For all the years I have lived near Swansea, I have never walked the full length of the cycle/footpath from Swansea to Mumbles, just different parts of it at different times.
The path runs along the top of the beach from Swansea’s maritime quarter right round to Mumbles Lifeboat Station. On the other side is Oystermouth Road, a busy road along which tourists must drive as well as locals to reach the Gower Peninsula, one of Wales’ most popular areas and was designated as the UK’s first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1956.
Despite the proximity of Oystermouth Road, the sound clips I recorded recently might suggest that the road is much further away than it is. There was plenty of traffic on it at the time but the light breeze was blowing away from the cycle/footpath and so even for my iPhone, this was not the predominant sound.
Last week we went to see the BA degree shows at Cardiff Metropolitan University, but before I show you some of the great work they have been doing, I am going to post some of the “art” of the new building they have there.
Having posted about focus and time, here is some physical photographic evidence of me “adjusting my focus” and “allowing the time” to stand back and look at the “big picture” – enjoy the view of Pen y Fan from Brecon, the highest peak in the Brecon Beacons, South Wales.
Some of my recent work has taken me to the town of Brecon in the Brecon Beacons, South Wales. The photos below, which I took one sunny day after school, remind me of the need not only to stay focused on the task at hand, but also to adjust that focus to ensure that I can see and understand more of what I am doing and what is going on around me.
A few weeks ago I took a tapestry weaving workshop over the weekend for the Crickhowell Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers. They had asked me if I could do a version of my workshop “Sounding out Colour and Texture”.
The workshop focus was sound and the intention was to help everyone to develop ideas for tapestry weaving by using a medium that may not have occurred to them previously. It wasn’t going to be possible in the time allowed to produce finished tapestries but we were able to experiment with different techniques and materials as a means of interpreting different aspects of sound.
The language used in describing sound relates very well to the language used in the visual arts and crafts. I am not talking of the technical terms connected to audio and tapestry weaving, but rather the interpretive, emotional terms used. Colour and texture, rhythm and melody.
We often hear the term “the tapestry of life” – the wide range of techniques and materials it is possible to use within tapestry weaving make it possible to represent any number of aspects of our emotional and physical lives and sound can be an excellent starting point for exploring those possibilities.
In these workshops I would also ask people to close their eyes and imagine what colour a sound might be or what it would feel like in their hands if they could grab a hold of it. The sound editing program I use, Adobe Audition, can show us the wave form of the sound and it can show us the “shape” of the sound in the spectral display, but it cannot tell us its texture and the colour it shows is only that selected by the user in the program’s preferences.
This is where the imagination comes in and helps us to develop the designs we may use to present an interpretation of a subject that could be said to have an extra dimension to it.
apart from looking at how different sounds appear visually on the spectral display of an editing program like Adobe Audition,
This urban lake is situated in Swansea’s Enterprize Park at Llansamlet and I have been meaning to take a StillWalks recce walk around it for a long time. I had a meeting to go to at the Mercure Hotel which is very close by and so I took the opportunity of going early and taking my camera with me.
The people working in the area are very lucky to have such a lovely spot to relax during a break and take a little exercise – I wonder how many of take advantage of it?
The Bluebells are still in the shade here but they were out all over the place while we were in Scotland and they were ready and waiting for us when we got back to Wales too.
