Sonic Environment Research Articles

Strength of community and good PR overcome traditional noise limits for music venue

This case study explores the coexistence between a residential development and an adjacent live music venue in Newcastle's Ouseburn Valley. Music noise from the Tyne Bar is accepted by nearby residents with very few complaints, despite the music noise levels exceeding traditional noise limit guidelines. Using mixed methods including noise measurements, modelling, interviews, and grounded theory, the study reveals several socio-cultural factors enabling this tolerance. Key findings indicate the residents' strong sense of community and cultural affiliation with the venue, and the Tyne Bar's active engagement with the community. Residents closer to the venue perceive the noise as an inevitable trade-off of the location, rather than unbearable. Strategies are proposed to integrate newcomers into the sonic environment and enable a sense of control over the music sound. This case study challenges strictly noise-centric guidelines, highlighting the need for holistic frameworks integrating objective limits with subjective experiences shaped by residents' sense of place, identity, and community relationships. These subjective experiences can be systematically understood through a soundscape approach, and actively managed along with the music sound level to achieve better outcomes for all stakeholders.

Soundscape augmentation as a nonpharmacological intervention to reduce the behavioural effect of dementia: a randomized controlled trial

Soundscape is an important environmental factor that influences people's behaviour and well-being. People with dementia can benefit from a personalized soundscape to improve the behavioural and psychological syndrome of dementia. This paper is based on a single-blind, repeated-measure pilot randomized clinical trial of soundscape augmentation on the treatment effect of people with severe dementia. Participants were randomized to a personalized soundscape intervention delivered in their room in the morning and evening or treatment-as-usual, with two baseline weeks and four weekly post-randomization assessments of the primary and secondary behavioural outcomes. A linear mixed effects model showed that the soundscape intervention was possible and acceptable. There were improvements in the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (resistance to care) and a significant reduction in aggression in the soundscape group. This study is the first pilot randomized controlled trial of a soundscape intervention for older adults with dementia to improve the behavioural and psychological syndrome of dementia. In this pilot study, soundscape augmentation was a feasible and effective non-pharmacological approach to reducing resistance and improving participants' behaviour. Further studies with larger samples are recommended to confirm our findings. Longitudinal studies are necessary to investigate the long-term effect of an augmented sonic environment on people with dementia.

Characterizing urban acoustic environments by clustering sensor node measurements

Equivalent sound pressure levels have been widely used to assess the impact of the sonic environment on persons. At the same time, it has been demonstrated that sound sensor networks allow to extract a wealth of information about the living environment. Nevertheless it has not been clearly demonstrated how to summarize this information. To this end, we used advanced non-linear clustering methods to group 15-minute sound environments based on a wide range of classical acoustic indicators such as peak levels, statistical levels, spectral center of gravity. Machine learning methods identifying the sound sources that are present based on 1/3 octave band levels measured at 125 msec interval, are then used to better understand why these clusters emerge. The methodology is applied to 150 bedroom window measurements gathered in the Equal-Life project. Preliminary results show that groups of pre-school children with specific cognitive development and mental health are related to different diurnal patterns of sound environment clusters. These results can be interpreted in the larger context of living environments extracted from environmental sound sensing networks.

Broiler chicken vocalization analysis during a medium-scale heat stress experiment

The poultry industry in Flanders, Belgium, is characterized by highly efficient production mechanisms. To improve awareness for animal health and welfare, the use of neural network-based broiler vocalization detectors has been recently proposed in scientific literature. However, these tools have not yet been tested when used continuously in large-scale deployments. This paper describes the deployment of the broiler vocalization detector to analyze the sonic environment during four experimental rounds, each containing 560 broilers, in a medium scale housing at ILVO, Belgium. Half the broilers were subjected to periods of heat stress (ambient temperature increased to 32°C for 6h/day for 10 days during the last weeks of their lives) and the effect on the diurnal broiler vocalization pattern and occurrence of warbles, pleasure notes, short beeps and distress calls is discussed. While these four different types of vocalizations are common vocalizations in young birds, new types of vocalizations are emerging at an older age. A clustering has been performed to further analyze these new types of vocalizations occurring.

