Mind Yourself: On Soundwalking, Race and Gender

Abstract

Soundwalk’s tag-line — ‘Audio tours for people who don’t normally take audio tours’ — sums up their objective neatly: the company aims to offer auditors/walkers the chance — literally — to step outside their normalised bodily experiences of the world. A series of audio files available as compact disks or mp3 downloads, Soundwalk’s tours of neighbourhoods in New York City, Paris and elsewhere have proved immensely popular and profitable for their creators (founders Stephan Crasneanscki and Michel Sitruk and sound designer Dug Winningham). Purchasers of the CD versions receive information on getting to the starting point, as well as on the narrator and sound/music samples; this information is available to downloaders via the website. Although both versions offer a schematic, annotated map of the route, these maps are not referred to in the course of the walks; all the walker/listener needs to do is get to the starting point and press PLAY.