Geographies of Urban Sound

Torsten Wissmann

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781138270145
• eBook ISBN: 9781317128915
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Geography
• Index: Geography

Traffic, music, language and nature help to create unique soundscapes that are essential to the place-based character of each city. Taking into account both the urban soundscape and the impacts of sound on the urban dweller, this book examines sound not as a by-product of urban life, but as a fundamental part of the urban experience that is crucial to understanding the city´s sense of place. Illustrated by case studies from Europe and North America, these range from on-site measurements to the construction of audio tours for local tourism, from media analysis of popular culture audio drama to sound-identity and city branding, and from the classification of noise in city planning to a consideration of the complex relationship between sacred sound and the creation of a sense of place. Taking a social geographic perspective, the book focuses on the effects of sounds on the individual and how they influence the ways s/he engages the city as place, especially in their daily routines. In doing so, it uncovers the socio-scientific potential of sound in the urban environment, based on the understanding that sound cannot and must not be seen as detached from the urban landscape, but rather as a constituting element. Sound exists not only 'within the city': it 'is' the city.

Listen Up!

The cacophonous mix of sound that surrounds us in an urban environment is usually not disturbing because what we hear is an integral and accepted part of the urban dweller's life. Yet it is the visual element of the city that dominates the standard urban vocabulary of experience. Sound has long been neglected in urban studies. Traffic, music, language, and nature, as primary examples, help to create unique soundscapes essential to the place-based character of each city, and no consideration of these cityscapes should fail to include them. Substantive research on sound and soundscapes began over half a century ago as Acoustic Ecology with the World Soundscape Project, which focused on human-environmental relationships based on sound. There has not been a sustained body of research since then.

There are many ways to consider urban sound, from pure research to applied. As examples, raw urban sound can be recorded and analyzed for stress, tourist soundwalks can be developed to try to capture the auditive characteristics of the city for the visitor, or the urban soundscape can be deconstructed into single sound events that are subsequently put together to form artistic audio collages. Clearly, sound must be taken into account when considering a city's sense of a place, where a range of sounds – from music to human, from technology to nature – play integral roles in creating local identity and cultural boundaries. And, of course, governments at all scales, from local to federal, often become involved in issues of sound, from mitigation to promotion, as in the case of music. Taking into account both the urban soundscape and the impacts of sound on the urban dweller, I understand sound not as a by-product of urban life but as a fundamental part of urban life – something essential for understanding the city's sense of place.

The purpose of this book is to outline a framework for the study of sound within the urban landscape and to provide a unique look at the geographies of urban sound. Coming from a social geographic background, I am particularly interested in the effects of sound on the individual and the many ways sound influences how we engage the city as place, especially in terms of daily routines. I aim to uncover the socio-scientific potential of sound in the urban environment based on the understanding that sound cannot and must not be seen as detached from this urban landscape, but rather as a constituent element of the same. To my understanding, sound exists not only within the city; sound is the city.

I am convinced that studying the geographies of urban sound involves far more than geography as a discipline. Understanding the daily-lived experiences and environmental perceptions of the urban dweller and his/her place in the city should be of interest to all who wish to understand the city as home.

Chapter 1 presents the theoretical base of the book. Elements that comprise the individual's perception and the concept of a city's sense of place are described in detail. To this end, geographical studies on the sense of place and broader humanistic approaches to sound are explored, both within the context of urban settings. The chapter closes by addressing the many possible effects of sound on the lives of the urban dweller. Chapter 2 answers the call of the first chapter about the possible effects of sound. Findings are strongly informed by phenomenological thoughts derived from a literature based primarily in psychological, sociological, and medical works. Valuable input comes from acoustic design and architecture, ethnology and urban planning. Studies of the processes of hearing and the physiognomy of the human ear, the nature of wanted and unwanted sounds, and the absence of sound and the essence of silence form the heart of this chapter. Chapter 3 approaches empirical studies on urban sound with the methodology of acoustic ecology. Recoding, deconstruction, and classification of the soundscape are presented. Findings from three field projects in Portugal, England, and the United States adapt, translate, and evolve existing practice. The latest developments in mapping and acoustics are considered and utilized in these analyses of place and the perception of sound. Chapter 4 is comprised of a series of empirical studies in Austin, Texas, and Frankfurt am Main, Germany, that examine the effects of sound on the urban dweller and show how it influences the development of a city's sense of place in everyday life. This chapter includes examinations of noise perception and the nature of audio-guided tours, a study of sound-identity and the city's image creation (branding), and a consideration of the complex relationship between sacred sound and the creation of a sense of place. Chapter 5 considers the relationship between sound as media and the urban environment. The acoustic creation of a city in audio drama – acoustic productions developed from radio drama – can be incorporated into our environmental understanding and thereby play a role in shaping our perception of a city's sense of place. Two popular audio drama series – i.e., audio plays – are analyzed to demonstrate the effects of sound on the urban dweller's perception of the city. Chapter 6 summarizes the described findings and formulates conclusions. The theoretical frame presented in Chapters 1 and 2, combined with the methodological groundwork of Chapter 3 and the analysis of empirical findings in Chapters 4 and 5, demonstrates that any discussion about the urban environment must consider both the individual and collective experiences of sound. The acoustic element, just like the visual, plays its part in creating the city's sense of place.

