The Sounds of Northwest Arkansas Project
“El sonido del agua vale más que todas las palabras del poeta,” Octavio Paz.
“The sound of water is worth more than all the poet’s words,” Octavio Paz.
The Sounds of Northwest Arkansas project is inspired by Mexican poet Octavio Paz. In 1945, Paz published a piece titled “Sur” in the Argentine literary journal about his visit with American poet Robert Frost. Paz wrote, “El sonido del agua vale más que todas las palabras del poeta.” In English it reads, “The sound of water is worth more than all the poet’s words.”
The Sounds of Northwest Arkansas soundscape explores the versatility of sound as it connects our internal and external worlds. Sound has the ability to elicit emotions, memories, visuals, thoughts, smells, textures, and ideas. Sound is our passage to these worlds.
In collaboration with the NWA community, I am creating a soundtrack of NWA inspired by Octavio Paz. We will fill in the blank in Paz’ line: “The sound of ________ is worth more than all the poet’s words”. All collaborators are the poets, who fill in the blank with one sound/description of that sound to express the richness of their environment.
How to Participate: Think, Describe, Insert, Record, Send
1. Think about a sound that represent NWA to you. A sound may be a familiar daily sound, an excerpt from a song, groups of people talking, or events. The sounds could be loud or soft. They may come from the outside or be resting inside with you. All is possible.
2. Describe the sound in five words or less.
3. Insert the description of the sound into Paz’ sentence by filling in the blank. “In English, “The sound of ________ is worth more than all the poet’s words.” In Spanish, “El sonido del _______ vale más que todas las palabras del poeta.” (see example below)
4. Record yourself with your phone reading the sentence by filling in the blank with the description of your sound. We welcome all languages. Please record the actual sound if you have access to it. If not, the words are enough.
5. Send the recording to soundperimeter@gmail.com
Examples:
1. This one is recorded in English and Spanish.
“The sound of music in the Salvadorian pupuserias is worth more than all the poet’s words.”
“El sonido de la musica en las pupuserias Salvadorenas vale más que todas las palabras del poeta.”
Bonus: They were able to take a phone into a Salvadorian pupuseria and record the music.
2. “The sound of our backyard wind chimes is worth more than all the poet’s words.”
Bonus: They recorded the wind chimes in the backyard.
3. “The sound of my partner laughing is worth more than all the poet’s words.”