Moments and Memories Through Sound – Seeing Through Hearing

Documenting a Sound Journey

David has been blind since birth. He uses apps on his mobile device to navigate his way through the community and to help read textual and visual data. Through his story we gain a deeper understanding of what it is like for someone who relies on his hearing to get by in this world. Through his story we also find common ground on the importance of memory and how we relive those memories through what we document. For David, that is through audio. David has traveled to other countries and throughout the United States. During his travels he has recorded moments via his binaural microphones. When he listens to them, he is able to relive the memory.

I can relive it as much as I want. Sometimes I just like listening to the different sounds and enjoy those and just focus in on those and other times I just like to relive the whole memory and remember what kind of happened.
David Bouchard

Hear David’s immersive story: interviews blended with David’s binaural recordings. Requires headphones for the full immersive experience.

David Bouchard shares binaural recordings while talking about his sound memories

David stands still with his cane recording sounds while waiting for the Max train

David has been recording music since he was a child. He was always interested in sound design in movies. As an adult, David learned of people who were recording binaural audio.

In this photo, an ambisonic recorder in the foreground records spatial audio, a man is jogging to the right of and a man stands looking at the Willamette River while recording binaural audio sounds. The Steel Bridge is in the background. Photo by Mary Anne Funk. — Photo by Mary Anne Funk

Since beginning this project, we’ve chosen David’s personal binaural audio recordings from his past recordings to go with his story and we have recorded binaural and spatial audio together around Portland, Oregon.