Alone Together [ShortCuts]

In February 1952, Barbara (Cohen) Holdridge and Marianne (Roney) Mantell, two recent graduates of Hunter college, founded Caedmon records, the first label devoted to recording spoken word. In this episode, producers Michelle Levy and Maya Schwartz revisit the early history of Caedmon records. They pay tribute to Holdridge and Mantell by re-listening to two poems from the Caedmon Treasury of Modern Poets Reading, first released in 1957 from and now held in SFU’s Special Collections. Michelle discusses Robert Frost’s recording of “After Apple Picking” with Professor Susan Wolfson, of Princeton University, and Maya chats with Professor Stephen Collis, of SFU’s English department, about William Carlos Williams’ reading of “The Seafarer.” As they listen to the poems together, they debate what it means to listen to as opposed to read these poems, with the recordings providing what Holdridge described as a “third-dimensional depth, that a two-dimensional book lacked.”

Featured graphic credit: photographs by Phillip A. Harrington, courtesy of Evan Harrington

Works Cited

Onion, Charlie. “Caedmon Spoken-Word Recordings go Digital.” Wag: a magazine for decadent readers, June 2002, http://www.thewag.net/books/caedmon.htm. Accessed 14 Nov. 2023.

“Caedmon: Recreating the Moment of Inspiration.” NPR, December 2002, https://www.npr.org/2002/12/05/866406/caedmon-recreating-the-moment-of-inspiration. Accessed 14 Nov. 2023.

“Caedmon.” HarperCollins.com. https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/caedmon. Accessed 14 Nov. 2023.

“Caedmon Treasury of Modern Poets Reading: Gertrude Stein, Archibald MacLeish, E.E. Cummings, Marianne Moore, William Empson, Stephen Spender, Conrad Aiken, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Richard Eberhart, Ezra Pound, and Richard Wilbur reading #604.” n.d. Sound recording. MSC199 #604.. Simon Fraser University Sound Recordings Collection, Simon Fraser University Archives, Burnaby, B.C. November, 2023.

“Mattiwilda Dobbs – Bizet: FAIR MAIDEN OF PERTH, HIgh F, 1956 ” Youtube, uploaded by Songbirdwatcher, June 14, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxZZtxM8ykam-Rml9Q7ij4J2OIWLrx3lUB. 

Etude 8 Dimitri by Blue Dot Sessions

Frost, Robert. “After Apple-Picking.” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44259/after-apple-picking. Accessed 30 January 2024.

“File:Mattiwilda Dobbs 1957.JPEG.” Wikipedia, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mattiwilda_Dobbs_1957.JPG. Accessed 14 February 2024.

Harrington, Philip A. “[Marianne Roney and Barbara Cohen of Caedmon Publishing Company pushing a wheelbarrow full of boxes of their recordings of modern literature in New York City]”. December, 1953.

“How two young women captured the voices of literary greats and became audiobook pioneers.” Writers and Company. CBC, July, 2023. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/writersandcompany/how-two-young-women-captured-the-voices-of-literary-greats-1.6912133. Accessed 14 Nov. 2023.

“January 20, 1961 - Poet Robert Frost Reads Poem at John F. Kennedy’s Inauguration.” Youtube, uploaded by Helmer Reenberg, January 15, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AILGO3gVlTU.

“Oread.” H.D. Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48186/oread. Accessed 30, January 2024.

“The Caedmon Treasury of Modern Poets Reading 2LP Caedmon TC 2006 Vinyl Record.” Boundless Goodz, https://www.ebay.com/itm/374791681072?itmmeta=01HPJMRA2M8G311HNSS83Q5Z2G&hash=item5743533430:g:ESgAAOSwdLVkomcL&itmprp=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8OcrOX8GrjGcCKd73gETrLCg9HgtTomQcdBFQsfuKIbZJCerwOPQAP8v95zLuLDTLfzKCEpHr6ciRZXXlKA1iJKJQIZBNBP68Ru6LBfSoa%2FfPEP7%2Fa%2BIRslUZ5i2RDM4SZwOC2l6XlwBx5qb9ihywjJIDK71WKdGDo8mhOnddK0NPBgnn26N5JH6N9DSuSkFkjy7BoQeE7hzXcLV76vAmN2Q6IKkpjLN5l%2B4M36eDSYpXhiFfxsmyok%2Bn1aYfEds46k8%2FfPX0doDJv7qXPKwVi5g99nrSnyZ95AdrCWpR3Tj3%2FkxYp0wlrb2dQ%2F%2FuEaktQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBMwHh1LRj. Accessed 14 February 2024.

