audio – Routes and routines

Koto, angisa, odo interview

By peter
on Mar 19, 2017
in audio, Meta language, Suriname

Interview met /with Christine van Russel-Henar

Christine van Russel-Henar is the driving force behind the Koto museum in Paramaribo. I spoke with her about the way language, oral culture and traditional Surinamese wear are connected. The interview is in Dutch. Below you will find a transcription in Dutch, followed by a translation to English.

Christine van Russel-Henar is de drijvende kracht achter het Koto museum in Paramaribo. Ik sprak haar over de verbinding tussen orale cultuur, taal en traditionele Surinaamse kleding. Hieronder vind je het interview uitgeschreven in het Nederlands, gevolgd door een vertaling naar het Engels.

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Repetitie Ademhalen

By peter
on Mar 07, 2017
in audio, Implemented imagination, Meta language, Suriname

Voorstelling Ademhalen, Cultureel Centrum Suriname, 18-03-2017

Zondag 17 februari. Ik val binnen in een kerkdienst van de gemeente Maranatha, die gegeven wordt in de voorzaal van het Cultureel Centrum Suriname op de Kwattaweg in Paramaribo.

Van ver hoorde ik de bulderende preek. Twee mannen op een podium, voor een zaal met meisjes, jongens, vrouwen en mannen. De dienst is in het Engels en wordt zin voor zin vertaald naar het Nederlands. De Engelstalige zware stem is luid en krachtig. Het Nederlands volgt functioneel op lager volume, en nestelt zich tussen de eindes en beginnen van de Engelse zinnen. De frontale opzet suggereert dat het de hogere machten zijn die hier aan het woord zijn.

De inhoud van de preek: de vrouw moet haar dienstbaarheid aan god tonen door gehoorzaam te zijn aan haar man. De man op zijn beurt dient god door te zorgen voor zijn kroost en vrouw. “Zoals Jezus voor zijn gemeenschap zorgt, zorgt de man voor zijn familie.” Voor de predikant, en voor leden van de kerkgemeenschap is dat misschien een waarheid die hier nog eens bevestigd wordt, maar voor mij kan dit soort patriarchale indoctrinatie echt niet door de beugel.

Poti dati dape – getting to grips with Sranan basics

By peter
on Feb 26, 2017
in audio, Meta language, Suriname

I am trying to pick up some Sranan tongo. Dutch might be the official language of Suriname, knowing a bit of the other languages that are spoken here in Paramaribo, helps in understanding how people communicate in such a multilingual city. Sranan is the most spoken language, it is a living language, in continuous state of change, and people from a wide range of backgrounds speak it. Creoles, Buru, Hindustani, Javanese, Chinese ….

This website has been a great help to start things up: it provides quite a good dictionary Sranan < -> English:
http://www-01.sil.org/americas/suriname/Sranan/English/SrananEngLLIndex.html

With some other neighbors I am staying in Stichting Unu Pikin (our children) Some of the neighbors are here for a holiday, some for a longer residency, some live permanently here. An is staying for several months, she is retired, living in De Bijlmer, in Holland. Being from Surinamese origin she comes here every year to visit family and revisit her former home town Paramaribo.

Today, before the rains came, she sat with me on the veranda to help with my pronunciation. Bless her, she takes time for that and she is bearing with my terrible beginner level.

Below is a recording, you can listen and speak along and improve your own Sranan. The little side note An adds about medicinal herbs testify of her professional life as a nurse and her common sense to be critical of too many chemical medicine.
I pasted a quick transcription of the most important words below. It will contain misspellings, please let me know if you have improvements to propose.

If you wonder why we talk about such sososani things, we are refering to some exercises from “Sranantongo, Surinaams voor reizigers en thuisblijvers” by MichaÃ«l Ietswaart and Vinije Haabo, a great help. So our subjects might not seem terribly exciting, but it all makes sense in the bigger scheme.

Compass recordings

By peter
on Jul 18, 2012
in audio, Montagewalks, Projects

Three audio files, recorded and mixed using the Compass recorder software and a game controller.
The set up allows to navigate a file structure and play back files while adding new recordings to the mix. This means: no post-mixing in a studio, but looping while walking the streets.

It also means that the audio below is quite rough: mono, recorded on a usb webcam hanging from my backpack in which my laptop is overheating to power the process.

The first on is recorded during a walk through the Brabantstraat, a busy shopping street in Schaarbeek.
The mix is in paste with my walking tempo. Trying to move on and not be obstructed by cars, pedestrians and lots of derivations. 1, 2, 3, 4 …

The following one is recorded in another corner of Schaarbeek, between square Pavillion and Place Verboeckhoven. Although the method is the same, the sounds are very different. Post-industrial, less people, edge off the city sounds.

On Place du Jeu de Balle you can’t really walk, you strawl, stand still linger, hang, turn in circles.
I tried to make that part of the way the mix is made. Less forwarding, more coming back to the same point over and over.