e133 deconstruction – how can you constructively deconstruct?

This content is also available in / Ce contenu est également disponible sur: Français

while doing my qi gong one morning I heard roofers removing tiles and recalled a simplesoundscapes recording from 2016…

TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE

(bell + sound of roofers taking off tiles)

While doing my daily qi gong on May 25, 2023 I was listening to roofers removing tiles on a nearby house.  

I’ve always been troubled and fascinated by the sound of deconstruction… of things being ripped apart… of the undoing of objects held together with glue, nails or screws. 

I sometimes feel the pain of the wood, metals and minerals. 

I sometimes feel like a part of me lives within these materials.

I think about where these materials came from – their extraction from the earth – and how we treat them when they are no longer useful to us. 

I feel gratitude towards these living beings who provide us with shelter and comfort.

Now I want to take you back to another encounter with deconstruction, in August of 2016, the very first recording of my simplesoundscapes project about mindful listening. 

Here is the recording from the very first episode of simplesoundsccapes. 

(beginning of simplesoundscapes pilot episode, with nails being extracted in the background)

This pilot episode of simplesoundscapes explores the ecological and philosophical implications of deconstruction. I have a lifelong interest in environmental issues, in particular with acoustic ecology and so when I heard both the violence and the poetry of siding being removed and nails being extracted from a wall on our cottage, I was compelled to record it and to start this podcast series called simplesoundscapes. So this particular recording was captured in mono on an ipad with the ipad on a window sill. It  was recorded in August 2016 in Duhamel, Quebec.  I invite you to think about the following question: 

If construction is the art and science of building and deconstruction is its opposite, selective dismantlement, how then can we constructively deconstruct?

How can you constructively deconstruct?

*

CREDITS

Thanks to the roofers I recorded and all the best with the development of green practices in your industry. 

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this episode. (including all the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation and infrastructure that make this podcast possible).

My gesture of reciprocity for this episode is to American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.