People in Glass Houses...

Location: Madison Memorial Union, Madison WI

Shortly after departing my start point at the Memorial Union, I found myself walking along Lake Mendota. First, I walked through a small pile of leaves toward the shore of Lake Mendota. Upon reaching the lake, I threw several stones into the water. I also spent some time listening to the seagulls circling the Union that day. Listen


Recorded 9/27/08
12:oo pm




The Memorial Union on the shore of Lake Mendota. (Courtesy of Google Images)

Pack It Up

Location: Corner of Langdon and N. Lake St., Madison WI

I continued on with my Drift, eventually making it to the corner of Langdon and N. Lake St. When I got there, two couples were packing up a pick up truck for a day at the beach. I recorded them as they loaded a cooler into the truck, pulled a tool box out, and then slammed the tailgate shut. Listen


Recorded 9/27/08
12:27 pm



They were driving a 1998 Ford Ranger. I know because my dad owned one identical the to the one they were driving. (Courtesy of Google Images)

Beat Boxing

Location: 33 E. Main St., Madison WI

Many times I have found myself wondering, "What does it sound like inside a 'Downtown Living' Apartment Guide Box?" Well, lucky for me, I was now armed with homemade microphones which could help me answer that very question. I put both mics inside the box, closed the door, and proceeded to beat a little tune on the front, back, left, right and top, of the box. The really shocking thing about this experience was the tremendous sound generated within this tiny plastic box. Listen

We've all thought about it, but only I had the nerve to beat a box.

Recorded 9/27/08

3:38 pm

(Courtesy of Google Images)

The Choice of a New Generation

Location: Corner of King St. and Doty St.

I noticed some a guy walking ahead of me as he tossed an empty Pepsi can on the ground near a wooden bench. I picked it up since there was a trash can not ten feet away, but first I decided to find out what kind of sound the can would make when I moved it across the bench. Listen

Recorded 9/27/08 The same kind of can the guy
3:51 pm tossed away needlessly.
(Courtesy of Google Images)

My Only Friend...

The End Location: Top of Monona Terrace

They have these really nice metal tables on the top of The Monona Terrace. I sat at one to finish up my notes for Drift 1. While I was writing, the pen slipped from my hand and landed on the other side of the table. I reached over and dragged it back towards me. It was then I noticed that the pen on the metal made this really interesting sound. Listen.

Recorded 9/27/08
4:21 pm

Nice shot of The Terrace from Lake Monona. (Courtesy of Google Images)

Drfit Strategy

For my Drift, I used a map of Milwaukee to navigate downtown Madison. I picked the starting point on the map at right of the corner of W. Walnut and W. Galena. My goal was to navigate to the Milwaukee School of Engineering on this map, while walking through Madison. I picked the Memorial Union as the closest facsimile for the corner of W. Walnut and Galena.
Using this strategy, I made it to the "Milwaukee School of Engineering," which turned out to be the Monona Terrace.

To further diversify this Drift, I flipped a coin to determine if I should move left or right when I came to an intersection. This made things interesting as I sometimes found myself moving away from where I needed to be heading, but it all worked out in the end.

In terms of my microphones, I wore a backpack with one mic clipped to each shoulder strap.

Drift Map

This is the map of my Drift through the Madison Isthmus. My starting point, indicated by the blue pin icon, was the Madison Memorial Union. The sound-marks on my drift are indicated by the regular blue icons. The red pin icon represents the end of my Drift, the Monona Terrace. The blue question marks represent points at which I stopped recording for one reason or another.


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