sound cartography
The Chellanam beach has c-shaped piled stones forming the harbor on the interior. The harbor has a huge number of boats coming, going and getting parked. The unloading of the fish from the boats, weighing, loading into the trucks, bargaining, auction, trading, small scale selling, all such activities have a routine around the day where the settlement around it experiences a daily pattern. Sound of each activity, gender, objects, phenomena, matter become sources to this map where the sounds have been recorded from the points of a 100m X 100m grid and the source with respect to the receiver is marked out. The thumbnails below are linked to sounds recorded at that particular time.(click on the cross head).The elongation of the sound contours on the receiver's end indicates the location of the listener and the source relatively.
The intensity decreases as we move away from the source. The harbour becomes a space with an immense amount of entropy and movement in the morning which shifts to the settlement by the evening. The sounds not only change intensities individually, but also changes with respect to the other sounds overlapping in that spot. This method was used in order to choose zones at the site which show the difference through the variation in sound. This variation in sound generates its landscape and thus these sound maps indicate the rhythms throughout the harbour, beach and settlement at different time periods.
07:00 hrs
During this hour several activities happen at the Chellanam harbour, where the boats return from the sea after fishing. Activities like fishermen anchoring boats, the weighing, selling and transport of the fishes takes place at the harbour. The following sounds are at the peak during this time and most people from the settlement are also present in and around the harbour.The men arrange their boats back in the harbour and carry fishes from the boats to the common area where the sale takes place. Women are present to buy fishes for domestic purposes whereas the trucks arrive at the harbour for exporting the fishes to markets.
10:00 hrs
Trading continues to happen at a smaller scale, while the harbour is seen to be filled with birds in order to eat the fishes at the shore. The humans start to scatter around the harbour and small group conversations take place. Trucks start leaving the harbour and people start moving towards the settlement with the fish for their homes. The construction at the harbour also starts at around this time. The school begins at 10am which is marked by the bell and school kids along with their parents moving towards the school. The main street has vehicular sounds, buses, bikes, autos and lottery bikes.
13:00 hrs
The school bell rings once again for the lunch break. Mid day meal is prepared and served to students inside the school. Kids move to the playground and scatter around on the school building. There is hardly any activity at the harbour except for small groups of men and women conversing,and construction work. The sound of the waves is heard inside the settlement which overlaps with sounds of women doing household chores. The courtyards have sounds of pets, crows and vehicles evidently heard. The repair of boats also takes place near the beach at this time which overlaps with the sound of the beach waves.
16:00 hrs
The harbour activities start resuming. The boats start going in the sea for fishing again. One can hear the sound of the boat motor and people,who are getting ready to start the fishing activity again (the bringing of fishing nets, collecting the equipment). The harbour has construction work going on. Men start gathering at places where there is shade like stalls near the harbour and shade under the tree. School bell rings again at this time marking the end of the school hours. Kids from the school rush outside where the parents are waiting to pick them up. The alleys have sounds of kids playing and people moving towards their houses or the harbour.
19:00 hrs
The harbour gets silent since the activities at the harbour start to come to an end. All domestic work gets completed and people move towards the beach. Waves are heard more evidently as the settlement does not have much intensities of sound. Kids are seen playing football on the beach and groups of people come towards the beach for socializing. The common areas such as courtyards, beach, streets, alleys are filled with people playing, chatting and working. Vehicular sounds also seem to be decreased as the public transport does not function at this hour. Sounds of insects can be heard as whispers on the street leading to the harbour and settlement.
