Sound Research

"Some questions we aim to address are; How can we analyze and address the increasingly homogenized sounds of urban environments from traffic and other forms of urban "noise"? How can we creatively respond to the effect of urban noise on the loss of character or identity of a place? What are desirable sound environments? How can we establish new codes or behaviors that help shape our sound environments? How can we adapt or modify existing the architectural to develop new acoustic spaces? How can we identify unique or characteristic social patterns that help shape the sonic identity of a place? What role does technology play in this process, specifically newly available and more affordable digital recording technologies? "

Christopher Cerf, an award-winning composer for the American children's television series Sesame Street, was so disturbed by the use of his songs as psychological torture by the US during interrogation operations in Guantanamo in 2003, that he embarked on a journey with Al Jazeera World to interview a number of scientists, US Army personnel, and ex-detainees, to learn more about the psychological effects of music, and to uncover the history and use of music in torture. Among the people Cerf interviews are a US Army interrogator, a former Guantanamo prison guard, an ex-Guantanamo and Bagram detainee who recounts the use of Metallica and Marilyn Manson in torture during his time in prison, and the heavy metal band Drowning Pool, whose song "Bodies" was dubbed an unofficial soundtrack of the US military, and whose music was also used to torture prisoners.

There's a secret jazz seeping from Washington's aging Metro escalators - those anemic metal walkways that fill our transit system…they honk and bleat and squawk…why are you still wearing those earbuds?

"Some of the hottest tracks on digital playlists: sounds of an oscillating fan, a waterfall and crickets. White noise and other soothing sounds, once mainly played on machines to aid nighttime sleep, are increasingly helping make daytime hours more serene. When played through headphones, the sounds help people tune out chatty co-workers, pounding jackhammers and the dentist's drill. "

""we tend to be indifferent to acoustics" in contemporary residences, and think only of "competing with traffic outside". Normally, he continues, "architecture is about being quiet", whereas there's a rich history of sound and architecture - especially in pre-literate societies. He talks of the clarity of sound in the Greek amphitheatre, of the intentional use of sound spaces in Medieval and Gothic cathedrals, which were "designed by acoustics as much as visual principles - they were considered 'sacred resonators'"."

"Acousticians have been designing concert halls for more than a century, but Dr. Kyriakakis does something different. He shapes the sound of music to conform to the space in which it is played. The goal is what Dr. Kyriakakis calls the "ground truth" - to replicate the original in every respect. "We remove the room," he said, "so the ground truth can be delivered." "

"You can look across a vast expanse of ice, all white and blue and cold, and see nothing. The lead is choked with pack ice or sealed over with newly formed ice, and there is no movement or sound. With few birds, no whales and no bears, one might mistake the Arctic for a desert. But if you go down to the ice edge, pick a hole in the new ice deep enough to reach water and drop in a hydrophone (an underwater microphone), the cacophony is astonishing. "

"A red-white-and-blue sign at the corner of West Broadway and Watts Street in SoHo reads, "Don't Honk - $350 Penalty." It is, shall we say, not always heeded. This corner is a five-way crossing, where Broome Street forks into Watts, which leads to the Holland Tunnel, and crosses West Broadway, which has two-way traffic. The tunnel entrances themselves run smoothly, if slowly; traffic police officers are there. But the New Jersey exodus has to back up somewhere, and this corner is one of those places. Amid this gridlock is a whole lot of self-expression via car horns and the occasional, ah, verbal admonition. "

A soundscape is any collection of sounds, almost like a painting is a collection of visual attractions," says composer R. Murray Schafer. "When you listen carefully to the soundscape it becomes quite miraculous." David New's portrait of the renowned composer becomes a lesson unto itself, gracing viewers (and listeners) with a singular moment of interactive subjectivity. This film was produced for the 2009 Governor General's Performing Arts Award.

"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. "

"Jesper Norda created the sound installation The Centre of Silence for the Kalmar Konstmuseum. The installation consists of an empty room and sound, nothing else. A voice describes the space and the movement of air molecules in the room. In between the pieces of text the listener is treated to silence, a sine wave and white noise. "

"Stars oscillate on a - very - low frequency, which has to be pitched up many times to be heard by us humans. Scientists use the Kepler Space Telescope to measure these oscillations, and by the frequency they can tell the size of the stars. They combine this with the study of planets in the zone around the star where the temperature allows water to be liquid. Will this eventually lead us to the discovery of extraterrestrial life? "

The name of Walter Fähndrich is not likely to provoke many nods of recognition. This is unfortunate, given that the Swiss composer and violist has been a fervent artist for nearly four decades. A teacher of improvisation and designer of sound installations, Fähndrich seems to prefer the indeterminacy of real-time human interaction over recordable media and gives us this rare glimpse into his open reach.

"In 1999, composer/sound artist Steve Peters undertook a project at The Land, a venue for site-specific environmental art in the high desert of central New Mexico. Wishing to develop an intimate relationship with the site rather than impose his own noise upon it, he devoted himself to the act of listening to the sounds that were there during each hour of the day and night over the course of one year. Spanning the disciplines of acoustic ecology, environmental and performance art, poetry, sculpture, installation, and contemplative practice, Here*ings documents that experience of immersion in a particular landscape, examining the gradual process of becoming connected with Place. In sharing his findings, Peters encourages us to offer our own attention to the subtle poetry that surrounds us. His work reminds us that, beneath the surface of the commonplace, the extraordinary lies waiting to be revealed."

"Seven years ago, composer Craig Shepard packed a pocket trumpet and a musician's composition notebook and set off for a month-long stroll across Switzerland. Along the way, Shepard traversed 250 miles, composing a piece of music every day and performing it precisely at 6:00 pm in the Swiss town squares, harbors, and mountaintops that he reached at the end of each daily trek. Now, every Sunday between February 26 and May 21, Shepard will be afoot on the sidewalks of Brooklyn, fanning out over 13 routes that intersect nearly every neighborhood in the borough for his follow-up project, On Foot: Brooklyn."

"Sound Waves And Their Sources (1933) - Educational film that covers the basics of acoustics. How sound propagates through a medium, pitch, timbre, loudness etc. Dated but accurate."

Field Studies is a four-day summer-school led by three acclaimed sound artists and composers. It explores the possibilities of engaging with places through listening, and working with recorded sound as a creative and practical tool in the context of architecture, the city and art practice.

Acoustic location is the art and science of using sound to determine the distance and direction of something. Location can be done actively or passively, and can take place in gases (such as the atmosphere), liquids (such as water), and in solids (such as in the earth). "

"A sonic tour of New York, from the agonizing screech of the Union Square subway station to one of the quietest rooms in the city: Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center"

"The American Loren Chasse is one of the most important international artists, connected to the environment/sound relation. His abilities to listen and to transform the object in "musical instrument" are some of the most identifying features of his work. "