Renna Totah, Map of Sounds

Renna Totah

  Intro:    Our senses usually steer us in a certain direction. Like in cartoons, how one character would be lead by their sense of smeel to the yummy food. The following is a video which traces a map from my home to Abu Dees by the hearing of sounds. Each sound that is heard represents what i am hearing in the photagraph that is shown. The purpose of this project is to demonstrate how one could follow sounds to their destination instead of using an actual drawn map. Also, the sounds represent what I hear mostly everyday that people, for instance, living in Ramallah might not ever hear. Sounds can lead you wherever you want to go, it will steer you in the right direction. So sit back and enjoy the mapping of sounds in Jerusalem.

Discussion:    As shown in the audio, sound can lead you to a certain destination. People usually draw, take a picture, or video to view there destination. In this project, I focused on one of the five senses, the sense of sound. Humans tend to use visual maps to show where they are going. In this project, sounds is the only sense that is used. As you notice in the audio, many sounds are different, but most are very alike. In the beginning, we hear the sounds of birds chirping. Further on in the audio, we start to hear cars. From this point of the audio, many of the sounds are extremely similar. Even though i am walking to different places, many places have the same sound. Even though they are very similar, each place has a certain sound in a particular moment. Edward Said has said "But what interests me is the hold of both memory and geography on the desire for conquest and domination..."(Page 247) Here we can see maps are tied in with the memory of how the actual place looked like. Memory of a place makes you attatched to it in a way. Sound works the same way. We all remeber how a door bell rings without even atually hearing it, or a lions roar. This is all in memory. So as the sounds you hear mostly everyday, steer you to a certain direction. edward Said mention's "The concern of memory, for example, has branched out to include such increasingly prevalent forms of writing..." (Page 241)Their are many forms of memory. I have explored the memory of sound. The sounds that you are hearing in this audio, I have been hearing these sounds for a long time. So to me, they have started to become a memory of mine that I will never forget. I will never forget the beautiful sounds of Jerusalem.