The audio-visual incongruency asymmetry. Natural sounds in an urban visual setting are more relaxing than urban sounds in visual nature

Audio-visual interactions play a crucial role in environmental perception. Incongruent audio-visual environments, although prominent in the urban fabric, have been underlit in research. Contrasting exposures to visually natural environments combined with urban sounds, as well as the reverse scenario of visually urban environments with natural sounds, are explored for their restorative potential, both at the cognitive level by means of self-reported evaluations and instinctively through measurements of electrodermal activity. The test panel (n=67) results point at a strong audio-visual urban-nature incongruency asymmetry. Eventful natural sounds in an urban setting were perceived as more pleasant and relaxing than eventful urban sounds in a green environment. So augmenting an urban environment with natural sounds, even in absence of any visual natural features, could be an interesting soundscape intervention. In contrast, a visually natural environment paired with urban sounds is strongly negatively perceived. The findings further contribute to a growing body of literature emphasizing the importance of the sonic environment in designing restorative spaces.

An exploration of ecoacoustics and its applications in conservation ecology

Our planet is facing unprecedented adversity due to the global impacts of climate change and an emerging sixth mass extinction. These impacts are exacerbated by population and industrial growth, where increased resource extraction is required to meet our insatiable demands. Yet, the tangible elements of our lone inhabited planet in the solar system are not the only things disappearing or being modified. The sounds of Earth are being altered in ways that may never be recovered. Indeed, we occupy a noisier world in this age of machines that comes at a great expense in the form of sonic extinctions. It is profoundly apparent, yet not widely recognized, that conservation efforts must consider the importance of the sonic environment (i.e., sonosphere). Although sound has been integral to life for millions of years, our understanding of its ecological role has only just begun. Sounds are one of the most important extensions of the organismic inner world, becoming testimonials of environmental complexity, integration, and relationships between apparently separated parts. From a semiotic perspective, sounds are signals utilized by many organisms to save energy in patrolling, defending, exploring, and navigating their surroundings. Sounds are tools that establish dynamic biological and ecological competencies through refined partitioning in the natural selection process of evolution. Ecoacoustics is a recent scientific discipline that aims to investigate the role of sound in ecological processes. Despite its youth, Ecoacoustics has had rapid theoretical and applied growth, consolidating a diverse array of research on the ecology of sounds across many disciplines. Here, we present how Ecoacoustics plays a significant role in conservation ecology by exploring the discipline's theoretical framework, new descriptors of sonic complexity, and innovative methods for supporting conservation efforts from singular species to entire landscapes across local and global scales. The combination of automated recording units and ecoacoustic indices present a very promising approach to the study of remote areas, rare species, and data rich analyses. While Ecoacoustics scientists continue to explore this new scientific horizon, we encourage others to consider Ecoacoustics in their conservation agendas because of its application to the study and management of terrestrial, marine, and freshwater habitats.

Spatial ecosystem monitoring with a Multichannel Acoustic Autonomous Recording Unit (MAARU)

Abstract Multi‐microphone recording adds spatial information to recorded audio with emerging applications in ecosystem monitoring. Specifically placing sounds in space can improve animal count accuracy, locate illegal activity like logging and poaching, track animals to monitor behaviour and habitat use and allow for ‘beamforming’ to amplify sounds from target directions for downstream classification. Studies have shown many advantages of spatial acoustics, but uptake remains limited as the equipment is often expensive, complicated, inaccessible or only suitable for short‐term deployments. With an emphasis on enhanced uptake and usability, we present a low‐cost, open‐source, six‐channel recorder built entirely from commercially available components which can be integrated into a solar‐powered, online system. The MAARU (Multichannel Acoustic Autonomous Recording Unit) works as an independent node in long‐term autonomous, passive and/or short‐term deployments. Here, we introduce MAARU's hardware and software and present the results of lab and field tests investigating the device's durability and usability. MAARU records multichannel audio with similar costs and power demands to equivalent omnidirectional recorders. MAARU devices have been deployed in the United Kingdom and Brazil, where we have shown MAARUs can accurately localise pure tones up to 6 kHz and bird calls as far as 8 m away (±10° range, 100% and >60% of signals, respectively). Louder calls may have even further detection radii. We also show how beamforming can be used with MAARUs to improve species ID confidence scores. MAARU is an accessible, low‐cost option for those looking to explore spatial acoustics accurately and easily with a single device, and without the formidable expenses and processing complications associated with establishing arrays. Ultimately, the added directional element of the multichannel recording provided by MAARU allows for enhanced recording of sonic environments, further enabling a potential step change in the uptake of spatial acoustics in the wider field.

