Sound Safari: Bath, Maine

Sharon Lockhart and Harvard Students, with editing by Ernst Karel, 50 min. (2008)

An audio excursion into a wide variety of public and private spaces in Bath, Maine. Under the direction of Sharon Lockhart, Sert Practitioner and 2007-08 FSC-Radcliffe Fellow, a group of Harvard students traveled to Bath, Maine for two days to explore the sound landscape.

The first day began in the early morning at Southgate Family Restaurant, situated outside the south gate of the Bath Iron Works, the site of Lockhart’s two film works, Lunchbreak and Exit. From there, students fanned out through the town, each with their own stereo audio recorder, meeting people and recording sounds wherever their various paths led them, until late into the evening. These included a fishing vessel outside of town, a high school band rehearsal, the inside of a police car, the town’s solid waste facility, a conversation with an Iraq war veteran working out in the gym, and a nursery school classroom, among many others.

On the second day, the students worked with Lockhart and composer Ernst Karel to begin to carefully craft an impressionistic audio documentary that brings the listener into the physical and cultural spaces of this Maine town.

Safari recording participants:
Alex Berman
Alex Fattal
John Hulsey
Lisa Jing
Ernst Karel
Sharon Lockhart
David Molander
Josh Neff
JP Sniadecki
Stephanie Spray

Coordination by Melissa Davenport