My Earreplaceable Map

Living in Chicago, people are surrounded by buildings high and low, spending a lifetime discovering the new places the city has has to offer. Along with the places are the people, with Chicago being the third largest city in the United States and with that brings the amount of sounds.

Growing up with hearing the public transportation, the traffic, the ambulances, and more. The people who are from the city learn to block out the noises from the streets. Whenever I leave the city, I forget really how loud the city really is and with one of my recent walks I picked up a lot of sounds along the way.

When the project was given, it took time to wonder what exactly could I map to represent the city and the streets that make up Chicago. Therefore, I decided to map the unmappable. The city has numerous sounds and one might wonder how could you map sounds if it continuously changes. By walking multiple times down a street comparing each time, some sounds stay the same so my mission is to not focus on what you can see but through listening to what is around you.

• In response to Malchik and Hollis, is walking a luxury, a privilege, a necessity, or a right, and why? What are the threats to walking? How does where you live influence how you live?

It seems to me no matter where I am, walking is a privilege and everyone has the right where to walk or choose what path they wished. However, some places make walking a luxury and the most easy way to tell if a street is welcoming and rich, no matter the time of day people want to spend time there. In a way the community values their walkers and not just themselves. With some streets offering so much, others can differ from luxury and in some cases be threats. The threats to walking are that you are out in the real world facing the danger and risks of the outside. At the same time accepting the danger or risk leads to a greater return as I learned in economics. As a young woman in Chicago, walking everyday I face the risk of the danger in the real world and enjoy my privilege to walk whenever and where ever because it’s my right as a person.