“I had had a hard day’s work, and was pretty well jaded when I came climbing out, at last, upon the level of Blackheath. It cost me some trouble to find out Salem House; but I found it, and I found a haystack in the corner, and I lay down by it; having first walked round the wall, and looked up at the windows, and seen that all was dark and silent within. Never shall I forget the lonely sensation of first lying down, without a roof above my head! ... I prayed that I never might be houseless anymore, and never might forget the houseless. I remember how I seemed to float, then, down the melancholy glory of that track upon the sea, away into the world of dreams.
As a collaborator in the Big Book Field Studio, I created a sonic piece titled Sounds of the Home. After reading Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, I was originally inspired by the novel’s representation of the young David’s orphan displacement. This project is a sonic archive of the sounds of being housed such as a door, a shower, or air conditioning. Through reflection and observation, I wanted to address my privilege of having a home—through considering how this sounds, rather than how it looks. This project aims to cultivate a more critical and reflective positionality about how housing impacts our daily lives and sense of belonging. I encourage you to think about your position in relation to these complex ideas of displacement and houselessness in Tucson and beyond.
HOME PLACES