2842 Steps is an audio recording captured during the Unlearning Listening workshop at Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers in Paris on 14 Dec 2017. Responding to a short reading from Brandon Labelle’s Acoustic Territories (2010) and the ‘sonic body’ to which Labelle ascribes, the body is foregrounded in this audio recording of 2842 steps around the perimeter of the Aubervilliers neighbourhood. It is the body of the sound recordist that is captured vividly, not as a silent witness but as a clumsy over-present sonic body, wheezing, coughing, rubbing, swallowing. The aural landscape is backgrounded as inconsequential to the human machine at each step. We are less aware of the rain drops than we are the heavy breath of the one who pushes the body through the cold night air.
This recording is a 3 minute sample of these sounds - perhaps a mere 100 or so steps, though inextricably tied to the full 2842 steps taken.
Streets taken - Rue Lécuyer, rue de la Motte, rue Léopold Rechossière, rue Henri Barbusse, Avenue de la Rèpublique, Rue Lécuyer
Shoes worn - black leather boots
Clothes carried - scarf, hat, Dickies Jacket
Human state of health - recent cold or virus, generally good level of fitness