Williams, Williams Carlos. “The Seafarer.” University of Washington, http://www.visions05.washington.edu/poetry/details.jsp?id=18. Accessed 30 January, 2024.

In this crossover  episode (Episode 7, Season 2), Linda begins with the sound of her father's old espresso machine, to explain how she sees -- or hears -- sound working in Magnetic Equator (published by McClelland & Stewart) by international poet, novelist, and sound performer Kaie Kellough. You can hear a sample of his sound poetry here. This episode includes a small excerpt read by Kellough himself (with permission by Kellough). In the "take-away" section, Linda talks about a biography she recently read by Sherrill Grace, about Canadian author Timothy Findley (published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press). If you'd like to know more about sound poetry, and about Kaie Kellough as a sound poet, check out Adam Sol's blog post about Kellough on "How a Poem Moves."

Get this episode and more by following Getting Lit with Linda - The Canadian Literature Podcast on all major podcast platforms.

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Linda Morra is Professor of Canadian and Indigenous literatures, a former Craig Dobbin Chair of Canadian Studies (2016-2017) at UCD, and the Farley Distinguished Visiting Scholar (2021-2022) at Simon Fraser University. Her book, Moving Archives, won the Gabrielle Roy Prize in English (2020) and her podcast, Getting Lit With Linda, won in the category of Outstanding Education Series in the 2022 Canadian Podcast awards. Getting Lit With Linda is entering its 5th season.

A fresh take on sounds from the past, ShortCuts is a monthly feature on The SpokenWeb Podcast feed and an extension of the ShortCuts blog posts on SPOKENWEBLOG. Stay tuned for monthly episodes of ShortCuts on alternate fortnights (that’s every second week) following the monthly SpokenWeb podcast episode. If you are a SpokenWeb RA with an archival clip to feature on ShortCuts, do write to us at spokenwebpodcast@gmail.com with your pitch.

Host and Series Producer: Katherine McLeod

Supervising Producer: Maia Harris

Sound Design: James Healey

Transcription: Zoe Mix

ARCHIVAL AUDIO

Archival audio excerpted from this episode of Radio Survivor: 

https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2015/11/podcast-22-were-all-moving-to-the-fm-dial-now/

Blog post with photographs from Jennifer Waits’s tour of Radio K:

https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2015/10/my-grand-tour-of-college-radio-station-radio-k/

A past Radio Survivor episode featuring SpokenWeb: 

https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2021/02/podcast-284-spokenweb-and-literary-sound/

SPECIAL GUESTS

Jennifer Waits (interviewee) is the co-founder of Radio Survivor and Radio Survivor’s College Radio and Culture Editor and Social Media Director. Jennifer is also the Founder and Editor of SpinningIndie, a website devoted to the culture of college radio. She’s worked in college radio at 4 different stations (off and on) since 1986 and is currently a DJ at KFJC 89.7FM in Los Altos Hills, California. Jennifer has a Master’s degree in Popular Culture Studies and has written about radio, music, youth culture, and pop culture for a number of publications and websites, including Radio World, PopMatters, the scholarly Radio Journal, youth culture blog Ypulse, beloved teen mag Sassy, and music site Uplister.

Kate Moffatt (interviewer) is a PhD student in the Department of English at Simon Fraser University. Her research interests include British Romanticism, women’s authorship, walking and pedestrianism, and print culture. She is the former supervising producer of The SpokenWeb Podcast, and she is the current co-host of The WPHP Monthly Mercury podcast.

This episode navigates this question using an associative method which links stories and sounds, forming a non-linear audio collage. Listeners are invited to tune in to their affective and embodied responses to end time stories including Lulu Miller’s podcast and Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s horror film, and stories of endurance, with Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner’s poem and Tanya Tagaq’s audiobook.

