Soundscape Studies

Soundwalking in the City: a socio-spatio-temporal sound practice

by John Levack Drever

5th INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON TEMPORAL DESIGN
JOINT WITH UK INSTITUTE OF ACOUSTICS DAY MEETING
SHEFFIELD, 21-22 JULY 2011

Die Klanglandschaft als ethnographisches Feld

by Fritz Schlüter

Master thesis submitted in April 2012

Die Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Rolle, die Klänge und Geräusche in unserem Alltag spielen und stellt verschiedene... more Die Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Rolle, die Klänge und Geräusche in unserem Alltag spielen und stellt verschiedene Ansätze für die ethnographische Klangforschung vor.

Wie beeinflusst und prägt die alltägliche (urbane) Geräuschkulisse – verstanden als „sinnliche“ oder „affektive“ Geographie – unsere Lebenswelt und unser Verhalten? Inwiefern sind „Soundscapes“ (Schafer 1977) oder „Klanglandschaften“ regional spezifisch? Welche kulturellen Unterschiede sind bezüglich der Produktions- und Wahrnehmungsweisen von Klängen und Geräuschen auszumachen? Welche akustischen Praktiken und Strategien tragen zur kollektiven Orchestrierung von Klanglandschaften bei?

Der Ethnologie kommt im Kontext dieser Fragen, die den nicht nur wissenschaftlich, sondern auch experimentell und künstlerisch arbeitenden Forschungszweig der Sound Studies schon seit den 1960er Jahren beschäftigen, zweifellos eine Schlüsselposition zu. Dennoch ist der explizite Bezug auf die akustischen Dimensionen kultureller Praxis in der ethnographischen Forschung noch immer unterrepräsentiert. Die vorliegende Arbeit versucht, diese Lücke zu schließen, indem einige der verstreut vorliegenden theoretischen und forschungspraktischen Ansätze zusammengetragen werden, die gemeinsam den aktuellen Forschungsstand konturieren. Insbesondere werden das europäische Klangforschungsprojekt Acoustic Environments in Change um Helmi Järviluoma, Heikki Uimonen und Noora Vikman (zwischen 1999 und 2011), die akustisch-ethnographischen Arbeiten von Steven Feld (zwischen 1982 und 2011) sowie Rowlands Atkinsons Entwurf einer sozial und politisch relevanten „sonic ecology“ der Stadt (zwischen 2006 und 2011) ausführlich vorgestellt und einer Kritik unterzogen. Aussagekräftige Hörbeispiele ergänzen den Text.

Die Klangforschung stärker als bisher in der Ethnologie zu berücksichtigen, würde sich in dreifacher Hinsicht lohnen – thematisch würde die Klangforschung eine Erweiterung möglicher Untersuchungsfelder bedeuten (1), methodisch eine Weiterentwicklung der ethnographischen Empirie (2) und hinsichtlich der Repräsentation der Forschungsergebnisse den Zugewinn eines bislang unterschätzten Mediums (3).

Die Arbeit verschafft somit einen Überblick über ethnographische und sozialwissenschaftliche Ansätze im interdisziplinären Feld der Sound Studies, die es ermöglichen, die Klanglandschaft als eine sozial relevante „akustische Textur“ des Alltags zu lesen und zu verstehen.

Mapping the Drone. Sonic Agents in Urban Soundscapes

by Fritz Schlüter

Forthcoming in 2012. Edited by Karolina Pauknerova, Petr Gibas and Marco Stella. Publisher: Pavel Mervat, Praha

The term soundscape, coined by Canadian musicologist and composer R. Murray Schafer, refers to the entirety of sounds... more The term soundscape, coined by Canadian musicologist and composer R. Murray Schafer, refers to the entirety of sounds being audible in a certain region. Opening up a lively discussion about an 'acoustic ecology' in the 1970s, the concept of the soundscape also helped to establish a new field for cultural-anthropological research. This paper focuses on the urban soundscape as far as it is shaped by engine and traffic sounds that are often referred to as 'noise.'

As an analytical tool, I am providing a pragmatic concept of sonic agents which will be used in the following to denote all active contributors to a given universe of sound – be they human or non-human (or hybrid). What if we take this metaphor seriously and try to identify different species of sonic agents in the city? Further developing a term originally coined by Schafer ([1977] 2006), the most important sonic species in the city seems to be the drone, a sonic agent which is constantly generating a certain level of noise – may it be a refrigerator or other cooling system, an internal-combustion engine or a neon light. If we understand the drone as a certain species of sonic agents, its primary habitat would be the city. How to map their spatial distribution across the urban fabric? And how to keep record of their behavioural patterns?

Some of the characteristics of sonic agents will be delineated on the basis of my own field recordings – including the materiality of sonic events. Moreover, several visualization methods will be considered as a means to study the urban drone – such as quantitative noise maps, graphical time-cycles and traffic flow simulations.

