{ "$schema": "https://pointcast.xyz/for-agents", "code": "UES-210", "slug": "listening-post-soundwalks-acoustic-commons", "title": "Listening Post: Soundwalks & the Acoustic Commons", "status": "active", "frame": "Hear one place as a layered public system: notice rhythm, refuge, noise, voice, weather, machines, and other species, then shape those observations into an ethical and accessible listening route.", "outcome": "A five-minute listening route or stationary sonic atlas with field recording or non-audio score, map, transcript or description, context, consent notes, and a reusable observation prompt.", "path": "/ues/listening-post-soundwalks-acoustic-commons", "jsonPath": "/ues/listening-post-soundwalks-acoustic-commons.json", "weeklyCommitment": { "selfGuidedStudioMinutes": 45, "fieldworkMinutes": { "minimum": 90, "maximum": 120 }, "reflectionMinutes": 15, "total": "About 2.5–3 self-paced hours per module" }, "access": [ "Every instruction is readable on the public course page; audio or video references require a transcript or equivalent text path.", "Every required prompt, scenario, rubric, and checklist is written on this course page; named sources are optional references, not missing course materials.", "Low-bandwidth, print-friendly syllabus with no paid platform or subscription required.", "No live attendance, camera, account, wallet, or public posting is required.", "Progress stays in this browser unless the learner chooses to download a private completion receipt.", "A notebook-based sound score fully replaces recording equipment, headphones, or hearing-dependent tasks.", "Every route can be completed from one safe indoor location, through memory, or with public archival audio.", "A text-score path completes the whole course without an audio editor." ], "materials": [ "Notebook or notes app", "Phone recorder or any audio recorder, optional", "Headphones, optional and never required outdoors", "Simple map, hand-drawn route, or stationary observation grid" ], "instructorProfile": "A sound artist, radio producer, acoustic ecologist, musician, or field recordist able to teach close listening, recording ethics, accessible audio, and restrained editing.", "soloPath": "Listen from one safe place using sound, written notation, drawing, vibration, memory, or public archival audio. Travel, recording equipment, hearing-dependent work, and another person are never required.", "assignments": [ { "title": "Repeated sound inventory", "dueWeek": 2, "brief": "Observe the same place three times and document foreground, middle distance, background, rhythm, interruption, refuge, weather, time, and uncertainty through audio or notation." }, { "title": "Ethical sonic map", "dueWeek": 4, "brief": "Map a short route or stationary listening field with four stops, access and safety alternatives, privacy decisions, consent notes, and one non-audio reading path." }, { "title": "Listening post", "dueWeek": 6, "brief": "Edit the observations into a five-minute route or atlas with recording or score, transcript or equivalent description, credits, metadata, source files, and a future listening prompt." } ], "weeks": [ { "week": 1, "title": "Hear the Layers", "question": "What enters attention when we listen for distance, rhythm, masking, and change before naming sounds?", "sourceShelf": [ "National Park Service soundscape listening prompts", "Acoustic ecology and soundwalk score examples", "UES local observation and field-note practice" ], "studio": "Follow a guided three-minute listen, first marking distance and rhythm, then naming possible sources and uncertainty.", "fieldTask": "Make three short listening studies from one safe place using audio, written notation, drawing, vibration, or remembered sound.", "publicReceipt": "A private or shareable layered listening card with time, place, conditions, method, and three unresolved sounds." }, { "week": 2, "title": "Return at Another Hour", "question": "How does one place change when time, weather, traffic, work, or other species change?", "sourceShelf": [ "One-minute field-recording and written sound-score examples", "Time, weather, distance, direction, and device metadata", "Headphone safety and hearing-access alternatives" ], "studio": "Compare two observations without treating volume, device measurements, or memory as perfect evidence.", "fieldTask": "Complete the repeated sound inventory across three times, or use three time-stamped public recordings when returning is unavailable.", "publicReceipt": "A three-column comparison naming stable sounds, changes, missing information, and one possible cause labeled as inference." }, { "week": 3, "title": "Listen Without Taking", "question": "When does recording a place become an intrusion into people, habitat, work, or refuge?", "sourceShelf": [ "Consent and incidental-conversation recording guidance", "Wildlife-safe observation and sensitive-location practices", "On-page six cases: intelligible private conversation, distant