Listening: Ocean and Sky

Michelle O’Connor

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Abstract

My creative practice extends from my radio background where I step outside the studio to consider the notion of place through listening out (Lacey, 2011) for sounds of local significance. Listening: Ocean and Sky is a sonic study of water from listening to the ocean on a beach holiday to the sound of birds in the rain at my home in regional New South Wales. I listen through the microphone to hear these placed-based sounds amplified above the din of daily life. To this extent I aim to listen out in a place that is familiar for sounds of significance in order to understand the sonic place where I live.

Keywords

Listening, ocean, sky, place, soundscape

Water Study

References

Lacey, K. (2011). Listening Overlooked. Javnost – The Public, 18(4), 5-20. doi:10.1080/13183222.2011.11009064

About the Author

Michelle O’Connor is a Lecturer in Communication and teaches radio in the School of Communication and Creative Industries at Charles Sturt University’s Bathurst campus. Her research interests draw from radio, listening, soundscape, radio art and storytelling, and she is currently progressing through a PhD investigating the meaning of local significance in Australian community radio. Michelle has a background in community and commercial radio and has received commissions as a freelance audio features producer. Michelle publishes audio work to sounds.around on Instagram.

Michelle’s practice now ventures outside the studio to listen out for sounds of significance in the city where she lives. She is interested in exploring non-mainstream radio content – like the broadcast of sounds, as a programming option for radio.

To cite this creative work

Michelle O’Connor. “Listening: Ocean and Sky.” Fusion Journal, no. 19, 2021, pp. 206-207. http://www.fusion-journal.com/listening: ocean and sky/

First published online: March 2021