Effect of Soundscape Augmentation on Behavioral Symptoms in People With Dementia: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

Sound is an important environmental factor that influences the expression of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia. Recent research on the effect of soundscape has shown promising results in improving environmental impact on people with dementia. However, no controlled studies have aimed to quantify the effects of soundscape intervention on resident outcomes. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and impact of a soundscape intervention on people with dementia and behavioral symptoms. Pilot single-blind repeated-measures randomized controlled trial of an augmented soundscape intervention. Participants were people with dementia in a hospital-based specialized dementia unit. Participants were randomized to an augmented soundscape intervention delivered in their room in the morning and evening or treatment as usual, with 2 baseline weeks and 4 weekly post-randomization assessments of the primary and secondary behavioral outcomes. The soundscape intervention was feasible in terms of recruitment, retention, and delivery of the intervention. There were improvements in the neuropsychiatric inventory total scores over time in both groups (-5.89, 95%CI -8.45 to -3.28, p < .001), but no differences between groups. There were no significant group, time, or group × time differences for the Pittsburgh Agitation Scale (PAS) total score. For the PAS-resisting care subscale, there was a significant group × time difference, with a greater reduction in the soundscape group over the study period (-0.81, 95% CI -1.59 to -0.03, p = .042). In this pilot study, soundscape augmentation was a feasible and effective nonpharmacological approach to reducing resistance to care in people with dementia, although it did not improve neuropsychiatric symptoms more globally. Further studies with larger samples and of longer duration are needed to investigate the long-term effects of augmented sonic environments on people with dementia. NCT04809545.

Acoustic behavioral observation in study abroad research: A case study using the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR)

Frequency of (aural) language exposure and productive (oral) language use, context, and interlocutors are important factors for language learning. Applied linguists and study abroad (SA) researchers have studied these variables mostly retrospectively through questionnaires and learners’ self-reports which have unknown correspondence with learner's actual language use and social networks. Surprisingly few applied linguists have attempted to capture quantitative aspects of day-to-day language use through systematic long-term observation even though methods to do so have been used in psychological science for some time. In this article, we present arguments for the application of acoustic behavioral observation in applied linguistics and SA research. We introduce the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR; Mehl, 2017) and illustrate its application in a case study about the use of first, second, and additional languages by two German high school students during their year abroad in the USA. The EAR is a digital audio recorder, currently available as an app for Android devices. It can be installed on smartphones worn by their users as they go about their daily activities. The app intermittently (e.g., 5 times per hour) records brief (e.g., 30 s) snippets of ambient sounds from the wearer's moment-to-moment sonic environment. EAR users are unaware of when exactly the device is recording. We describe the method, data collection, transcription, coding and analyses, address ethical concerns about its application, and report findings from the case study about the SA students’ language use to illustrate the potential and limitations of the method for applied linguistics research.

Spatial Audio and Parameter Mapping Experiments for the Auditory Display of Coral Bleaching Data

In this article, data relating to Hawaii’s 2019 coral bleaching are auditorily displayed using parameter mapping sonification and ambisonics. Although primarily an explorative endeavor, this undertaking is conceptually rooted in ecological sound art and neutrally positioned on an established Cartesian framework known as Aesthetic Perspective Space. Through iterative design, different versions are implemented using sound surrogates of coral reefs’ natural soundscapes derived from either (a) real undersea recordings of reef environments or (b) modeling via means of sound synthesis. These audio surrogates correspond to data clusters aggregated by geographical location and, after being represented as sound sources on an ambisonic sphere, all contribute to a final sonic environment in which each cluster is progressively altered as the corresponding coral location undergoes bleaching. To assess both the perceived aesthetic placement of these experiments and their potential for public engagement in the discourse around climate change, evaluation studies are carried out. Results align with the aesthetic goals of the author, while consecutive versions manage to improve on critical fronts relating to climate awareness, providing further motivation toward more immersive implementations in future editions to come.

A sound map of Port Hope

ABSTRACT The Hamilton Perambulatory Unit (HPU) is an artist-research collective that has been holding public walking and mapping events since 2014. Our participatory mapping framework that we call the ‘strata-walk’ focuses attention on the multiplicity of sensory, material, imaginative, socio-political and historical layers that make up place, usually resulting in the creation of maps that document a particular place and time through the contribution of our workshop members. In this short essay, I focus specifically on Strata-Walking Port Hope, the HPU’s community sound-mapping project in Port Hope, Ontario, which was commissioned by Critical Mass: A Centre for Contemporary Art, and produced through conversations with over two dozen Port Hopians of all ages. The outcomes include a mobile locative media sound application that maps the resulting sound collages composed of snippets of conversation, site field recordings and found sounds. Strata-Walking Port Hope provides a glimpse into the memories, stories, histories, and sonic environments of Port Hope.

