Stop once
Choose a safe, permitted place out of the way. Hold it long enough for your own movement to stop dominating what you hear.
Listen · locate · compare · leave
Field method
A small protocol for noticing sound without turning every place, conversation or ceremony into material to collect.
Map distance
Mark near, middle and far sources. Add arrows only when something moves through more than one layer.
Leave gaps
Do not record identifiable voices, private activity or sacred practice without an appropriate invitation and informed consent.
Guide 01 / notation
The five-minute sound map
Use a circle, three distance rings and a short timeline. You need no specialist symbols, decibel meter or recording equipment.
The aim is to preserve relationship: what repeated, what crossed the scene and what disappeared when another layer arrived.
Draw the mapGuide 02 / consent
Record with respect
A microphone changes the social situation even when it is small. Decide first whether a recording is necessary, welcome and safe to share.
A written observation can document rhythm and distance without capturing anyone’s identity.
Use the recording protocol
A useful limit
Not every meaningful sound needs to become a file.
Listening can end in attention, a diagram or a memory. The absence of a recording does not make an encounter less serious.