1:
SOCIAL SOUNDSCAPING
introduction
At the end of the 1960s, R. Murray Schafer used the term “soundscape” to position any given sound environment as an aesthetic unit, one with the properties of a musical composition with criteria for analysis and evaluation. Yet the soundscape, the “everyday soundtrack” of landscapes from rural to urban, remains unruly, broad in description and design. The soundscape’s inherent interdisciplinarity and collaborative construction asks it to be considered beyond aesthetic terms. As our playlist swims around in the ambiguity of its definition, the soundscape’s social function is what unites the case studies below, asking how the soundscape can be considered as an opportunity for civic, collective, or simply pleasurable participation.
If you wish to listen to the playlist while navigating the essay,,, we recommend that you open the playlist in a new tab through Mixcloud.
Sorry for any inconvenience. Enjoy
00:00- 06:12 Pierre Mariétan - Rose Des Vents
A Conversation Piece Excerpt (01:20)
A Conversation Piece Excerpt (04:00)
06:00- 09:37 Ernest Hood - Night Games
09:00- 17:00 Hildegard Westerkamp - Voices For The Wilderness
16:20- 22:01 Charlemagne Palestine - Negative Sound Study
Homo Ludens Excerpt (18:06)
20:56- 25:00 Tom White - Run Amok
A Conversation Piece Excerpt (22:39)
24:24- 34:30 Henning Christiansen - Requiem of Art
34:00- 41:34 Olivia Block - Sonambient Pavilion
(from youtube video by Nate Burker)
40:30- 47:04 Baudouin Oosterlynck - Refuge
46:05- 51:55 World Soundscape Project - Squamish Narrative
46:52- 52:40 World Soundscape Project - Ocean Sounds
52:12- End Aine O'dwyer - An Unkindness of Ravens
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To navigate through the visual essay, click on images,,, return to image index using the back arrow.
(extended) bibliography
Bull M (2000) Sounding Out The City: Personal Stereos and The Management of Everyday Life. Oxford, UK: Berg.
Carlyle A (ed.) (2007) Autumn Leaves, Sound and the Environment in Artistic Practice. Paris: Double Entendre.
Minevich R and Waterman E (2013) Art of Immersive Soundscapes. Regina, Saskatchewan: University of Regina Press.
Schaeffer P (1966) Treatise on Musical Object: An Essay Across Disciplines. Berkley, CA: University of California Press.
Keizer G (2010) The Unwanted Sound of Everything We Want: A Book About Noise. New York NY: PublicAffairs.
Schafer RM (1994) The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and The Tuning of the World. Rochester, VT: Destiny Books.
Labelle B (2010) Acoustic Territories: Sound Culture and Everyday Life. New York, NY: Public Affairs.
Sterne J (2003) The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Kang J and Schulte-Fortkamp B (eds.) (2018) Soundscape and the Built Environment. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.