audio as play:
personal storytelling, soundscapes, audio just because.
audio playground
Audio Playground is a semi-regular audio assignment delivered via newsletter by producer, editor and teacher Sarah Geis. The below are a collection of the “audio doodles” I’ve produced in response to the Audio Playground prompts:
Prompt: Create an audio hug, 1-minute or less. Listen here.
Prompt: Make a 1-minute story in the form of a list. This piece was made in collaboration with fellow Audio Playground-er Phil Smith. Listen here.
Prompt: Send a scene from your quarantine (or whatever your week holds). 2 min max. Listen here.
Prompt: Recreate a favorite scent in sound (30-60 seconds). Listen here.
Prompt: Remix a voicemail you’ve received (ask permission!). Or: tell a 90-second or less story in the form of a voicemail. Listen here.
Prompt: You are a weatherperson. Dress up, go outside, and give a 1-minute weather report. (Literal and metaphorical weather both welcome.) Listen here.
Prompt: Send a minute of what it sounds like where you are. Listen here.
sound offerings 2020
I started this project in March 2020 during the early days of the pandemic. I shared these pieces as an offering to my friends across the country, all of us under some form of lockdown. Each piece was a chance to use my own archival tape, record through my open window or take a long walk through DC and just listen.
Spring thunder. Listen here.
Moon river. Listen here.
Knowledge like the stars. Listen here.
Evening howl. Listen here.
For KCRW’s 2020 Radio Race prompt “Time Warp,” I joined Brittany Cronin, Adelina Lancianese and James Sneed to create our entry:
Future Testimony: Two Afrofuturists imagine a world that centers Black joy.
salt institute
Audio Postcard — In Ellsworth, Maine there’s a Telephone Museum that restores and maintains relics from the days of wired communication. It also has something else on display. A possible solution to smartphone addiction. I pitched, reported, wrote and produced this story as part of an audio postcard assignment.
never meet your heroes
A story about a boy, an island off the coast of Alaska and the man best known as Tarzan.
About a year before Irving Goldstein's death, I had lunch with him and a tape recorder. "Never Meet Your Heroes" is one of the stories that emerged.
Poppy to me, Irving to most, and Dovidle to his parents, my grandfather was an enigmatic man. He had more stories than hours in the day; all indelibly marked by his hacking smoker's cough. Poppy had a wild imagination, enough ego to fill any room and a deep love for those close to him, which was returned ten-fold. He was charismatic beyond belief and, though it was a rare person that understood him, he was fascinating to all.
Music by Niklas Paschburg. The track is 'Sand Whirling,' from the album Oceanic.
You can learn more about the Unangax (Aleut) who lost their homes on Attu during WWII in Nick Golodoff’s memoir Attu Boy, and read an excerpt here.