In-situ co-creative soundscape augmentation with fountains: Balancing sound preference and road traffic noise masking in urban parks

In this work, a co-creative in-situ methodology is presented augmenting the sonic environment of a highway noise dominated urban park through the incorporation of fountains. Pre-recorded water feature sounds were played with a flexible loudspeaker setup positioned at the pond’s bank. This simplified approach to fountain auralization enabled the integration of water feature sound scenarios with the actual traffic noise background during a representative moment in the park, at a design spot. In a first phase, the (pure) water sounds were evaluated by a consciously listening panel (N = 33, mainly consisting of nearby dwellers) at a high signal-to-noise ratio relative to the park’s background noise. The most preferred water feature sounds were identified and were further analyzed for their perceived affective quality using soundscape dimensional analysis. The second part of the listening experiment concentrated on the most favored fountain sounds in conjunction with the necessary aerators. This involved exploring various positioning scenarios in the pond by tuning the loudspeakers to predicted exposure levels. The most pleasant augmented soundscape for the park was shown to be a delicate balance between preference for specific fountain sounds and the reduction of road traffic audibility.

Simian Episteme, circa 1200

This article examines intersensory practices between seeing and hearing surrounding the medium of painting in middle-period China. Deviating from the better-known pictorial practice in which a mimetic image of a sound maker provides an entryway into a fictive soundscape, the central work discussed in this article depicts only a listener, and an unusual one at that: a seated monkey at the intersection of poetic, religious, and ecological boundaries. Attentive to the puzzling nonhuman form of the represented subject as an unlikely listener, it probes how the interplay between seeing and hearing gave rise to a complex sonic environment in pictorial medium. The unveiling of the mixed modality steers us toward an underrecognized role of painting in Chinese history as a material stimulus for multisensorial experiences, beyond the rhetoric of “soundless poetry” that has often stifled such dynamic potential of the medium.

Sounding Sidewalks: Historicizing and Theorizing This Medial Zone

Sidewalks have long been a contested urban space existing between the private and public, thereby embodying conflicting sonic worlds of personal soundscaping, cultural world-building, and authority. This article theorizes and historicizes the lineage of the sidewalk as a medium of both control and resistance, addressed through an analysis of various sound technologies and techniques. Extending literature on the complex history of sidewalks as urban infrastructure, this article furthers scholarship by exploring the sounds of evolving social and political relations, the sonic environments imbued in this medial zone, and the shifting sound marks that accompany evolving urban policies.

Sounding Together

This article reflects on the participation of humans and other species as listening and sounding entities in creating sonic environments. The article offers a preliminary reflexive consideration of the author’s current composition-improvisation project, discussing how the project’s pieces transform and transport particular sonic environments of the author’s experience to new settings. The author meditates through birdsong on what it sounds like to compose, improvise, and perform with the sonic affordances of our surroundings. The article suggests that extensions of interspecies and interhuman acoustic assemblages and sonic affordances in composition and improvisation can bring overlapping elements of world-making projects into focus and open up potentialities for new ones. In the article, the author blends reflection with musical description and analysis of one of the project’s pieces, refusing to situate nature as other and rejecting a posture that uses nonhuman sound for personal (human) benefit. By focusing on the edge effects of the overlapping world-making projects at the site of the Zealandia Te Mārā a Tāne Wildlife Sanctuary in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, and on challenging settler colonial listening practices, the article reflects on the implications of sharing spaces with other humans and with countless species beyond our own.

Soundscape augmentation for people with dementia requires accounting for disease-induced changes in auditory ccene analysis

Recently, there has been an increased interest in adapting the sonic environment to support people with cognitive difficulties, such as dementia. Research shows that incorporating “pleasant” sounds into the environment positively impacts behaviour and reduces psychological symptoms of dementia. Introducing sound into the acoustic environment creates an enhanced auditory experience, an augmented soundscape, resulting in an improved interpretation of the environment. People with dementia experience changes in their perception, which includes misperceptions, misidentifications, hallucinations, delusions, and time-shifting. Sound augmentation can support a better understanding of the environment and help in navigation time during the day. Dementia is a broad name for a degenerative disease; different types of dementia result in different syndromes and diverse auditory scene analyses. Some key auditory symptoms of different variants of the disease are auditory hallucinations, auditory disorientation, increased sound sensitivity, auditory agnosia (difficulty processing auditory input), agnosia for environmental sounds, amusia (tonal deafness) and Musicophilia. These different syndromes of auditory perception need more understanding when designing a soundscape augmentation for people with dementia. This talk aims to discuss different auditory symptoms of dementia based on a literature review and introduce ways to design an augmented soundscape to foster individual auditory needs.

