library’s circulating technology. I made field recordings on my long walks - reeds rattling in the breeze, ice crunching underfoot, an abandoned city lot overtaken by moss. I recorded the narrative portions of the essays with the Tascam and cleaned up the files in Audacity before passing them along to the musicians to mix with their original music. The essays were released weekly, published on PPL’s SoundCloud and emailed to subscribers.
An Instagram post from Jeremy Ferris showing his recording setup for some of the ambient sounds in a Sleep Mode essay.
Fritz Kredel illustration of a chrysalis from Jeanette Perkins Brown’s 1939 book Caterpillar, Caterpillar alongside a photo of a vacant city lot near Kinsley Ave in Providence.
Jason’s approach to recorded observation is practical, rather than solely theoretical or aesthetic. "I started taking more recordings at shows when I started performing more improvised [sic] and found it was also helpful to use as a timepiece." As a result, he maintains an extensive catalog of live performances. His “diligent” documentation of a spring 2024 tour includes audio recordings of each set by every musician with whom he shared the stage, with date, venue, and artist name noted in the filename.
Jason Calhoun’s field recordings library in iTunes. "I use a Tascam DR-05. I’ve used this one since maybe 2011? It’s the only one I’ve owned. I have a set of Lom Audio Usi Pro microphones that I’ll use with it sometimes. They pick up a lot more detail/are much more sensitive than the built-in microphones. Sometimes I'll use a Sony TCM-200DV tape recorder for fun."
JF: With my field recorder setup, I can move from setting to setting with equipment that easily fits inside a tote bag. I can digitize archival audio materials at preservation quality without a permanent studio and make immersive sound recordings in just about any environment. There are plenty of inexpensive options, and even the voice memo application on a smartphone can work well. If finding funds for a recorder is an issue, they are also often available to borrow from libraries.
AD: To round out Sleep Mode, Programs & Exhibitions Director Christina Bevilacqua planned virtual curator talks during which I would showcase 5-10 objects from our collections and discuss one of the six subtopics with a local expert and the event’s attendees. 2021 was a time when everyone had deep Zoom fatigue, so we distilled the elements of in-person exhibits – exploring a topic in depth, juxtaposing items from throughout our collections, reading interpretive labels that provide context and enrich understanding of an object, having a personal experience with historic materials – in a way that was interactive and intimate, not simply a digital version of a physical gallery.
A virtual curator talk showcasing PPL Special Collections materials about beds, pillows, and blankets, followed by a conversation with attendees and Providence multidisciplinary artist/quilter Priscilla Carrion.
That spring, the library and its gallery were themselves sleeping, as were many of the office buildings in our downtown neighborhood. Studying and discussing themes of fallowness, rest, and solitude seemed poignant and fruitful.
In the spirit of popular history, Jason’s recordings preserve unselfconscious human gestures. "I like to leave in when the wind is caught in the microphone... I think it can add texture and capture a moment, rather than trying to capture a place." In contrast to a sanitized and over-produced audio recording, this marker of the creator’s hand echoes much of what we value in the archival record: the marginalia, the reminders and evidence of the people who made the materials and the environments in which they worked. As we move away from a world of mythical archival neutrality into one where we acknowledge the active roles of both archivist and creator, it also serves as a reminder that audio recordings are captured by people using tools, both of which have flickers of visibility in the sounds that we preserve.
Warren Chappell illustration from the 1961 edition of Charles Perreault’s The Sleeping Beauty, with musical themes by Peter Ilyich Tschaikovsky.
Angela DiVeglia is an artist, urban gardener, writer, curator, and the Instruction and Outreach Librarian, Special Collections at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Jeremy Ferris lives in Providence, RI working as a librarian and artist. He is the Library Technical Services Coordinator for Bristol Community College, and also makes music, field recordings, and sound collages under the name Cla-ras.
SOUND — More Stories
↓ ↯ ⬇︎ ⇣
Editors
Akosa · Catherine Falls · Jenny Galipo · Lisa Kahn
SL Leimbach · Vern Molidor · Kelli Yakabu
Editor-in-Chief
Jen Neville
Design
Zaira Torres
More selected projects
Sign-up to be a member of LAAC
Connect With Us
Site by Grace Danico