Drift Assessment

When I first started my drift walk, Listening to Milwaukee. I walked around the city, listening. I began to understand the sounds of Milwaukee to possess more meaning than I had given them credit before. A stream of cars began to resonate a type of life, a type of place, a type of situation. I was excited at this new connection. I didn’t feel like I was wandering the city collecting mundane sounds. I felt a need to display my discovery. I started another drift walk which ultimately became, Listening to Milwaukee. A walk purposed to display the city of Milwaukee like a human organism. I decided, I must first show that it embodies more activities than what is normally thought of city life. I went to an area around the heart of Milwaukee. I thought it would be a good place to record the contrast. I wanted to show a different type of life, a life not normally considered, pumping life into the heart of the city. I wanted to show people enjoying themselves, because people ultimately are what drive the city.

I was surprised while on my drift walk. I decided on a drift strategy. My drift strategy was to walk along the Milwaukee River Trail and make a recording every seventy steps. I thought the structure would limit me, because I would not necessarily get to decide where to record. However, I was surprised from the creativity generated in trying to express an idea based under the restrictions of my drift strategy. I found myself experimenting with microphone positioning, thus, experimenting with how I could interpret the environment.

I couldn’t help but think of Marcel Duchamps, The Creative Act. I wrote a paper on it for a class at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. I didn’t agree with Duchamps argument. He believes the creative act is not complete until the spectator (viewer) gives a creative work social value. While I was making my recordings I thought of this. I thought, how could a socially acceptable value be placed on my work. I am experimenting with ideas. I am trying to express an idea. I am trying to discover something, I have not yet experienced or know about for personal understanding. I just don’t think the audience has a right to be consider all the time. I can’t see how new ideas will ever be made that way, because the only thing that happens is a distortion of truth. The creator of the work begins to distort an idea based on what he or she has already experienced in life. It cannot become a new idea or revelation. I did not expect to think of this while performing my recordings, but there it was. A standing thought confronting me on my recordings.

However, I discovered this idea. The remembrance of Duchamp’s writings positioned me to really experiment with my idea. It seemed to loose me from the barer of thinking about my audience. I didn’t wonder what people would think. I did what I thought. It was a moment of peace. I then felt a peace about what I was doing. I didn’t have the stress of wonder about the thoughts of others. I felt free to experience.

I experience a wonderful place. It was where I took my fourth sound recording for, Listening to Milwaukee. I was in the midst of the Milwaukee River Trail. I was surrounded by a canopy of trees. People were moving past me, heading in both directions. I could hear the wildlife of birds chirping, Squirrels in the woods. All while a constant drone of traffic streamed, heading in both directions. The sound came from the roads surrounding the trail. I like the moment because I couldn’t see the traffic from on the trail and the light drone of it, reminded me of the sound of flowing water. I felt relaxed. I felt appreciative that a city can gather the life of so many place into a general area.