Chennai@Night Time
is an
experimental Sound Art piece aimed to understand the workings of Night time
life on a normal weekday in Chennai. Chennai, despite being a metropolitan city
in India, is known to sleep early and hence the composer decided to drive to
some of the places in Chennai where he could achieve sound samples of an
apparently “sleeping” city. Characteristics sound of night time Chennai include
sparse traffic, Ice Cream vendors with there occasional bells, sporadic hubs of
people and traffic where food is sold or some shops are open to sell cold
drinks or cigarettes; 24 hour takeaway outlets that always have delivery men
who talk amongst themselves as they perform their night shift jobs. Finally,
this experiment made way for an excursion into the vast expanse of Marina Beach
where the homeless and destitute sleep in the open beach at night and there are
hardly any sounds except an occasional dog barking or someone snoring. The sea
shows its true form in this quietness as the lapping of the waves is heard even
1 km away from the sea. This Marina Beach clip has been superimposed with the
rest of the sounds of Chennai in order to reiterate that Chennai is a coastal
city and that nature is never far away from all the urbanization. The places
that were visited in order were as follows
§ Ice Cream Vendor – Subburayan Nagar,
Kodambakkam
§ Movenpick Ice Cream Parlour - Nungambakkam
§ Dawn n Dusk – Khader Nawaz Khan Road,
Nungambakkam
§ Sorroundings near Buhari Hotel – Egmore
§ Beach Road and the Beach itself - Marina
Beach
