This summer, the Connecting Communities Digital Initiative (CCDI)’s Junior Fellows created soundscapes inspired by the work of Dr. Allie Martin, one of CCDI’s current Artists/Scholars in Residence. Allie’s project, Sampling Black Life: Soundscapes and Critical Intention, uses Library of Congress digital collections to create soundscape compositions—short sonic vignettes that layer sounds from the Library’s digital collections with field recordings and composed music—to explore the sounds of Black life in depth.
In the following guest post, Jonathan Walton, a 2024 CCDI Junior Fellow, shares more about the process of developing his project, Diversity and Multiculturalism: The Interconnected Sounds of America.
As a musical artist and an African-American, I have always been interested in the sounds of my culture. I have always found that I could express myself best through music, ever since I started playing the cello in the third grade. Now in college, I find myself exposed to the ever-diverse communities of the people around me, stemming from all different backgrounds. I found myself drawing upon this influence while working on my project for the Connecting Communities Digital Initiative.
This summer, I worked on a project where I created a soundscape composition using audio from the Library of Congress’s collections. My focus was on arts communities within communities of color across the United States. The goal was to weave together these diverse sounds into one big sound collage, illustrating that all groups are interconnected through art. By exploring this universal connection, I wanted to emphasize that no one is truly free until we are all free. My project aimed to map through sound how different communities connect through their art, celebrating multiculturalism and shared experiences.
Building on the methodology of Dr. Allie Martin, who is an Artist/Scholar in Residence with the Connecting Communities Digital Initiative, I was inspired by her project Sampling Black Life: Soundscapes and Critical Intention. Dr. Martin’s work in soundscape and community engagement has shown me how sound can be a powerful medium for storytelling and community connection, and her methods have inspired me to explore similar themes within the broader context of arts communities. I was also inspired by the German term “Gesamtkunstwerk,” which translates to a “total work of art.” Coined by Richard Wagner, this concept describes an artwork that combines different art forms to create a cohesive whole. It’s a perfect representation of what I want to achieve with my soundscape composition.
I also wanted to highlight the importance of art as a tool of communal expression. It provides insightful commentary on how individuals and communities perceive and also express themselves. Using audio from the digital collections at the Library of Congress, my composition answers this question: How do the various diverse communities of the United States express themselves through art and sound?
To create this soundscape, I collected various samples of music, spoken word, and interview audio from collections like the Chicago Ethnic Arts Project Collection, The Juan B. Rael Collection, The Center for Applied Linguistics Collection, and others. I found that the materials within these collections specifically showcased the diversity of America’s population. During my research, I discovered items from Japanese, Greek, Hispanic, and African communities, among many others. I wanted to focus on the joy of their experiences, while also drawing attention to the reasons why they create their art.
One of the most exciting parts of this project was the ability to remix the digital collections from the Library of Congress. By taking historical audio recordings and reimagining them in a contemporary context, I wanted to bridge the past and present, showing how these sounds can resonate in new ways today. Remixing allows us to honor the original context of these recordings while also creating something entirely new and relevant to our current cultural landscape.
Through my soundscape, I hope to reflect the identities, beliefs, and ideas of the various communities I’m exploring. A recurrent theme in these materials is the resilience and creativity born out of displacement and resistance. With my soundscape, I hope to underscore the belief that to progress socially as a nation, we must come together in unity.
In summary, my soundscape project embodies the spirit of Gesamtkunstwerk – “a total work of art” where diverse sounds and voices come together to form a cohesive whole. Through this project, I hope to celebrate the creativity and unity of arts communities, illustrating that our shared struggles and triumphs are what truly connect us. By utilizing the digital collections at the Library of Congress, we can enable storytelling that bridges different communities, connecting us through our shared histories and experiences, art, and sound.
You can listen to Jonathan’s soundscape below (link to audio transcript):
Apply for a 2025 Junior Fellows Summer Internship
You can also work with the Library as a Junior Fellow!
The Junior Fellows Program is an annual summer internship program for currently enrolled or recently graduated undergraduate or graduate students. Fellows have the opportunity to explore the Library of Congress’ digital and analoofg collections, while working directly with Library staff across the institution in a variety of fields, including: information technology, reference, preservation, and more.
Applications for the Library’s 2025 Junior Fellows Program are open from now through Monday, November 18, 2024. Apply today!
CCDI is part of the Library’s Of the People: Widening the Path program with support from the Mellon Foundation. This program provides fellowships and grants to individuals and institutions for projects that innovate, imagine, and remix Library materials to highlight the stories and perspectives of Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and other communities of color from any of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and its territories and commonwealths (Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands). Learn more about CCDI here.
For more about the Library’s historic Of the People initiative, click here.