What the Room Sounds Like
Written by Studio AM.
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Sanne records rooms. Not conversations, not music: rooms. She places a microphone in the middle of a space, asks everyone to leave, and records the background sounds for four minutes.
The recordings go to an archive that most people will never open. Still, she is careful. A kitchen at noon has a hum from the refrigerator and a faint tick from the pipes. A school hallway at night holds the buzz of the ceiling lights and, underneath, the traffic outside. No two rooms sound alike, and no room sounds like silence.
One job took her to a factory that was closing after ninety years. The owners wanted a record of it. She arrived on the final morning, set up in the main hall, and asked the remaining workers to step outside. They stood in the yard without talking, while a machine that none of them would ever run again cooled behind them.
When she played the file back, one of the welders said it sounded wrong. Too thin, he said. Sanne agreed with him. She had recorded the building, she told him, not the work. And the work was the part he was missing.
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Questions
Choose an answer. The explanation appears after you answer.
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Question 1 of 4
Which sentence best states what the passage is about?
The answer is B: An empty factory recording cannot capture the people and work it once held.
The recording captures the building without its usual activity. The welder's reaction shows what an empty-room recording leaves out.
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Question 2 of 4
How long is each of Sanne's recordings?
The answer is C: Four minutes.
The opening says each recording lasts four minutes. Ninety is the number of years the factory has been open.
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Question 3 of 4
What does the welder's reaction suggest about his view of the factory?
The answer is A: Its familiar sound includes the work and people, not just the building.
He finds the empty building's sound incomplete. His reaction suggests that he connects the place with the activity it usually contains.
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Question 4 of 4
What does 'faint' mean when describing the tick from the pipes?
The answer is D: weak and hard to hear
She is recording rooms that seem empty of sound, so a faint tick is one that is quiet and barely noticeable.
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