SOUNDSCAPES STUDIES AND METHODS

This collection of essays, edited by Helmi Järviluoma and Gregg Wagstaff, will be essential to anyone interested in the sonic environment. A growing ecological awareness in the later half of the 20th century has given rise to a widening concern for the state of our soundscapes. the last few years have witnessed promising developments in soundscape studies, and this book is the first collection to focus upon soundscape research methods. The contributors to this volume form an international and multidisciplinary team of researchers, from Architecture, Ethnomusicology, Sonic Art, (Time) Geography, Biology, Sociology and Urban planning.

"These studies of the acoustic order provide models of a rich cultural phenomenology which promises to renovate the stale hermeneutics of much recent cultural theory."

– Bruce Johnson, Associate Professor, University of New South Wales

Contents

Soundscape Studies and Methods - An Introduction

Helmi Järviluoma and Gregg Wagstaff

Soundscape Studies, Experimental Music, and Time Geography

Albert Mayr

A City Traced by Soundscape

Keiko Torigoe

The Sonic Identity of European Cities. A presentation of the work conducted by the Swiss-French researcher Pascal Amphoux

Björn Hellström

Street Listening: A Characterisation of the Sound Environment: The "qualified listening in motion" method

Nicolas Tixier

Site Interpretation by Skilled Listeners. Methods for Communicating Soundscapes in Landscape Architecture and Planning

Per Hedfors and Per G. Berg

Towards a Social Ecological Soundscape

Gregg Wagstaff

Rhytmicity

Justin Winkler

Looking for a 'Right Method' - Approaching Beyond

Noora Vikman

You don't hear anything 'round here! Cognitive Maps and Auditory Perception

Hiekki Uimonen

The Urban Nightingale - or some theoretical considerations about sound and noise

Detlev Ipsen

Editors

Helmi Järviluoma is Docent and Lecturer of Musicology at University of Turku, Department of Art, Literature and Music, Finland.

Gregg Wagstaff is a freelance sound designer and soundscape researcher, currently heading the Touring Exhibition of Sound Environments, a community based and ecologically oriented arts project.