What is Sound Walking?
Sound Walking is the practice of walking and exploring a soundscape in a given area, to enhance your perception of sounds and silence.
Who might use these Sound Walking resources?
- People involved in the “listening" professions, or
- People working virtually or people working to support a virtual workplace with colleagues.
In both situations, people are doing a lot more listening and significantly less interaction in person with colleagues than before the Covid -19 disruption to our normal daily working lives.
These Sound Walking resources are great tools to switch out from how we use our hearing during our working days and to switch in to a different kind of listening.
These resources can be used
- To enhance and expand our daily experience of the sounds (and silence) all around us; and
- To provide some creative jumping off points for people interested in expanding their enjoyment of their daily walking activity.
How to use Sound Walking as a walker?
Have a look at the information in the links - click on the pictures and the actions are easy to follow.
A Walk in My Shoes 1 – a basic toolkit for creative sound walking
A Walk in My Shoes 2 – a basic toolkit for basic sound mapping
A Walk in My Shoes 3 – a basic toolkit for creative sound journaling
Rooted - Creativity in the Here and Now
The Arts Office is hosting a free online creative writing programme with Kerri Ni Dochartaigh.
Free online creative writing programme with Kerri ní Dochartaigh
Course Duration: 5 weeks
How to Register: Contact ularts.office@ul.ie
Course Intro:
We are facing unprecedented, unbidden and for many harrowing times. What does it mean to write in such times?
What does it mean to awaken in the morning, put pen to paper – finger to pad – voice to recorder; and to give weight and form to the voice inside of us that cries out like a keening bird? And what, even is the point? We are watching our world unravel, so it seems, at a rate we cannot ever quite keep up with. What good do words do? What power do they have to halt, to stop, to undo; to heal? And who are the ones who will offer the words that we so desperately need to hear; the ones that could guide us through the thick, dark mud?
What does it mean to write in such times?
Why do we create in these times, and what good can it possibly do? To write in these times, is to live in these times. To write in these times is to give in these times. To give the only thing we really have – that which we have been storing up since we could think
What good does writing do?
We write because we have heard words from someone else, from somewhere else, from some time else; that have burrowed deep down inside us, like a single vein of light. We write because words are our way of saying: I see you, I hear you, I am here for you – either to others, to our world, our experiences, or to our own self.
We are on our own but we are part of a vast flock
Course Summary:
In this course we will carve space in our lives – no matter how changed those lives may feel right now – to write about our lives. We will use prompts as a means to tune in – to ourselves, our experiences, and the world around us. We will write in a variety of styles, about things both ordinary and ethereal, about the seasons and time, and much that lies between. We will observe the world around us – from exactly where we stand now, then looking back at memories from our past – and finally trying to imagine how the rest of the story of our life might unfurl, like a delicate fern. We will write the story of our lives, giving voice to things we may never have even spoken of before. And we will listen to our own story, one that only we can tell, and one that really matters; now more than ever.
What can people can expect to take from this: You will come away from this with the sense of ownership of your own lived experiences, and a variety of diverse ways in which to map them. You will come away from this with the sense of ownership of your own lived experiences, and a variety of diverse ways in which to map them. You will leave this space with the knowledge that words hold power, and that there are so many different ways that we can bring them into the world.
Who is this course for: This course is about finding beauty in small things and hidden places. It is about looking, listening and paying attention to the world and our own selves. Artists, makers, sculptors, musicians, cooks, politicians, teachers, carers, gardeners, writers of all kinds – and more – all make space in their day to take note of the world around them. In doing so, the noise and worry of the outside world will not go away but it might quieten down, even a little, enough to allow you to ground yourself through these uncertain times. There is always room for creativity, growth and hope, if we carve the space for us to nurture them.
Online sharing
If you like sharing online, we have a private Instagram account for this course where you are welcome to post your writing and/or your process with the exercises, or photos of things you think are relevant.
Bio: Kerri ní Dochartaigh writes about Nature, Literature and Place for The Irish Times, The Observer, Winter Papers and others.
She is the author of Thin Places and is currently writing her second book.
She lives in an old stone railway cottage in the heart of Ireland with her partner and dog.