Nadège Paquette (she/they) is a white settler living in Tiotià:ke/Montréal, on the lands and waters of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation, where they are completing a master’s degree in English Literature at Concordia University. Their research interests aggregate around the relationship between human and nonhuman forms of life and nonlife. They are drawn to narratives of the future extrapolating present troubles and delving into already-existing Indigenous, decolonial, queer, and non-anthropocentric alternatives to a colonial and capitalist world. For them, some of those alternative worlds take the form of collective gardens where they love to work with plants, soil, water, animal, and human neighbors.

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Show Notes

Music:

Tom Bonheur https://www.instagram.com/dj.g3ntil/

Kovd, Kvelden, Tell What You Know, Ivory Pillow, and Fever Creep by Blue Dot Sessions https://app.sessions.blue/

Podcast:

“The Wordless Place” Lulu Miller https://radiolab.org/podcast/wordless-place

“Why Podcast?” Hannah McGregor and Stacey Copeland https://kairos.technorhetoric.net/27.1/topoi/mcgregor-copeland/index.html

Short Film:

Anointed, Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner and Dan Lin https://www.kathyjetnilkijiner.com/videos-featuring-kathy/

Film:

Pulse, Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Additional sounds from:

“Interview with Tanya Tagaq,” Alicia Atout https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FupatQbcTeM

“Open Dialogues: Daniel Heath Justice,” Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrBN8_IGuuw

“Monster 怪物,” United for Peace Film Festival https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8OJulGi1Rg

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Works Cited

Bouich, Abdenour. 2021. “Coeval Worlds, Alter/Native Words.” Transmotion 7 (2). https://doi.org/10.22024/UniKent/03/tm.980.

Butler, Judith. 2003. “Violence, Mourning, Politics.” Studies in Gender and Sexuality 4 (1): 9–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/15240650409349213.

Chion, Michel. 2017. L’audio-Vision : Son et Image Au Cinéma. 4th Edition. Armand Colin.

Copeland, Stacey, and Hannah McGregor. 2022. Why Podcast?: Podcasting as Publishing, Sound-Based Scholarship, and Making Podcasts Count. Vol. 27, no. 1. Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy. https://kairos.technorhetoric.net/27.1/topoi/mcgregor-copeland/index.html.

Eidsheim, Nina Sun. 2019. “Introduction: The Acousmatic Question: Who Is This?” In The Race of Sound, 1–38. Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11hpntq.4.

Goodman, Steve. 2010. Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear. Technologies of lived abstraction. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&doc_number=018751433&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA.

Haraway, Donna J. 2016. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. North Carolina, United States: Duke University Press.

Hudson, Seán. 2018. “A Queer Aesthetic: Identity in Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s Horror Films.” Film-Philosophy 22 (3): 448–64. https://doi.org/10.3366/film.2018.0089.

JLiat. 1954. Bravo. Found Sounds. Bikini Atoll. http://jliat.com/.

Justice, Daniel Heath. 2018. Why Indigenous Literatures Matter. Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Kurosawa, Kiyoshi, dir. 2001. Pulse. Toho Co., Ltd.

Lamb, David Michael. 2015. “Clyde River, Nunavut, Takes on Oil Indsutry over Seismic Testing.” CBC. March 30, 2015. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/clyde-river-nunavut-takes-on-oil-industry-over-seismic-testing-1.3014742.

Lin, Dan, and Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, dirs. 2018. Anointed. Pacific Storytellers Cooperative. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEVpExaY2Fs.

Madwar, Samia. 2016. “Breaking The Silence.” Text/html. Up Here Publishing. uphere. Https://uphere.ca/articles/breaking-silence. 2016. https://uphere.ca/articles/breaking-silence.

Miller, Lulu. 2022. “The Wordless Place.” Radiolab. https://radiolab.org/episodes/wordless-place.

Morton, Timothy. 2013. Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World. Posthumanities 27. Minneapolis (Minn.): University of Minnesota Press.

Raza Kolb, Anjuli Fatima. 2022. “Meta-Dracula: Contagion and the Colonial Gothic.” Journal of Victorian Culture 27 (2): 292–301. https://doi.org/10.1093/jvcult/vcac017.

