Making New (Sound) Waves

Intern Alison, discusses beginning to work with Mayfly Sound…

After joining the Mayfly Sound team, I am now equipped with my own Mayfly and have begun exploring the unlimited possibilities the app and journal provide. I hadn’t used the Mayfly technology before last week, but it was super easy to use and on my first morning, I had started my own sound adventures with it.

Leaving the Mayfly Sound HQ, I headed to the familiar St Nicks Market and started to record, with the Mayfly app, the hustle and bustle from the stalls and customers who were busy going about their days. Once recorded I could take photos to remember the market, with it’s bright colours and varied products. The final step was to choose a mayfly illustration displayed on the app, to attach the recording to, allowing me to access the sounds of the market whenever I wanted from the mayfly illustration in my journal.

My journey, through the familiar parts of Bristol, continued to Castle Park but as I was walking around recording chatter, nature and boats passing along the river, I realised I was connecting with the places like I had never before and suddenly they weren’t as familiar. By engaging with a different sense, Castle Park felt so different to other times I had been there. It was exciting to be listening out for sounds, even when I wasn’t recording and I became so aware of the sounds we would normally ignore in our everyday life.

I headed into the town, noticing how the tones and volumes changed and settled in a coffee shop to review everything I had recorded so far. For me, the journal has become a diary to record illustrations and words as well as sounds of each place I explored. There is plenty of space in the journal to add these, with a blank page after each mayfly illustration. The larger version of the Mayfly is even more versatile for collecting physical and tangible memories, as there are pouches that could hold tickets and photos from an experience or journey.

I have also been given a set of Mayfly illustration stickers, which for me, really unlock and show the potential that this technology can have. I’ve been harvesting ideas and in the next few months I look forward to trying them out. The stickers will allow you to put the Mayfly illustrations into other notebooks, travel guides or even photo albums. If you’re a traveller but not a writer, and often buy the “must have guide to wherever your going”, then why not add a sticker to the info page of the place you go to so you can attach your own recordings of the sound of the place or your personal reflections on the place alongside the guide’s advice, facts and tips. By adding your own personal experience to the guide then you can begin to make it your own diary of that holiday or trip, perfect if you don’t have time to write as you travel. I’m looking forward to using the stickers in photo albums; sharing stories with family and friends about the hilarious past photos then always having those memories recorded and attached to a sticker next to the photo. Years down the line, I’ll have a way to access the “in-jokes” and stories of the day the photo was taken, told by the people themselves.

My internship is continuing for the next couple of months and I’ll be busy helping spread this incredible sound journal further and capturing my own moments, conversations and ideas, which can be accessed anytime from my journal with my phone.