Sound Work Reflection

One audio piece I find very interesting is Materials Recovery Facility by Ernst Karel. These are a collection of short clips from different parts of the materials recovery facility. There is a focus on the sounds of recyclable materials. The concept is almost like hearing what recycling sounds like; the rhythm of recycling.  I love how beautiful the plastics in particular sound, with the instrumentals in the background. It's such a clever concept of making recycling into music. It could even inspire and encourage people to recycle more. These labeled clips cover different areas of the recovery facility, giving a sonic tour to the listener. This reminds me of the project Terra Incognita mentioned in Infrastructural Tourism, a game which aims to have the players "perceive the city as an infinitely expanding assemblage of puzzles." If the separate clips weren't labeled in Karel's piece, this piece could achieve the same effect. Each recording is like a separate puzzle piece. It could turn into a game where viewers try to guess which materials or machines are making which sound to decode the infrastructure of the recovery facility.