Robinson, Dylan. 2020. Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies. 1 online resource (319 pages) : illustrations vols. Indigenous Americas. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. http://public.eblib.com/choice/PublicFullRecord.aspx?p=6152353.

Sontag, Susan. 1966. Against Interpretation and Other Essays. London: Penguin Classics.

Tagaq, Tanya. Split Tooth. Viking, Penguin Random House, 2018.

Tasker, John Paul. 2017. “Supreme Court Quashes Plans for Seismic Testing in Nunavut, but Gives Green Light to Enbridge Pipeline.” CBC. July 26, 2017. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/supreme-court-ruling-indigenous-rights-1.4221698.

Yamada, Marc. 2020. “Visualizing a post-bubble Japan in the films of Kurosawa Kiyoshi.” In Locating Heisei in Japanese Fiction and Film : The Historical Imagination of the Lost Decades, 60–81. Routledge contemporary Japan series. Abingdon, Oxon ; Routledge. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=2279077.

Yusoff, Kathryn. 2018. A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

A fresh take on sounds from the past, ShortCuts is a monthly feature on The SpokenWeb Podcast feed and an extension of the ShortCuts blog posts on SPOKENWEBLOG. Stay tuned for monthly episodes of ShortCuts on alternate fortnights (that’s every second week) following the monthly SpokenWeb podcast episode. If you are a SpokenWeb RA with an archival clip to feature on ShortCuts, do write to us at spokenwebpodcast@gmail.com with your pitch.

Host and Series Producer: Katherine McLeod

Supervising Producer: Maia Harris

Sound Designer: James Healey

Transcription: Zoe Mix

SHOW NOTES

Archival audio sampled in this episode is from these past episodes: 

ShortCuts 4.2 “ShortCuts Live! Talking with Sarah Cipes about Feminist Audio Editing,” produced by Katherine McLeod, The SpokenWeb Podcast, 21 Nov 2022

https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/shortcuts-live-talking-with-sarah-cipes-about-feminist-audio-editing/

ShortCuts 4.3 “ShortCuts Live! Talking with Faith Paré about the Atwater Poetry Project Archives,” produced by Katherine McLeod, The SpokenWeb Podcast, 20 February 2023 https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/shortcuts-live-talking-with-faith-pare-about-the-atwater-poetry-project-archives/

ShortCuts 4.4 “ShortCuts Live! Talking with Ariel Kroon, Nick Beauchesne, and Chelsea Miya,” produced by Katherine McLeod, The SpokenWeb Podcast, 20 March 2023

https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/shortcuts-live-talking-with-ariel-kroon-nick-beauchesne-and-chelsea-miya/

ShortCuts 4.5 “ShortCuts Live! Talking with Annie Murray,” produced by Katherine McLeod, The SpokenWeb Podcast, 17 April 2023

https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/shortcuts-live-talking-with-annie-murray/

ShortCuts 4.6 “What’s that noise? Listening Queerly to the Ultimatum Festival Archives,” produced by Ella Jando-Saul, The SpokenWeb Podcast, 

https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/whats-that-noise-listening-queerly-to-the-ultimatum-festival-archives/

Ghislaine Comeau is a PhD student in the English department at Concordia University. Her SSHRC funded doctoral project, inspired by the recent Global Middle Ages movement, focuses on re-examining texts from the early medieval period to further investigate direct references and allusions to “Saracens.” In addition to her more “traditional” approaches to scholarly work, she has recently discovered that she has a great appreciation for and desire to consume and produce research-creation projects that can serve a wider audience – popular or pedagogical.

Works Cited / Featured Audio
 

Creed, Robert Payson. “The Ruin (Modern English).” YouTube, uploaded by YouTube and provided by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 30 May 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CSWnfuyzyM .

Cronan, Dennis. “Cædmon’s Audience.” Studies in Philology, vol. 109, no. 4, 2012, p 336. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/sip.2012.0028.

The Fyrdsman. “Anglo-Saxon Poetry: The Ruin (Reading).” YouTube, uploaded by thefyrdsman9590, 9 Nov. 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FRRny7oyLg&t=318s .

Hammill, Peter. “Imperial Walls (2006 Digital Remaster).” YouTube, uploaded by YouTube and provided by Universal Music Group, 24 Aug. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0KW9CMFC_E .