Chapter 1 Thoughts on Sound and the City

We start with a philosophical discussion of individual perception grounded in the work of Edmund Husserl (see 1960, 1983, 1997, 2001, 2010) (section 1.1.1). Perception is always dependent on the individual's own abilities, which are fundamentally different from anything else. Bernhard Waldenfels’ phenomenology of the alien clarifies the topic (Waldenfels 1997, 1998, 1999a, 1999b). Biographic and cultural context are part of the individual stream of consciousness that determines how something is actually perceived (see Husserl 1973). Ernst von Glasersfeld's Radical Constructivism (1995) adds the idea that if perception is understood as being highly individualistic, it becomes not a passive act but an active action (1.1.2). This point must be made clear from the beginning to avoid the notion that sound (in later chapters) is thought of as inherent to a city's sense of place an sich (in itself), as Immanuel Kant would put it (2007). It is perception that matters first and individual perception that creates the most problems when talking about sound in the city. Focusing on what is being perceived (1.2.1) we stay in the phenomenological tradition, as in the case of Yi-Fu Tuan's description of sense of place (1974, 1977). In addition to his mainly positive connotations, negative boundaries of place are also discussed (Relph 1976) (1.2.2), as well as parallel existing sense of place concepts that are individually driven and related to one and the same location (Cresswell 1996, Rose 1995). Rose's definition of the sense of place as “part of the systems of meanings through which we make sense of the world” (1995: 99) clarifies that position. Human geographical studies often use the sense of place concept (1.3.1). To get an overview of how urban geographers integrate that concept into their research, we take a look at various studies on the topic (Gregory 1995, Kianicka et al. 2006, Massey 1991). Theoretical thoughts and critiques on the concept (Shamai and Ilatov 2005) are also considered here, as well as a call for discussion about sound as part of a city's sense of place. In this context, sound as an element that is important for a sense of place is rarely considered. Existing research focuses more on the visual aspects of place. When sound is discussed, music and language are the center of the studies (Boland 2010, Leyshon, Matless, and Revill 1995, Pesses 2009) (1.3.2). While human geographical studies mostly spare sound when talking about individual perception of places, other humanistic disciplines use sound more often as an object of research (1.4). From art (Fontana 1987), ethnology (Sakakeeny 2010), and history (Gunderlach 2007) to musicology (Kun 2000), psychology (Boltz 2010), and sociology (Fortuna 2001), findings are presented that specifically focus on (urban) sound. As sound pushes to the center of attention the book finds its motivation to take a closer look at sound and the effects it has on the urban dweller.

Chapter 2 Sound Effects

Starting with human physiognomy we consider sound perception from an acoustic point of view and take a look into the process of hearing and acoustic perception (Byrne, Michael, and Tufts 2011, Clark and Cox 2012, Irwin et al. 2011) (2.1.1), continuing with a literature-based overview of the various effects sound can have on the individual (Gaver 1993, Morley and Somdahl-Sands 2011, Thurston 2013) (2.1.2). As the focus of this book lies predominately on the social and humanistic aspects of urban sound, its classification as unwanted (2.2) and wanted (2.3) are investigated. Starting with unwanted sounds, we look at that word's mildest form possible – annoying sounds (Kryter 1972, Lavandier et al. 2011) (2.2.1) – and then turn to its radical form, which distresses the human sense of hearing (Holmes 2012, Johnson and Cloonan 2009, Neustadt 2004) (2.2.2). In contrast to these wanted sounds, we learn about how a sound has to be shaped to have a positive effect on the individual. Frequency, duration, interval, loudness, and other elements will be taken into account. The findings are literature-based and vary from nice sounds like shopping music (Caldwell and Hibbert 2002, Fujikawa and Kobayashi 2010, Vanel 2008) (2.3.1) to acoustic ecstasy at live music events (Brazeal 2003, Duffy 2000, Jankowsky 2007) (2.3.2). The absence of sound also has an effect on the individual. Silence and sound create an interesting pairing in which each relies on the other (Bruneau 1973, Kania 2010, Mylott and Dubois Williams 2007). That the absence of sound is inherent in every perceived sound is discussed with the help of Edmund Husserl and especially Bernhard Waldenfels’ phenomenology of the alien (2.4): “A phenomenon like the alien, which shows itself only by eluding us, could be characterized as a hyperphenomenon. Accordingly, Husserl characterizes the alien as ‘a verifiable accessibility of what is inaccessible originally’” (Waldenfels 2011: 35). When we talk about the effects that sound can have on the individual, we refute the idea that these sounds are perceived passively and that the individual does not play her/his part when it comes to creating her/his own soundscape (von Glasersfeld 1989). Earphones are often used to listen to a p...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• About the Author
• Acknowledgements
• Listen Up!
• Bibliography
• Index