HEAR BELOW: Previous Iterations
2021 – My Pedway Soundwalk: Self-Guided Soundwalk in Chicago’s Pedway System
We are creating a self-guided version of our annual HEAR BELOW Pedway Soundwalk to accommodate social distancing. My Pedway Soundwalk will provide tools for each participant to construct, document, and share their personal soundwalk (audio, video, still images, and text) on our NON:onLINE platform. We aim to collect and understand different cultural, racial, and socio-economic perspectives of navigation, priority, decision-making, etc. We will announce details about participating in My Pedway Soundwalk soon.
This February will be our third HEAR BELOW pedway soundwalk. Due to the pandemic and social distancing requirements we are making some changes to HEAR BELOW. Instead of a single guided soundwalk with a group of soundwalkers exploring the underground sounds of Chicago, My Pedway Soundwalk invites participants to create their own personal soundwalk and to share their experiences with us in audio, video, still images, and text. In addition, the soundwalk will take place over two weeks in February or March to be determined based on Illinois’ and Chicago’s COVID-19 guidelines.
NON:op and our partner, Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology will provide the tools and infrastructure for creating your own soundwalk and hosting your documentation, including pedway maps, suggested routes, points of sonic interest, photos, advice, historical background of the pedway, as well as a platform for uploading audio, video, still images, and text.
HEAR BELOW: My Pedway Soundwalk is co-produced by NON:op and the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology with support from Chicago Architecture Center and School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Additional details will be released in our January issue of NON:onLINE. Or visit our HEAR BELOW page for more information.
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2020 – Listening to Chicago Underground: Guided Soundwalk in Chicago’s Pedway System
Friday, February 14, 2020, 12:30–1:30pm
Meet at 112 S. Michigan Avenue, inside the entrance of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s MacLean Center between 12:15 and 12:30. At 12:30 we will walk across Monroe Street to the entrance to Grant Park North parking garage where the soundwalk will begin. The soundwalk will conclude with a conversation in the Chicago Architecture Center’s Gand Lecture Hall. The entire soundwalk is wheelchair accessible.
Hear Below: Listening to Chicago Underground will explore Chicago’s Pedway system with our ears. Along the way we will stop and listen to a variety of unique sound environments, try out Alex Braidwood’s Listening Instruments, get a little history, and conclude the soundwalk with a conversation. By experiencing the hustle and bustle of this rather ordinary of conveyances, the Pedway, reveals what urban critic Jane Jacobs calls “the seemingly mysterious and perverse behavior of cities”.
Led by Eric Leonardson, Christophe Preissing, and Alex Braidwood.
Sponsored by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Architecture Center.
Presented by NON:op Open Opera Works and the Midwest Society of Acoustic Ecology.
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2019 – Listening to Chicago Underground: Guided Soundwalk in Chicago’s Pedway System
2pm, Saturday, February 9, 2019
Meet in the lobby of One Prudential Plaza, 130 E. Randolph Street. The soundwalk concludes near Starbucks below the Richard J. Daley Center near Clark and Randolph Streets.
Hear Below: Listening to Chicago Underground will explore the east to west route from the lobby of One Prudential Plaza, passing through the South Shore Platform, Millennium Station, the Chicago Cultural Center, Macy’s, the Red Line station, Block 37, the Blue Line Station, and end near Starbucks below the Richard J. Daley Center. We will stop and listen to the unique sound environment of each of these segments of the Pedway, get a little history along the way and conclude with a conversation at the end of the soundwalk.
It is through experiencing the hustle and bustle of this rather ordinary of conveyances, the Pedway, that according to urban critic Jane Jacobs, reveals “the seemingly mysterious and perverse behavior of cities”. That by looking and listening “closely, and with as little previous expectation as is possible, at the most ordinary scenes and events, [we can] attempt to see what they mean and whether any threads of principle emerge among them.”