Coney Island is a place like none other, known around the world for its iconic amusements and the role its had throughout history as America's first playground. At the same time the community that lives, works and struggles to support Coney Island's survival has gone unknown and unseen, until now.

"At www.mta.me, Conductor turns the New York subway system into an interactive string instrument. Using the MTA's actual subway schedule, the piece begins in realtime by spawning trains which departed in the last minute, then continues accelerating through a 24 hour loop. The visuals are based on Massimo Vignelli's 1972 diagram."

Great introduction to field recording by the amazing organization Sound and Music in London.

How do they make those sounds in the movies?

"Regular one-to-one interviews with artists, curators, writers, publishers and academics who engage broadly with sound and its use in contemporary and historical arts practice."

"A collaborative sound map of one of the cleanest rivers in Europe: the Paiva river which runs in northern Portugal and has its mouth in the Douro river. The sound map was developed by Portuguese sound art organization Binaural/Nodar together with students from primary and secondary schools of the areas where the river passes."

"UrbanRemix is a collaborative and locative sound project. Our goal in developing UrbanRemix was to design a platform and series of public workshops that would enable participants to develop and express the acoustic identity of their communities, and enable users of the website to explore and experience the soundscapes of the city in a novel fashion."

Site dedicated to interviews related to new music. Editor Dan Warburton.

"Audio Explorers is a brand new sound art bursary scheme that invites primary schools in South Cumbria to explore the creative use of sound through a pupil-led project for Years 5 and 6."

"Soundwalking Interactions is a research-creation project led by Dr. Andra McCartney, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, Concordia University. This project is financially supported by the FQRSC. The objective of the project is to explore the use of soundwalks and interactive installations to engage audiences and raise issues about various locations and their histories. "

radio aporee ::: maps has started 2006, based on former artistic research on mapping, spatial conditions and the navigation between the real and the virtual. It develops from the insight that it is basically impossible to map the complexity of todays public spaces. Against the background of an increasing awareness of spatial aspects in media and the popularity and presence of visual geographies like google maps, the idea was to connect sound and space, and to create a cartography which focusses solely on sound, and open it to the public as a collaborative project. Meanwhile it contains 1000s of recordings from numerous urban, rural and natural environments, showing the sonic complexity of these environments, as well as the different perception and artistic perspectives related to sound, space and places. furthermore, it's an exciting playground for experiments with sound and mobile media.

The project set out to give a rich and rigorous account of human perception of and response to soundscapes. To do this it used overlapping methods from a wide range of disciplines, ranging from the quantitative (e.g. acoustics) to the qualitative (e.g. social science) to the creative (e.g. sound art). Qualitative fieldwork (soundwalks and focus groups) determined that people conceptualised a soundscape into three components: sound sources (e.g. a market), sound descriptors (e.g. rumbling) and soundscape descriptors (e.g. hubbub). Lab-based listening tests along with the fieldwork have revealed that two key dimensions of the emotional response to a soundscape are calmness and vibrancy. In the lab these factors explain nearly 80% of the variance in listener response. Interview responses from real soundscapes further indicate that vibrancy can be expressed in two sub-dimensions expressing variation over time and over sound mix. Physiological validation of the main dimensions is provided by images of changes in the brain during listening from fMRI scans and by changes in heart rate. Artistic work and the public responses to it illustrate the huge range of sounds and soundscapes considered positive. Tools for simulating soundscapes have been developed and seem to be effective for several purposes, including design and public engagement - that is, sound play. The project results will lead to new metrics and assessment methods for soundscapes, new ideas for design and user engagement and, perhaps, better policy on environmental noise.

"Professor Paul Jennings is leading a team researching how sound affects the perception of environments including urban and hospital intensive care units. People have generally seen noise as being unwanted, but the right sound has many positive aspects."

"THE WORLD LISTENING PROJECT (WLP) is a not-for-profit organization devoted to understanding the world and its natural environment, societies and cultures through the practices of listening and field recording. The WLP was founded in 2008 and is supported by the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology, a membership organization and regional chapter of the American Society for Acoustic Ecology, affiliated with the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology. The WLP maintains a website and online forum about its artistic and educational activities. These include the use of radio and web-based technologies, conducting public workshops, forums, and lectures, as well as participating in exhibitions, symposiums, and festivals. To learn more and become involved in the WLP's activities please subscribe to our discussion group."

Can you really detain people because their phones are beeping? And when you cannot tell who is protesting, is it still a protest?

One day conference exploring how noise management and soundscape design can improve the use and enjoyment of London's green spaces and public realm." PDFs of papers and presentations can be found here

Sonic Postcards is a unique and innovative national education programme which explores these issues and encourages participants to "open their ears". The project enables pupils from across the UK to explore and compare their local sound environments through the composition and exchange - via the internet - of sound postcards with other schools.

"Sound art encompasses cross-border art practices in which the acoustic element governs the recepient's overall perception as well as the structure of a given work. The visual sphere and the spatial dimension represent the most important references to sound. The most decisive factor differentiating sound art from music is the breaking up of linearity and of limited temporal duration."

"SoundTransit is a collaborative, online community dedicated to field recording and phonography. "

How does one remember a sound? Why does one remember a sound? We remember things visually. Close your eyes and you can perfectly picture that one magnificent view you've seen a couple of years ago. But try to do that with a sound, to recreate that sound in your head, and…. it suddenly becomes a whole lot more difficult.