conscient podcast

a selection of questions and observations from the end of episodes this season My gesture of reciprocity for this episode is to the Resilience .     * END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES Note : I'm currently 'pressing pause' and am not producing new content until further notice.  Hey conscient listeners,  I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 202...

i was listening to the sound of rain falling in a small cabin by a stream with distant thunder in the background…    TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE (bell and breath)   (Rain from inside a cabin with thunder in the distance)   You’re listening to the sound of rain falling in a small cabin by a stream with a bit of distant thunder in the background.    Is it raining where you are now? Maybe it is snowing?...

i heard a strange tapping sound from my window one morning and had a chat when the workers repairing the street    TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE   (Bell and breath)   (sound of me walking towards a machine on a city street)   I heard a strange tapping sound from my window one morning and decided to walk towards the sound.   Claude: It's okay. I was interested in that machine, but you're not using it ri...

i came upon a 1980’s era ‘discman’ portable CD player that still work, sort of and listened to it trying to spin up   TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE   (bell and breath)   (old cd player trying to spin up)   While going through a box of old technologies to be recycled, I came upon a 1980s era discman portable CD player that still sort of worked.    I listened to it, trying to spin up to speed to do its j...

A special episode of The Place of Sound podcast featuring highlights from a project I did in 2017 for Bivouac Recordings, in Hong Kong, called 60 minutes Cities Ottawa, a series of winter time field recordings of Ottawa . Note: This episode is also available in French. This is a special episode of The Place of Sound podcast. You’ll hear highlights from a project I did in 2017 for  Bivouac Recordin...

i asked chatGPT what was the ‘sound of modernity’ in 4 modes : normal, critical, radical and optimistic and got some feedback TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE (bell and breath) On a rainy August 10th 2023, I asked Chat GPT:  ‘What is the sound of modernity?’  The bot responded: The sound of modernity is a symphony of electronic devices humming, the rapid clicks of keyboards, the soft hum of air conditioni...

i learned about the concept of ‘worlding’ from Vanessa Andreotti’s  Hospicing Modernity and I danced in the rain   TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE   (bell and breath)   ( raindrops from  https://simplesoundscapes.ca/e105-thunder/ )   I learned about the concept of ‘worlding’ from page 184 of Vanessa Andreotti’s  Hospicing Modernity .   Andreotti explains that :   Worlding stories are not focused on the a...

I recorded myself counting down from 100 to 1 in the snow and played in backwards, hoping, against all odds, to turn back time   TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE   (bell and breath)   (Ambiance and footsteps in the snow played backwards)   On December 29, 2022, I recorded myself counting from 100 to 0 in crusty snow at our cottage. My goal was to explore what it felt like to cross over the tipping point i...

when I got up on September 25th 2023, while searching for my glasses in the dark, I touched a little mechanical bear   TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE   (bell and breath)   Vancouver, September 25, 2023.    You can hear the city in the background as I record this.    When I got up this morning, searching for my glasses, I touched this little mechanical bear…   (Cranking up and unwinding of windup toy)  ...

while drifting on a river in a kayak i listened TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE (bell and breath)   (kayak drifting on a river)   *   CREDITS   One of my ‘happy places’ in life is drifting down a river on a kayak. It’s an opportunity to slow down and regenerate with earthly elements. To let go and be carried away. This recording was made on July 13, 2023 on the Preston River in Duhamel, Québec.   This ep...

I felt defeated by the ecological crisis, and by myself, so I created an episode about defeatism hoping to defeat my defeatism   TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE   (bell and voice)   Note: [ ] = filtered voice   I got up this morning feeling defeated.    [ I got up this morning feeling…]   You might know this feeling of … powerlessness.    [This feeling of…]   You know, producing more podcast episodes, li...

i asked a forest for permission to record it and got a response from a tree TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE   (bell and breath)    (Wind in forest soundscape)   Today's episode is a fictional conversation between a tree and myself. It came to me while I was doing a consent and reciprocity exercise in a forest… like this one.   (Recited slowly and thoughtfully)    Me (M): Forest, are you ok if I record  y...

