Soundscapes

After the post about sensitive approach of a mountain territory, we’re back in physical awareness of our environment with a focus on sound.

First, walk the city within its soundscape. This article on Urban Omnibus explores sound records by acoustician Anne Guthrie, who explains what it is to hear in urban environment that she records. For older recordings, you can travel back in time with New York: a portrait in sound, a series of on-the-spot records about the most exciting city in the world, featuring interviews and sounds from New-Yorkers everyday life (and formatted to include a strong advertisement).

Also, the Soundscape New York exhibit at the Museum of the City of New-York just makes you see the soundscape of different key location around the city. Here are some excerpts to give you an idea of the visual style at stake:

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On the side of urban research, you should have a look at the Cresson research lab, and its various passionating experimentations. On the artistic side, I talked before about Brian House, who links personal, sound and rhythm data to maps. I recently discovered Soundwalk Collective, which explores and documents the world’s sounds, creating unique and powerful ambiant music.

There is still much to learn about how sound shape our environment; and I guess noticing sounds is the first step towards awareness of how other senses than visual are stimulated by the world around us.