Soundscape R.

Murray Schafer: Soundmark; World Soundscape Project; Schizophonia; Recovery of Positive Silence Acoustic Ecology Ecology is the study of the relationship between individuals and communities and their environment Acoustic or soundscape ecology is thus the study of the effects of the acoustic environment, or soundscape, on the physical responses or behavioural characteristics of those living within it. 1 A campaigning or crusading aspect, to identify and minimise noise pollution, and to preserve sounds characteristic of particular places and environments. 2 A scientific (in a broad sense) and scholarly aspect, to study how humans and other organisms relate to sound in the environment. This study encompasses the cultural meanings of sounds as well as physical acoustics and psycho-acoustics. 3 An educational aspect, to encourage children, and also professionals such as town planners, to become aware of sound in the environment. 4 An artistic aspect. This includes installations or public artworks which involve sound, and also soundscape compositions: tape works which make use of recorded sound to evoke a particular environment. SEE: http://www.sfu.ca/sonic-studio/handbook/ [handbook for acoustic ecology] Soundscape The soundscape is a plenum [plenum enclosure/space filled with matter] From Brueghels The Battle Between Carnival and Lent (1559) to Hogarths The Enraged Musician (1741) Any environment of sound (or sonic environment) as perceived or understood by the individual, or by a society The term may refer to actual environments, or to abstract constructions such as musical compositions and tape montages, particularly when considered as an artificial environment Since a soundscape is shaped by both the conscious and subliminal perceptions of the listener, soundscape analysis is based on perceptual and cognitive attributes such as foreground, background, contour, rhythm, silence, density, space and volume. The creation, improvement or modeling of any such environment is a matter of soundscape design

Soundscape Composition Term initiated by WSP at SFU. Environmental sound recordings from both source material and inform the work (in the sense that the original context and associations inform its creation and reception) SSC is context embedded, although it may be abstract at times, it never loses sight of what it is about Principles: 1 Listener recognisability of the source material is maintained, even if it subsequently undergoes transformation 2 The listeners knowledge of the environmental and psychological context of the soundscape material is invoked and encouraged to complete the network of meanings ascribed to the music 3 The composers knowledge of the environment and psychological context of the soundscape material is allowed to influence the shape of the composition at every level, and ultimately the composition is inseparable from some or all aspects of that reality 4 The work enhances our understanding of the world, and its influence carries over into everyday perceptual habits Soundscape Composition as a corrective to the Western concept of music (that has become detached from the soundscape) Field Recording Integral to Soundscape Composition The aim of field recording might be to capture a particular element of this space (as is the case, for example in documentary nature recordings), or to capture the totality which may be thought of as soundscape, auditory scene, or ambience. In this case NOT: on-location recording; however this term is also used to describe commercial recording of performances in specific venues and acoustic settings Phonography A global appellation for any musical or sonic work whose existence is dependent on the techniques of sound recording (at some point) in its creation. Can include many areas of electroacoustic music-making that involve the creation of a fiction or fabrication (e.g. acousmatic, anecdotal, plunderphonics, or collage-based compositions), [could also be extended to the customary use of sound recording (i.e. to document performances of existing musics) as well]. Secondly, a term denoting the conception of sound recording being a form of sound photography, allowing the idea of reality as present in the musical work. Related in

some ways to musicalised notions of the found object (in French objet trouv) and (Duchamps) ready-mades. SEE: www.phonography.org Soundwalk A key aspect of soundscape studies is the sensitisation of citizens to their acoustic surroundings and the educational imperative of assisting in the development of the individuals listening skills Soundwalks are an aspect of this, comprising periods of time when one listens with greater attention than usual to ones sonic environment (i.e. soundscape) Soundwalkers may even let their ears determine the route of the walk A soundwalker may at the same time be recording material for further use in Soundscape Composition. - Schafer, R. Murray 1992: Music, non-music and the soundscape in Companion to Contemporary Musical Thought, Vol. 1, Paynter, J., Howell, T., Orton, R., & Seymour, P. (ed.s) (Routledge) Loss of integration with function and social spaces to a rarefied and detached musical object when music moves indoors. At that point music inspires music and context is surrendered to style See Yoshimura quote (p. 44) Soundscape designers: through their work, music, non-music and silence are woven together artistically and therapeutically to bring about a new consciousness where art and life touch, merge and are lost in one another. (p. 45) Other Directions - Toop, David 2004: Haunted Weather: music, silence and memory (Serpents Tail) 63. Aesthetics of Atmospheres (Gernot Bhme) SEE p.63 64. Listening Rooms: A microphone is connected to a noise gate (a device that can limit a signal, often used in recording studios to eliminate interference from a sound), an amplifier and loudspeakers in a highly reverberant room. Feedback between the microphone and loudspeakers builds up and resonates through the gallery, sounding the resonant frequencies of the space, which is in turn modulated by the movement of people around the space, atmospheric conditions, ambient noise and any environmental elements that disturb the air.

64. Cunningham, The idea of trying to work with natural complexity in a musical situation interested and frustrated me for a long time until I realised that Id been working with it for a long time. In sound, natural complexity is acoustic reflection, resonance, air moving in space and the generation of harmonics. [Listen to Luciers I am sitting in a room, 1969] 66. Chris Watson (BBC sound recordist) and Francisco Lopez (Madrid-based ecologist, composer and sound recordist) are engaged in the invisible or near-inaudible. Non-biotic sound sources: what we call the sound of the rain or wind we could better call the sound of plant leaves and branches Furthermore, a sound environment is not only the consequence of all its sound producing components, but also of all its soundtransmitting and sound modifying elements. If we are really listening, the topography, the degree of humidity in the air, or the types of materials in the topsoil are as essential and determining as the sound producing animals that inhabit a certain space. Lopez 67. reduced listening (Schaeffer) hearing a sound as a sound rather than listening for its caused or meaning disrupts lazy habits and opens up a world of previously unimagined questions for those who hear it reduced listening has the enormous advantage of opening up our ears and sharpening our power of listening (Michel Chion) 68. Toshiya Tsunoda: often records putting mics into bottles or pipes adding a haze of resonance, a dislocating distance, to sources that otherwise might be relatively ordinary or familiar: a seashore, gallery, park Not the least interesting sound in the world then: rather a test of our desire, or lack of desire, to discover interest. The ear is an active medium, not just a hole in the side of our head that allows ingress of sound. (Toop)