Magennis, Hugh. “Chapter 1 Approaching Anglo-Saxon Literature.” The Cambridge Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Literature, Cambridge UP, 2011, pp. 1-35.

Raffel, Burton. “The Ruin (Old English).” YouTube, uploaded by YouTube and provided by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 30 May 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-dtP_73WTs&t=110s .

Smith, Mark M. “Echo.” Keywords in Sound, edited by David Novak and Matt Sakakeeny, Duke UP, 2015, pp. 55-64.

Silence is Leaden. “The Ruin: An Anglo-Saxon Poem.” YouTube, uploaded by silenceisleaden188, 20 Jan. 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D68n9F8Yozc&t=25s .

Staniforth, Daniel (aka Luna Trick). “The Ruin.” YouTube, uploaded by lunatrick7098, 28 Jun. 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IIoZfOR5MQ .

The SpokenWeb Podcast is back for another season as we continue our quest to uncover "what literature sounds like."

With a whole new line-up of episodes created by researchers across the SpokenWeb network, we’ll explore the sounds of translation, the act of uncertain listening, audio pedagogy, the intersection of computing, voice, and poetics, and much much more.

Our fearless host Katherine McLeod is back and will be joined by Hannah McGregor, host of seasons 1-3. Welcome back Hannah!

We have something for everyone curious about the affordances of literature, sound, history, and the amorphous "archive," so join us for monthly episodes of innovative audio scholarship.

Subscribe to The SpokenWeb Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And don't forget to rate us and send us a shout! Cheers to Season 5 ~

Episode Producers:

Maia Harris : Supervising Producer

James Healy : Sound Designer

Hannah McGregor: Host

Katherine McLeod: Host

Zoe Mix: Transcriber

SUMMARY

“Though staff turnaround is a challenge for student-run publications, community support remains when people love it. Let’s revive the love for Headlight.”

This was the sign-off of an application for managing editor for Headlight, Concordia University’s graduate student-run literary journal. Carlos A. Pittella’s application was accepted shortly after—along with Sherine Elbanhawy’s application for co-managing editor—and the 24th edition of Headlight was put into motion.

This episode is a behind-the-scenes look at Headlight 24, and an exploration of what happens when print publication meets audio production. Diving into a host of recordings made along the way, the episode revisits readings from authors featured in Headlight 24, as well as recordings from the journal’s launch at the De Stiil bookstore in Montreal. Also featured is a roundtable conversation with the editorial team—Carlos A. Pittella, Sherine Elbanhawy, Alex Affonso, Ariella Ruby, Olive Andrews, and Miranda Eastwood—as they revisit the challenges faced in reviving the journal following pandemic restrictions, as well as the exciting new directions embraced by this year’s team.

Headlight 24 will host the second part of their launch at the 4th SPACE at Concordia University, August 31st, at 2pm. We hope to see you there!

EPISODE NOTES

Host: Katherine McLeod

Supervising Producer: Kate Moffatt

Audio Engineer / Sound Designer: Miranda Eastwood

Transcription: Zoe Mix

FEATURED READINGS
 

Bandukwala, Manahil. "Turning Twenty-Four on the Rise of the Sturgeon Moon". Headlight 24, 2023.

Solomon, Misha. "Tubes". Headlight 24, 2023.

Mazur, Ari. "A&W". Headlight 24, 2023.

O'Farrell, Paz. "I don't even know what to do about all this". Headlight 24, 2023.

Palmer, Jade. "Onyx and Rose Gold". Headlight 24, 2023.

Trudel, Nadia. "Goblin". Headlight 24, 2023.

Cirignano, Sophia. "Giverny". Headlight 24, 2023.

Wayland, Tina. "The Tending of Small Gardens". Headlight 24, 2023.

