"With the Calm, Comes Silence"

Abstract

In the Soundscape Journal (Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 2000, p.19), I wrote from the Isles of Harris and Lewis in Scotland’s remote Outer Hebrides, describing something of its people and places, and the soundscape work I was embarking on there. At that time, the Touring Exhibition of Sound Environments (TESE) was in its early stages. Our guiding aims were to, “describe and document the social, cultural and natural make up of the islands through their soundscape” and, most importantly, to involve the local people in the process. Spring 2002—and many months later the project in the islands is now coming towards an end, with final preparations being made for exhibition in April and May. 1 Various parts to the project have evolved during this time. In this article, I will relate some of the exercises involving a class of primary school children from Cross in Ness, on the Isle of Lewis, and give voice to some of the sound poetry and sound journals that they produced...