Descrição e classificação de duas paisagens sonoras de Campo Grande/MS

by André Otsuka

O presente artigo teve como objetivo analisar e descrever as paisagens sonoras de dois locais selecionados dentro da... more O presente artigo teve como objetivo analisar e descrever as paisagens sonoras de dois locais selecionados dentro da cidade de Campo Grande (Parque das Nações Indígenas e o campus da UFMS), partindo das orientações propostas por M. Schafer (1977). O método de análise usado foi proposto pelo próprio Schafer e consistiu em um trabalho prático de escuta, notação e organização de eventos sonoros, levando em conta características como fonte sonora, parâmetros físicos e o destaque dentro do cenário geral. Foi confirmado que os locais constituem paisagens sonoras hi-fi e possuem eventos sonoros importantes (keysignals), característicos de ambientes naturais ou com pouco desenvolvimento urbano, que merecem destaque por serem raros em cidades grandes. Além disso, estes eventos podem gerar novas affordances (possibilidades de ação criadas por certos eventos que ocorrem no ambiente), o que também é curioso dentro de uma cidade em pleno desenvolvimento, tornando-se um grande diferencial nesta capital. Muitas das referidas affordances seriam ainda mais evidentes caso a poluição sonora da cidade fosse menor. A multiplicidade de paisagens sonoras e eventos sonoros encontrados foram claramente percebidos. São peculiares e mostram ser uma importante fonte de inspiração para estudos e, é claro, criação artística.

Palavras chave: M. Schafer, eventos sonoros; affordances; multiplicidade.

From Hear to There – Sound and the cognitive construction of world in popular audioplays

by Stefan Zimmermann

Wißmann, Torsten und Zimmermann, Stefan (2010): From Hear to There – Sound and the cognitive construction of world in popular audioplays. In: Erdkunde: Archiv für wissenschaftliche Geographie, (64) 4. S. 371-383.

Mass media frequently makes use of more than visuality. With the exception of music, however, media geographers have... more Mass media frequently makes use of more than visuality. With the exception of music, however, media geographers have largely ignored audio media despite its major impact on shaping and characterizing our experience of the world. We address this lacuna by exploring the world’s most successful audioplay series, “The Three Investigators”. Our approach is informed by Schafer’s acoustic ecology, which suggests soundscapes are made legible through keynote, signal and soundmark. We find additional key sound events for the creation of soundscapes in “The Three Investigators” are the storyteller, dialogue and soundframe. Using content analysis and results from an audio-integrated online survey, we examine how the everyday world can be both generated and generalized, and, explore the reception and effectiveness of this popular cultural medium. Due to the audioplay’s locus within the detective story genre, five settings or places of action are identified – independent location, headquarters, place of solution, and scene of discovery or consecutive place of discovery. These settings are signified through the presence, absence or synchronicity of specific sound events. We find that the structure of the sounds and noise must be understandable to the listener because it is his ability to associate sounds with certain types of settings that enables him to complete background noise with his imagination. Simplified sounds may even increase auditory legibility if they can be connected to the listener’s cognitive structure. Indeed, a drastically reduced representation based on generalized sound events likely facilitates the understanding of narrative content and therefore, the world itself.

Soundwalking: Aural Excursions into the Everyday

by John Levack Drever

2009: 'Soundwalking: Aural Excursions into the Everyday', in Saunders, J. (ed.), The Ashgate Research Companion to Experimental Music, Ashgate. (ISBN: 07546-6282-2), pp.163-192.

Living Soundscapes, Historic Cities, and the Design of Urban Landscape

by Antonella Radicchi

Sull'immagine sonora della città

by Antonella Radicchi

Rantakiviltä tuntureille – Pyhät paikat saamelaisten rituaalisessa maisemassa [Sacred Places as a Part of Sámi Ritual Landscape]

by Tiina Äikäs

A monography dissertation published in Studia Archaeologica Septentrionalia 5. Pohjois-Suomen Historiallinen Yhdistys, Rovaniemi. 2011.

With a list of Sámi sacred places in Finland and an English summary.

In this book Sámi sacred places and especially offering places called sieidi are approached from an archaeological... more In this book Sámi sacred places and especially offering places called sieidi are approached from an archaeological perspective. The book starts with landscape analyses of sacred places showing various forms in which sacredness was experienced in the landscape. The connection of rituals to livelihood also becames evident from the GIS analyses. Ritual and profine activities were intertwined in the landscape.

Recent archaeological excavations conducted at sieidi sites in Finland give an possibility to approach the change in the use of these sites. The earliest archaeological evidence of offering practices from sieidi sites in Finland is dated to the 11th century AD. But there are also marks indicating to a contemporary use of these sites. They are still meaningful to different groups of people. During the long use of sieidi sites there has been changes in ritual practices and in meanings attached to these sites - and they are getting new meanings even today.   

