Soundexplorers

Θέμα συνεδρίου: "Ακουστική Οικολογία στην Ελλάδα σήμερα"

Typical geographic analysis employs data that represent mainly the visual part of a given landscape in combination with spatially referenced data for selected attributes, depending on the aims of an application. Although sound is considered a dominant component of the environment it is commonly taken into account only as a quantitative attribute (e.g. noise mapping). Acoustic ecology studies the interaction between an environment and its habitants, through the sense of hearing. The term soundscape introduced to describe the sonic dimension of space. This paper proposes a methodology for the representation of selected sonic attributes as cartographic layers. As an example, it is presented the mapping of soundscape around the installations of the department of spatial planning and development engineering of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

The "exploration" of the sonic environment may reveal rare sounds or highlight special acoustic conditions. Geophysical phenomena, biological functions, human activities and machinery operation are becoming the key (f)actors in a sonic scenery. A field survey, which includes listenings, interviews or conversations with the locals and visitors or by simply referring to archival material (e.g. reports, photographs, video, recordings etc.), results into evidences for the structure of present or past soundscapes. Some of them cannot be heard any more, many are still waiting to "speak out". For all of them, someone could "tell" a story. This is the role of "soundexplorers", who either alone or in small groups are exploring the sonic environment and are transforming their experience in free-form texts, technical reports, visual and sonic compositions or other forms of representations towards the understanding of soundscapes. This paper presents the overview and the guidelines of a workshop for the training in the exploration and the documentation of the sonic environment.

The description of the landscape is based on the visualization of geographic features and the representation of their attributes. Although sound is a major component of any environment, its cartographic representation is limited mainly on noise mapping and in urban or sub-urban areas. Soundscape is a term that describes the acoustic relation between the environment and the individual in a landscape context, considering all kinds of interactions between space, sound and humans. The representation of the soundscape at a spatial level would support many applications such as geographic analysis, ecosystem evaluation, environmental education, landscape management, urban or rural planning and protection of sonic particularities. This paper proposes a methodology for the mapping of both quantitative and qualitative attributes of a rural soundscape, which is described through the study of the acoustic environment around a protected wetland in Greece.