Written and read by Timmy Simonds
SETTING 1:
TOP volume on / BOTTOM volume off
Pursed ON / ALL OTHERS OFF
PLAY W1 (3 min): 1_W1_HMS 494 694- Class 8.mp3
Around 2014 I started to listen to this sound –
END W1
I had been making recordings of myself teaching,
being a young teacher
I was very self conscious that all the knowledge I tried to pack in my brain before each class, wouldn’t stick there to reference the next semester.
Sometimes I did end up using these recordings as a refresher for myself,
but they mostly just aggregated.
At some point I started to listen specifically to these accidental parts of these recordings
Along the margins
PLAY W2 (3:15): 1_W2_HMS 494 694- Class 9 pt 1_V2.mp3
Listening for
Changes in pace
Changes in enclosure
Signs that it was me, there
[AT 2:15]
I also heard
The chatter at the start of class
My first questions
END W2
PLAY E1: 2_E1_Hms220 F15 Wk15 M.mp3
How I started class
END E1
PLAY E1.1 + PLAY E1.2 (“why is everyone so far from me”)
2_E1.1_Sculpt F15 Wk 17 Part 1.mp3
2_E1.2_Hms496b-sp17 Class 2.mp3
PLAY E2 + 2.2 + LE (“see you Monday”)
2_E2_New Recording 20_V3.mp3
2_E2.2_New Recording 27.mp3
2_L_Hms220 F15 Wk10 W copy.mp3
And how I greeted students
By 2018
I had amassed an enormous amount of hellos and goodbyes
END
The sounds that bookended my time teaching
PLAY EW1 – Waiting (1:30): 3_EW1_Hms201 Sp18 Wk13 W.
What it sounded like to wait for them
I think of this as teaching without the learning. …
[sneeze]
… All the moments without the information.
But that have the same meaningfulness to them as the word “dear.”
PLAY EW2 – (AMBIENT): mp3 3_EW2_HMS 494 694- Class 7 Entry.mp3
SETTING 2:
TOP volume on / BOTTOM volume on
T Pursed ON / T Pursed ON
If there’s something that defines those moments, of these ambient shifts, goodbyes hellos, boundary crossings,…that characterizes them,… I wanted to draw out that figure in other moments of teaching.
Some spirit that was animated by everything but the learning
END
PAUSE AUDIO
This object here is a tool a fairly simple instrument that i use to meet with groups of teachers and listen to the sounds of our own teaching. It’s a kind of hearth and a kind of animator. It has a series of jacks along the top, here, and on the side that allow up to 18 people to listen simultaneously while controlling their own volume.
[rotate halfway]
on the side is this wand which is a Bluetooth input to receive audio sent from my phone or any other computer.
SETTING 3:
TOP volume LOW / BOTTOM volume LOW
Pursed ON / Pursed ON
SLOW ON others
PLAY LO (1:22) ALL ELSE PLAY AUTO :
4_L0_Sculpt F15 Wk9 Part 2_V2.mp3
4_L1_Hms220 F15 Wk10 W copy.mp3
5_T0_Hms220 F15 Wk10 W.mp3
5_T1_HMS 220 F15 Wk11 W.mp3
5_T2_HMS 220 F15 Wk11 W.mp3
…and on the back here are a series of controls that give shape to the animation of this spirit.
Pursed
[INCREASE VOLUME]
Cupids bow + lower dip
Filler for the top + heart shape or / puppet fold for the bottom
Filler on the Bottom / Flip on the top
[SPEAK LOUD OVER VOLUME]
[PLACE MIRROR]
…these are the controls that I try to use to give this spirt shape ——
And find this spirit in all momens of my teaching.
SETTING 4:
TOP volume ON / BOTTOM volume OFF
END Near T2
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(c) 2026 Timmy Simonds