Audio Analysis: ‘A Walk Through The City’ (1981) – Hildegard Westerkamp

‘A Walk Through The City’ is a 16 minute and 2 second audio composition written by Norbert Ruebsaat and composed by Hildegard Westerkamp in 1981, who also stars as the feature voice. This audio production is described as an urban environmental composition, which is based on the poem of the same name written by Norbert Ruebsaat. ‘A Walk Through The City’ takes the listener on a mentally visual journey of an urban atmosphere and is done so with clever use of sound compositing and the use of stereo sound to create a three dimensional landscape. 

I personally like this piece as Westerkamp uses descriptive narration to verbally paint a clear and vibrant imagery within the listeners mind. In conjunction to this, Westerkamp captured my attention by the marvellous effect of simply lowering the volume of the atmospheric sounds, to paint a clearer more realistic vision through the use of realism. This technique truly connects you into this world and has inspired vast ideas for my own work and sound productions and truly stood out. I have not heard a more emotionally connecting audio production, since Jeff Wayne’s musical version of H. G. Wells’ mind blowing story that is ‘War of the Worlds’

Bibliography

• Anon. (2015). Hildegard Westerkamp Transformations [online]. Electrocd.com. Date Accessed [17/10/2015]. URL: http://www.electrocd.com/en/cat/imed_1031/

Film Analysis: 'High Rise' (2002) - Gabrielle Russell

‘High Rise’ is a short film directed by Gabrielle Russell in 2002 with a running duration of 4 minutes, and was nominated for Best Short Film at the Chicago International Film Festival in 2002. ‘High Rise’ focuses on a depressed single mother and her child living in a block of flats. The main story focuses on the reaction of the mother as she sees her child climbing to an open window. This short film highlights real subjects such as; Neglect / Post Natal Depression and low income struggles, which sets this short into the genre of social realism and Drama.

Screenshot from 'High Rise'
(Mother leaves her child alone in the room)

Other themes that ‘High Rise’ highlights are the issue of what happens behind closed doors.

This can be seen in one scene, where the mother leaves the room and closes the door instead of stopping her child from climbing to the open window. This represents the mothers neglectful feelings toward her child and closing the door can be seen as symbolically cutting the bond between her and her child. In contrast, her parental feelings kick in as she tries to save her child but finds her child safe.

I personally really liked this short; I found the execution of narrative to portray a strong story in a very short amount of time via symbolism quite inspiring.