Sonic Tracing Project is rooted in a desire to orient attention toward realms that appear to remain free from colonization. The sonic environments found in nature offer something entirely unique: an acoustic commons that seems to belong simultaneously to no one and to everyone. While the land that sustains us can be divided and possessed, sound moves freely through the world, shaped by the material and ecological conditions of the moment. It exists only in relation. In this way, the sonic environment offers a field of information defined by mutuality and uncolonized connection, untouched by the rhythms and imperatives prescribed by capitalism.
Educational theorist Derek R. Ford writes that capitalism not only dictates the rhythm of our bodies but also shapes our perception, training us in what to notice and what to ignore. To interrupt this rhythm is to reclaim contact with aspects of ourselves and existence that cannot be colonized. Ford describes this kind of attention as a practice of listening, listening for what we do not yet know, for the silences that capitalist rhythms obscure. Seen in this way, listening itself becomes revolutionary, restoring the possibility of encounter beyond extraction.
By taking time to step away from the continual tempo of production and consumption, with breaks that often occur in carefully curated algorithmic isolation designed to intercept attention, we open ourselves to another register of awareness.
Sonic Tracing offers one method for translating this awareness into embodied practice. Collaborators close their eyes and record sound with their phones, using technology as a tool to facilitate presence rather than fragment or distract. Individuals trace what they hear, translating sound into movement through the body. With eyes closed and the non-dominant hand engaged, brain activity shifts, activating less-used neural networks and increasing cross-hemispheric connectivity. This neuroplasticity is not metaphorical but literal, forming new perceptual and motor pathways. This process lays the groundwork for reorienting awareness, the first step in imagining new worlds.
When uploaded to the map, each trace becomes part of a living archive, moments of collective attunement to something truly free, relational, and transcendent.
You'll need:
• A pen and paper
• Your phone with the voice memo app ready
When you're ready:
1. Go outside to a spot in nature where you can sit comfortably.
2. Put your phone on Do Not Disturb and start recording a voice memo.
3. With your eyes closed, begin listening to the sounds around you, tracing the sounds as moved by using the pen on paper to make marks or strokes, anything you want. Pay attention to tone, movement, or texture as you perceive it.
4. Feel free to open and close your eyes. Try using your non-dominant hand with your eyes closed. Do not worry about the output. Just trace the sounds as it makes sense to you.
5. There is no set time. Draw as long as you feel engaged. For some this will be an hour, for others a few minutes.
6. If you are doing this with another person, try not to look at one another's work until after you are done.
When you're done:
• Stop the recording
• Note the duration of your recording and your latitude/longitude
• Take a photo of your drawing as it lies on the ground
• Capture a 360° video or panoramic photo of your surroundings