Ecosocial approach to music education

ABSTRACT Collective cultural transformation is needed to save the Earth from the growing effects of the human-caused environmental problems. Music education, too, can take part in preparing future generations with the knowledge and skills needed to address the world's complex challenges and create a more sustainable future. Approaching music education from the perspective of ecosocial sustainability can foster students’ sensitivity to diverse sonic environments and support the overall appreciation of multispecies communities and mutually beneficial ways of interaction in the more-than-human world. Based on the general theory of ecosocial art education, this article presents three practical approaches to music education, which can promote a sustainable life orientation: (1) Attuning to sounds helps cultivate one's connectedness to more-than-human others. (2) Reconnecting with sound memories helps recognise how sonic environments affect and indicate the lives of humans and other beings. (3) Co-composing with the more-than-human world helps to embrace the generative powers of creativity in experiencing interdependence with others.

Musically-acoustic thesaurus as spatial dimension of cognitive process

Relevance. This article explores the intricate relationship between the musically-acoustic thesaurus � encompassing both musical and extra-musical elements � and cognitive processes, emphasizing the spatial dimension of cognition within auditory experiences.Purpose. The primary aim is to dissect the structure and function of the musically-acoustic thesaurus in individual and collective cognitive domains, highlighting its role in encoding and navigating the acoustic environment and its impact on musical and emotional experiences.Methodology. Through a comprehensive analysis of the auditory activity, the study examines how sonic phenomena, both musical and non-musical, are categorized, internalized, and utilized within human cognition. It considers the sonic environment's organization and how it influences the perception and emotional engagement with music and sound.Results. The findings indicate that the musically-acoustic thesaurus serves as a crucial framework for understanding and interacting with the acoustic world. It delineates how sounds are integrated into a complex network of cognitive processes, facilitating orientation in space-time, enabling emotional experiences, and fostering an aesthetic appreciation of the acoustic environment.Conclusions. The musically-acoustic thesaurus emerges as a pivotal element in the cognitive processing of sound, underscoring its dual role in practical orientation and emotional-aesthetic experiences. The study reveals that this thesaurus not only aids in navigating the sonic landscape but also enriches the individual's interaction with music and sound, thereby significantly contributing to the broader understanding of cognitive processes in auditory perception.

Othered form and insectile subjectile: Under the Skin

ABSTRACT This article investigates Jonathan Glazer’s 2013 film Under the Skin as it pertains to the ‘insectile’ or, in other words, to an entomological imagination. The insectile, I argue, is structured according to apparent opposites, form and formlessness, and refers to particular manifestations of subjects. On the one hand, the insectile is instrumentalised as racialized technology centred on the face, rendering a fixity of form, and, on the other, it is coded as that which undoes precisely this logic of form. In a first instance, I am paying attention to the faciality of the unnamed, alien woman (Scarlett Johansson), constructed as insectile; the second part of the essay lends an ear to the film’s sonic environment, the buzz of its extra-diegetic score. The essay, further seeking to respond to Sheryl Vint’s claim that the film cannot offer an ethics of difference, suggests a position from which an ‘improper’ ethics of difference might begin to be thought.

Sonic placemaking—facilitating listening behaviour through design

In this article, we build on space and place theory to define sonic space and sonic place as fundamental concepts for designers who wish to incorporate audible elements into their work. Based on an interdisciplinary approach that brings together interaction design and sound studies, we propose a Sonic Placemaking Model to guide designers in exploring the sonic environment and address how design choices affect space and place. Based on the development of soundscape designs for three cultural history museums, we unfold the years-long design process and discuss how we applied methods from design and sound studies to understand users as listeners. Lastly, we present three areas of concern when designing for sonic placemaking: (1) going from sounds of objects to sounds of activities, (2) designing for informative and atmospheric experiences, and (3) facilitating spatial and temporal experiences.