SUMMARY

Have you ever heard a sound on a recording and weren’t sure if it was intentional? That’s what happened to the Listening Queerly research team when they were listening to a recording of the Ultimatum Festival (Montreal, 1985). This team works under the direction of Dr. Mathieu Aubin as part of a SSHRC-funded Insight Development Grant. They’ve been working with a series of recordings of the Ultimatum Festival, which are part of the Alan Lord audio collection, a collection currently being digitized and catalogued by SpokenWeb (Concordia). The Listening Queerly research team – Mathieu Aubin, Ella Jando-Saul, Misha Solomon, Sophia Magliocca, and Rowan Nancarrow – first attempted to confirm who they are listening to in their selected audio file for this ShortCuts by cross-referencing with other recordings of Christopher Dewdney, Tom Konyves, and bill bissett, but then, as the team re-listened to this recording, they focused more and more on the rhythmic thumping sound throughout this clip. What is the cause of this sound and its effect on us as listeners?

Listen to this episode of ShortCuts to hear how, even if a sound is an unintentional sound caused by the recording equipment, it still affects our interpretation of the recording.

This special episode of ShortCuts is produced by Ella Jando-Saul, with contributions from Mathieu Aubin, Misha Solomon, Sophia Magliocca, Rowan Nancarrow, and James Healey. 

EPISODE NOTES

A fresh take on sounds from the past, ShortCuts is a monthly feature on The SpokenWeb Podcast feed and an extension of the ShortCuts blog posts on SPOKENWEBLOG. Stay tuned for monthly episodes of ShortCuts on alternate fortnights (that’s every second week) following the monthly SpokenWeb podcast episode.

Series Producer: Katherine McLeod

Host: Hannah McGregor

Supervising Producer: Kate Moffatt

Audio Engineer / Sound Designer: Miranda Eastwood

ARCHIVAL AUDIO

Notes for the audio in folder U-2-2:

U-2-2. 0000 Christ 3-4 Christopher Dewdney suite. 0400 1-2 Tape. 3-4 Voix - débute vers 875. Tom Konyves 8,45. Fin 8 1225. 0000 genital of mover [?]. Tom Konyves 5-6 - bande. 7-8 - voix. 0250 Bill Bissett. Partie 1 pistes 1-2 voix [illegible]. Partie 2 vx 34.

Notes on label for “BRAVE NEW WAVES. CBC Stereo 93.5 FM. ‘ULTIMATUM”:

U-BNW-T5. CBC label has fallen off (included in separate bag with board for temporary preservation) — Handwritten notes on reverse: “Tape 5 Tape out. 1. Christopher Dewdney Runs: 23:50. 2. Tom Konyves 21:30. 3. Bill Bisset - Runs 20:25. Tech: Yves Lepage.”

SHOW NOTES

bissett, bill, Christopher Dewdney, and Tom Konyves. U-2-2. 2 May 1985. Folder 2, Deliverables, Audio-Deliverables, The Alan Lord Collection. SpokenWeb Collections, Concordia University, Montreal.

bissett, bill, Christopher Dewdney, and Tom Konyves. U-BNW-T5. 2 May 1985. Folder 2, Deliverables, Audio-Deliverables, The Alan Lord Collection. SpokenWeb Collections, Concordia University, Montreal.

Those interested can find more information about these recordings in the following documents:

bissett, bill. Participant acceptance form. AL-Folder2-img003-04, Folder 1, Alan Lord Archive, The Alan Lord Collection. SpokenWeb Collections, Concordia University, Montreal.

bissett, bill. Letter to Alan Lord. AL-Folder2-img195, Folder 1, Alan Lord Archive, The Alan Lord Collection. SpokenWeb Collections, Concordia University, Montreal.

Konyves, Tom. Sketch of stage setup. AL-Folder2-img186-187, Folder 1, Alan Lord Archive, The Alan Lord Collection. SpokenWeb Collections, Concordia University, Montreal.

Lescaut, Roxa. "Le Premier Festival de Poésie urbaine de Montréal." interModule 2. AL-U85-img029-32 and 035-38, Folder 1, Alan Lord Archive, The Alan Lord Collection. SpokenWeb Collections, Concordia University, Montreal.

During the Covid pandemic, before she had ever set foot in a classroom dedicated to learning about libraries, Maia Trotter discovered a YouTube video titled "Library Ambiance." This video didn't contain the typically fabricated sounds of a library that someone had layered over each other like book pages turning and a fireplace crackling in the background, but a live recording of the sounds of a public library out there in the world. These sounds are what helped her to get through the isolation she felt during those long months at home. 

