Stranded Hope

Tales of a Quarantined Soul

by

Fernando A. Rendon-Lopez

Stranded Hope; Tales of a Quarantined Soul came about through the reflection of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Such a drastic change in one’s lifestyle has brought about an equally drastic change in the urban environment. As restrictive practices mediate the severity of the pandemic, soundscapes around the urban environment are similarly affected—even one’s personal soundscape has changed as a result of the isolating experience that quarantining produces. In the conversation of the course surrounding changing soundscapes, studies such as Mags Adams and their team’s Sustainable Soundscapes: Noise Policy and the Urban Experience offer a critical look at how soundscapes may affect one’s well-being. As COVID-19 guidelines shift based on the severity of the pandemic, soundscapes in urban environments simultaneously vary. At times wildlife takes the scene while at others the moving vehicles and humans remain to predominate in the soundscape.

As such, themes of the current pandemic and its isolating experience are captured through the course of the sound essay through a futuristic lens. Dystopian themes typically help one critically think about the current societal norms. Stranded Hope; Tales of a Quarantined Soul takes an exploratory look at what one’s sound experience may become when newer methods are implemented to quarantine from future pandemics. Heavily inspired by the topics of futurism explored during the course, this sound essay includes a combination of real-world soundscapes of Hartford and downloaded sounds of heavy breathing, sirens, metals objects clashing, and gears shifting as the near future is explored.

References

All additional sounds were obtained from https://freesound.org/.