This episode is a recording of a presentation I gave on October 6, 2023 about my ‘Sounding Modernity’ project to the  XI International Symposium on Soundscape , organized by the FKL-Forum Klanglandschaft in Lugano, Switzerland. See TRANSCRIPT  (with a laptop or desktop only) to read what was said. * END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES Note : I'm currently 'pressing pause' and am not producing new content u...

a bilingual soundwalk with city of Gatineau councillor (Hull-Wright) Steven Moran around ‘la filature’ for radio-hull 2023 TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE (this episode is a mix of English and French, below is the complete English version) (bell and breath) Claude (C ): Steven Morin, I invite you to take a sound walk with me.  Steve (S): Excellent. Shall we?  C: So you're a local councillor here?  S: Yes. F...

my response to a colleague’s concern about feeling saturated by the omni presence of eco-awareness information TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE (bell and breath) (sound of two climate shows at once then fade out) I was talking with a colleague recently about how few people listen to ‘end of the world as we know it’ podcasts, such as this one. And I think it’s because they’re so … fucking , depressing and...

while introducing a 5 minute recording of a bubbly stream I realized that the stream was flowing within me TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE (bell and breath) (In a hushed voice) This episode..   (silence) is about listening…  (silence) to this stream…  (silence) for 5 minutes… (silence) Enjoy * CREDITS This episode was recorded by Lac St-Anne near Duhamel, Québec on August 18, 2023. I was on an e-bike rid...

a soundscape composition about soundscape composition at Rouge National Urban Park in Toronto TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE (Bell and breath)  (various field recordings from rouge national urban park) Me (at Rouge Park) : Lake Ontario, Rouge Park, Water, Train sound coming, go. On August 21, 2023 I joined composer Wendalyn Bartley and ecologist Leo Cabrera on a visit to the Rouge National Urban Park ,...

i’ve always been comforted and relaxed by sounds that gradually slow down TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE (bell and breath) Slowing down sounds slow me down (layering of slowing down soundscape compositions from my simplesoundscapes podcast (2016-2019:  e06 cycles (from first generation, not published)  e42 fidget - ah, let us pay attention for a minute or two to the spinning e42fidget - red, yellow and...

I improvised a story during a power outage at the cottage about sound without electricity TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE (bell and breath) It's Wednesday, July 12th, 2023. Yesterday, at 4.53 pm, the power went out at my cottage and I wanted to make this episode about our dependence on electricity. So here I am in an analog world, normally, with electricity, but without power, of course, there are no lig...

i played back four episodes from this season at the same time and listened to how they interact TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE (bell and breath)  Episode 105 stretches time (e105 ropes) Episode 101 releases tension (e101 tension) Episode 118 follows your shit (e118 shit) e116 mourns loss (e116 loss) How do you feel now? * I love to listen to the interplay of layered soundscapes : how they come in and ou...

one morning I heard rhythmic water dripping from a gutter and improvised this poem (bell and breath) (Voice synchronized to sound of water drop) I am a drop of water I am a drop of rain I am your body I am your pain  (Repeated) Are you a drop of water? * CREDITS Recorded at the back deck of our home in Ottawa on August 13th, 2023.   I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour t...

while doing my qi gong one morning I heard roofers removing tiles and recalled simplesoundscape in 2016… TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE (bell + sound of roofers taking off tiles) While doing my daily qi gong on May 25, 2023 I was listening to roofers removing tiles on a nearby house.   I’ve always been troubled and fascinated by the sound of deconstruction… of things being ripped apart… of the undoing of o...

my zen practice taught me that unhurried speech invites us to slow down EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION (bell and breath) When I was a student at the White Wind Zen Community in Ottawa I had the privilege of listening to recorded teachings by Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi. You can hear some his recording on wwzc.org . During these teisho, the roshi speaks very slowly, with a lot of silence between words, a bit li...

an exercise where I invite listeners to stop what they are doing, listen and to enjoy the experience (unedited improvised narration) Listening is at the heart of this season of the conscient podcast. Specifically, listening to the sounds of modernity, but also listening to everything, all at once and noticing what is going on, usually a mix of systems collapse and resilient beauty.  So today’s epi...

a quote from robin parmar about speculative fiction that raises some questions (bell and breath) I love the sound of leaves dancing on hard surfaces.  (sound of a leaf blowing) It’s poetic and kinetic and you’ll see in a minute how this sound relates to this episode about speculative fiction.  With his kind permission, I will quote composer Robin Parmar, from a question he asked me at the end of m...