The Soundscape of Justice

by James Parker

GRIFFITH LAW REVIEW (2011) VOL 20 NO 4, 962-993

Sound is a fact of life. But it is not a fact which contemporary legal thought has made any particular efforts to... more Sound is a fact of life. But it is not a fact which contemporary legal thought has made any particular efforts to acknowledge, let alone to interrogate in any depth. As a community of jurists, we have become deaf to law and to the problem of the acoustic. We must begin to take responsibility, therefore, for a dimension of legal experience which is no less real or significant simply because we barely attend to it. We need to begin to imagine a specifically acoustic jurisprudence. This article is a first step in that direction. By means of a close study of the ‘soundscape of justice’ at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and specifically in relation to the case of Simon Bikindi, who was accused by the Tribunal of inciting genocide with his songs, it aims to convince readers that the question of sound is worth attending to, that it bears an important relation to questions of justice and that it is very much capable of influencing institutional outcomes. Sound, after all, is a condition of the administration of justice, an inalienable part of our legal worlds.

Radiokonst Enligt Svensk Modell

by Colin Black

Nutida Musik, # 2, 2011. ISSN: 1652-6082. Nutida Musik is a journal that is published by the Swedish section of the ISCM (International Society for Contemporary Music). This article was translated into Swedish by Andreas Engström.

Sounding Dartmoor - audio archive on British Library Archival Soundscape

by John Levack Drever

Sounding Dartmoor - a public soundscape study, in collaboration with The Touring Exhibition of Sound Environments (TESE) and Aune Head Arts, funded by the Arts Council for England and the University of Plymouth.

Sounding Soundscape Composition (paper + CD)

by John Levack Drever

2001: Sounding Soundscape Composition, edited by John Levack Drever, Sonic Arts Network.

Nostophonics: Approaches to Grasping Everyday Sounds from A British Perspective

by John Levack Drever

2007: 'Nostophonics: Approaches to Grasping Everyday Sounds from A British Perspective', in Bandt, R., Duffy, M. and McKinnen, D. (eds.), Hearing Places, an Anthology of Interdisciplinary Writings, Cambridge Scholars Press. (ISBN 1847182550) pp.161-173.

Sounding Dartmoor: A case study on the soundscapes of rural England at the opening of the 21st Century.

by John Levack Drever

Q&A with an acoustic ecologist, BBC World Service

by John Levack Drever

Topophonophilia: a study on the relationship between the sounds of Dartmoor and the people who live there

by John Levack Drever

2007: 'Topophonophilia: a study on the relationship between the sounds of Dartmoor and the people who live there', in Carlyle, A. (ed.) Autumn Leaves: Sound and the Environment in Artistic Practice, Double Entendre & CRISAP. (ISBN: 09548074-3) pp.98-100.

A Sound Map of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo

by John Kannenberg

Revised version of essay published in the compact disc released 2011 by 3Leaves.

Artist statement discussing the process and philosophy behind an hour-long soundscape composition created using field... more Artist statement discussing the process and philosophy behind an hour-long soundscape composition created using field recordings made at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo during April and May 2010. The piece has since been released on compact disc and presented as a sound installation at the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology's 2011 conference in Corfu, Greece.

Soundscapes of the Everyday in Ancient Coastal Oaxaca, Mexico (with a digital appendix of sound recordings.)

by Stacie M. King

These are the revised proofs. Stacie M. King and Gonzalo Sánchez Santiago. (2011) Soundscapes of the Everyday in Ancient Coastal Oaxaca, Mexico. Archaeologies 7(2):387-422.

The published version is now available online at Springer, along with Electronic Supplementary Material of the sound recordings. Let me know if you are interested and I can send PDFs of both to you.

Ethical questions about working with soundscapes

by Andra McCartney

Keynote presentation at World Forum for Acoustic Ecology conference in Koli, Finland, June 2010. A shorter version of this paper has been published in the Soundscape Journal.

When soundscape composers, documentarians and artists work with soundscapes, they are expressing relationships to the... more When soundscape composers, documentarians and artists work with soundscapes, they are expressing relationships to the place of work and its inhabitants and visitors, to the sounds listened to, recorded from or projected into the place, and to the audience of the work. Each time a soundscape composer designs a soundwalk or a theatre piece, an installation or broadcast work, relationships with the world are expressed through how the maker treats the place, the sounds and the audience. Does the maker want to reveal particular sonic aspects of the place as it is, as it used to be, as it might be? Does the composer want to create an ideal place through sound and if so, what are the characteristics of this imaginary place and what ideas and values inform this utopic creation? How does the composer treat the sounds? How prominent are the composer’s treatments in relation to the sounds originally heard in that place, and what are the characteristics of this electroacoustic ecology? What are the dominant and masked sounds in the piece and how do they interact? What connections are there in the work between what is heard in the piece and the place of recording? Does the maker imagine the audience as deafened into numbness and needing to be awakened to true listening by the composer or soundwalk leader’s approach to the soundscape? Do we imagine the listener is ignorant and needing enlightenment? Do we think of the listener as possessed of original and unusual ways of listening, contributing to an expanded awareness of how to work with soundscapes? What are the ethics of this expression, and how are these ethics informed by underlying ideologies of sound, of sound production, and of sound ecology?