In class on Monday we were given about 45 minutes to go to our chosen building to record the soundscape and the space’s own unique sounds. Firstly, building 20 is a very quiet building. The fact that about 10 of us went to the same building probably made up for most the sound in there. The rest was the occasional staff member talking in their office, the sound of shoe heels on the concrete stairs or when someone opened a door which let in a gush of street noise.

Since the building is so quiet there wasn’t a lot of varying sounds to record. If you listened to the sound recording you wouldn’t be able to identify that it was building 20. Perhaps the quietness is part of its unique soundscape. That the space is filled with silence and the liveliness only comes when you bring forward the past like tours of the building, the architecture and more visual aspects. Although, the stairwells create a lot of echo which is unique to the building.

In the reading that we were given ‘Background Noise: perspectives on sound art” by Brandon LaBelle the author distinguishes between a “site” and a “non-site”. In my previous post I did call building 20 a museum and in that sense is a non site because of the reflection nature of a past place. Is Building 20 a “non-site” to house the “site” of the former magistrate court? I think because of the dual functionality of the building it acts as both depending on the subject.