public crowd, consenting speaker, nesting wildlife, safety alarm, and a place whose exact location could cause harm" ], "studio": "For each of the six cases above, choose record, ask consent, relocate, wait, describe only, or do not document; write one sentence explaining the least intrusive safe choice.", "fieldTask": "Write a recording boundary, avoid intelligible private conversation, and make one consented, public, environmental, archival, or notation-only study.", "publicReceipt": "An ethics note documenting what was recorded, omitted, moved, disguised, described instead, or left private—and why." }, { "week": 4, "title": "Map the Acoustic Commons", "question": "Where do people encounter sound, quiet, warning, masking, invitation, and exclusion along one route?", "sourceShelf": [ "Sonic map, route score, and accessibility-audit examples", "Public right-of-way and daytime-route safety prompts", "Noise, refuge, masking, rhythm, and threshold vocabulary" ], "studio": "Turn observations into four ordered stops with duration, direction, access alternative, safety note, and listening instruction.", "fieldTask": "Complete the ethical sonic map as a short route or stationary four-zone field; travel is never required.", "publicReceipt": "The map with four listening prompts, access and safety alternatives, privacy decisions, and a text-only version." }, { "week": 5, "title": "Edit Without Erasing Place", "question": "How much shaping helps attention, and when does cleanup manufacture a place that was never heard?", "sourceShelf": [ "Basic edit, level, fade, and file-export guidance", "Non-audio equivalents: notation, text score, and spectrogram description", "Credit, rights, provenance, and correction metadata" ], "studio": "Build one lightly edited audio sequence or text score, retaining original files and documenting each material transformation.", "fieldTask": "Create a five-minute draft, write its transcript or equivalent description, and check it without relying on sound alone.", "publicReceipt": "A draft sequence plus an edit ledger naming cuts, fades, level changes, omissions, sources, and uncertainties." }, { "week": 6, "title": "Open the Listening Post", "question": "What can a future listener revisit, correct, or hear differently?", "sourceShelf": [ "On-page listening-post check: audio is optional; include a text score or transcript, map or stationary grid, route alternative, volume warning if relevant, privacy decision, credits, rights, and a downloadable local package", "Portable metadata and stable-file naming practices", "Community listening and optional Tezos publication boundary" ], "studio": "Assemble the route or atlas, run privacy, access, credit, file, and route checks, and write a repeatable listening prompt.", "fieldTask": "Finish the listening post and preserve its source recording or score, map, transcript, metadata, and private/public choice.", "publicReceipt": "Completed listening post or private equivalent with map, access assets, ethics note, credits, correction path, and next-listen date." } ], "archiveWorkNumber": "509", "archiveCategory": "SOUND + PLACE", "connectsFrom": [ "UES-103", "UES-105", "UES-107", "UES-108" ], "budgetUsd": 3500, "addedProductionNeed": "Optional faculty listening lab, accessibility review, and public hosting support; the page and a local text or audio file are sufficient for independent completion.", "boundary": "No intelligible private conversations, covert recording, trespass, unsafe routes, or disturbance of wildlife or sensitive sites. A stationary, archival, memory-based, or notation-only path always counts equally.", "human": "https://pointcast.xyz/ues/listening-post-soundwalks-acoustic-commons", "catalog": "https://pointcast.xyz/ues", "fundingProgram": "https://pointcast.xyz/university-of-el-segundo", "participation": { "status": "active", "deliveryMode": "self-paced", "start": "anytime", "durationModules": 6, "learnerPriceUsd": 0, "requirements": { "account": false, "application": false, "deadlines": false, "liveAttendance": false, "wallet": false } }, "progressPolicy": { "storage": "local-browser-only", "syncsToServer": false, "identityStored": false, "learnerArtifactsStored": false, "note": "Only completion choices and timestamps are saved in this browser. The learner may reset them or download a private receipt." }, "optionalSupportedCohort": { "availableWhenFunded": true, "requiredForAccessOrCompletion": false, "note": "A scheduled cohort may add human review and facilitation, but it never gates the independent path." }, "completionReceipt": { "kind": "self-attested", "privateByDefault": true, "walletRequired": false, "onChain": false, "disclaimer": "The receipt is not academic credit, accreditation, verified identity, an on-chain credential, or a financial credential." }, "transactionPolicy": "Course browsing and participation are wallet-free. Tezos support is optional and requires separate explicit Mainnet review." }