Having now been surrounded by ideas about libraries for the last two years, Maia decided to investigate the different sounds of libraries, how they have changed over time, and how they make people feel. For this episode, Maia interviews three staff members of the Edmonton Public Library Stanley A. Milner branch who work in unique spaces to get their perspectives on the way sound affects patrons and staff members alike. She interviews staff members who have worked in the Makerspace, Gamerspace, and the children's library in order to explore the relationship between feeling and sound in libraries, and how the sounds of libraries have changed over time. 

SpokenWeb is a monthly podcast produced by the SpokenWeb team as part of distributing the audio collected from (and created using) Canadian Literary archival recordings found at universities across Canada. To find out more about SpokenWeb visit: spokenweb.ca . If you love us, let us know! Rate us and leave a comment on Apple Podcasts or say hi on our social media @SpokenWebCanada.

Episode Producer:

Maia Trotter (she/her) lives, studies, and works on Treaty 6 territory. Maia is a recent graduate of the Master of Library and Information Studies student at the University of Alberta. She received her Bachelor of English Honours from Simon Fraser University. Her current research interests are focused on community and feminist-driven metadata practices in digital initiatives, and the evocations of sounds of public spaces like libraries.

Episode Guests:

Charlie Crittenden is a library assistant at the downtown branch of the Edmonton Public Library. He is in the final semester of his Master of Library and Information Studies program. In his spare time, he works as an editor for local magazines, pursues various creative projects, and frequents used bookstores. 

Dan Hackborn is a library worker and an MLIS/MA candidate at the University of Alberta. He lives and works on Treaty 6 territory, the land of nations including the Blackfoot, the Dene, the Assiniboine, the Nakoda Sioux, the Saulteaux, the Métis nations, and the nehiyaw.

Anna Wallace is a library assistant for the Shelley Milner Children's Library at the Stanley A. Milner branch of the Edmonton Public Library. When she's not refereeing her den of chaos goblins, you can usually find her writing, reading or baking.

Show Notes:

EPL Makerspace
https://www.epl.ca/makerspace/

The Makerspace is a hub for all things creative. The space offers patrons many tools and services such as 3D printing, vinyl cutting, recording studios, a heat press, and sewing machines. In the future, the Makerspace plans on being able to provide tools for bookbinding, video production, laser cutting, and photography. They host lots of cool events and provide certification and training for their services. 

EPL Gamerspace
https://www.epl.ca/milner-library/gamerspace/

The Gamerspace at the downtown branch is only a few years old and is a source of much joy and excitement within the library. The space is open to everyone, regardless of gaming expertise or experience, and patrons have access to a wide variety of games across various platforms and consoles. The space, which is colourful and bright, has PC stations, an Xbox, a Playstation, a Nintendo Switch. and a few retro arcade cabinets. 

Shelley Milner Children's Library
https://www.epl.ca/milner-library/childrens-library/

The Shelley Milner Children's Library is housed in the downtown branch of the Edmonton Public Library system. It is a bright and vibrant space for children and families and provides children with access to many materials such as books, online resources, games, and a children's Makerspace where they can experiment with 3D printing, photography, and music. The children's library hosts many events like Baby Laptime, singing circles, and Family Storytime where kids get to play, learn, and explore in new and creative ways. 

Katherine McLeod, "Listening to the Library" 
https://labs.library.concordia.ca/listening-to-the-library/

Citations:

Valentine, P. M. (2012). A social history of books and libraries from cuneiform to bytes. The Scarecrow Press, Inc.

Peesker, S. (2019). Sounds like hard work: How the right noise can help you focus and be more creative. The Globe and Mail. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article-sounds-like-hard-work-how-the-right-noise-can-help-you-focus-and-be/

Buxton, R. T., Pearson, A. L., Allou, C., Fristrup, K., & Wittemyer, G. (2021). A synthesis of health benefits of natural sounds and their distribution in national parks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118(14). https://doi-org.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/10.1073/PNAS.2013097118

Han, Z., Meng, Q., & Kang, J. (2022). The effect of foreground and background of soundscape sequence on emotion in urban open spaces. Applied Acoustics. https://doi-org.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/10.1016/j.apacoust.2022.109039