Acoustic ecology

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Acoustic ecology, sometimes called ecoacoustics or soundscape studies, is a discipline studying the relationship, mediated through sound, between human beings and their environment. [1] Acoustic ecology studies started in the late 1960s with R. Murray Schafer a musician, composer and former professor of communication studies at Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) with the help of his team there [2] as part of the World Soundscape Project. The original WSP team included Barry Truax and Hildegard Westerkamp, Bruce Davies and Peter Huse, among others. The first study produced by the WSP was titled The Vancouver Soundscape. This innovative study raised the interest of researchers and artists worldwide, creating enormous growth in the field of acoustic ecology. In 1993, the members of the by now large and active international acoustic ecology community formed the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology. [3]

Contents

The radio art of Schafer and his colleague, has found expression in many different fields. [4] While most have taken some inspiration from Schafer's writings, in recent years there have also been divergences from the initial ideas. The expanded expressions of acoustic ecology are increasing due to the sonic impacts of road and airport construction that affect the soundscapes in and around cities where the human population is more dense. [5] There has also been a broadening of bioacoustics (the use of sound by animals) to consider the subjective and objective responses of animals to human noise, with ocean noise capturing the most attention. Acoustic ecology can also be informative of changes in the climate or other environmental changes since every day we listen to sounds in the world to identify their source such as bird, car, plane, wind, water. But we don't listen those sounds as a network , a mesh of relationships that form an ecology. [2] Acoustic ecology finds expression in many different fields that characterize a soundscape, which are biophony, geophony, and anthrophony.

World Forum for Acoustic Ecology

The World Forum for Acoustic Ecology is an international collective of people and organizations who study the world's soundscapes. [6] There are eight groups that make up the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology: the Australian Forum for Acoustic Ecology, the Canadian Association for Acoustic Ecology, the Finnish Society for Acoustic Ecology, the Hellenic Society for Acoustic Ecology, the Japanese Association for Soundscape Ecology, the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology, Red Ecologia Acustica Mexico, and the UK and Ireland Soundscape Community. [6] Every three years since the WFAE's founding at Banff, Canada in 1993, an international symposium has taken place. Stockholm, Amsterdam, Devon, Peterborough, and Melbourne followed.[ citation needed ] In November 2006, the WFAE meeting took place in Hirosaki, Japan. [7] Koli, Finland, was the meeting place of the latest WFAE world conference [ dead link ].

Members of the WFAE, many of whom are recording artists and composers, are focused on improving the quality of public soundscapes through the design and planning of community spaces that preserve desirable sound while reducing noise pollution. [8] Acoustic ecologists value the exercise of listening as well as promoting a more conscious appreciation and awareness of one's sonic environment. [8]

Bioacoustics

Noise is generally a by-product of increased urbanization and development. As our cities became more industrialized, the volume and frequency of anthrophony, man-made noise signals, increased. [9] Noise can alter the acoustic environment of aquatic and terrestrial habitats.

Animal biodiversity has shown to decline because of chronic noise levels in cities and along roadways.[ citation needed ] Musician and soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause relates biophony to an orchestra, where different groups of animals in an environment make sounds at different levels to avoid overlap or competition in their communication. [10] Manmade noise such as jets flying over a habitat can disrupt the natural order of these sounds, even putting certain species in danger of predators. [10] For example, some frogs synchronize in a way that protects individuals from attracting attention. [10] The noise of a jet can cause the frogs to stop or fall out of sync, temporarily breaking this effect and exposing them to other animals. [10]

On land, animal communication is shaped by physical characteristics of an environment such as distance, range of vision, weather, and surrounding noise. [11] The physical layout of a habitat may impede the spread of soundwaves while air conditions can affect sound quality and speed. [11] Animals can adapt to factors like distance by adjusting the frequency and amplitute of their calls to maximize communication effectiveness. [11] Some species such as the urban great tits have changed the frequency of their calls to adapt. Soundscapes of particular habitats are always evolving because the activities and species that exist in those habitats changes over time. [12]

In terms of evolution, man-made noise is a much more recent phenomenon. Indeed, through investigating collected recordings, ecologists can study ethology of animal acoustic communication, evolution, and development of acoustic behavior, relationships between animal sounds and their environment. However, all those ecological research goals have a precondition that those bioacoustic recordings are well investigated so that the animal species can be accurately recognized. [13] Scientific research has shown that it has potential to change behavior, alter physiology and even restructure animal communities. [14]

Soundscapes

Soundscapes are composed of the anthrophony, geophony and biophony of a particular environment. They are specific to location and change over time. [12] Acoustic ecology aims to study the relationship between these things, i.e. the relationship between humans, animals and nature, within these soundscapes. These relationships are delicate and subject to disruption by natural or man-made means. [15]

In his book The Tuning of the World, Schafer used new terms like 'soundmarks' -- a specific community's distinctive sounds -- and 'keynotes' -- prevalent but overlooked background sounds such as traffic -- to help categorize the different elements of a soundscape. [16]

Biophony

Biophony is the study of sounds emerging from animal sources, like whale vocalizations or birdsong. [17]

Geophony

Geophony can be defined as the sounds originating from the Earth's natural processes, such as the blowing of wind or movement of waves.

Anthrophony

Anthrophony is the soundscape defined by man-made sources, like speech or road noise. [18] [19]

Research on the relationship between visual and auditory experiences in urban settings finds that the positive or negative visual perceptions of a landscape can directly affect the emotional assessment of the location's soundscape. A pleasant view or comfortable surroundings can increase people's tolerance and even appreciation for the sounds of an environment. [20]

People's preferences for noise control have been shown to differ based on the culture and technology of the time period as well as the familiarity or practicality of certain sounds. [21] For example, accepted sources of loud noise such as church bells or trucks may not bother a neighborhood as much as someone's new leaf blower, even if it is not as loud as more familiar sounds. [21] This is why it is considered difficult to generalize which sounds are unwanted in a community. [21]

Studying the soundscapes and traumatic impact of war has shown the effectiveness of noise as a psychological weapon to produce fear. [22]

Impacts of Man-Made Sound on Biospheres

Aircraft activity has been a continuing development around the world and has some very good potential to change social-ecological systems. In Alaska, for example the communities are reporting that the aircraft disturb wildlife and negatively influence harvest practices and experiences. The limited data has some restricted knowledge about the extent of aircraft activity over traditional harvest areas. It is actually very impressive to see the amount of aircraft overflight around the rural subsistence, because the activity is increasing significantly and they have reached a median of 12 overflights per day near human development, which is six times greater than undeveloped areas. Therefore, those planes startle caribou prefer to avoid aircraft themselves, which has a result that they will need to go farther to do a better harvest, but this will occur in adding some costs for fuel, equipment, and the effort for sure. Those kind of examples help to understand the impact on social-ecological dynamics in Antarctica. [ citation needed ]

The ambient noise present within the world's oceans; geophonic, anthrophonic, and biophonic, has been identified as a critical indicator to the well-being of the regional biosphere. [23]

Acoustic niche

The acoustic niche hypothesis, as proposed by acoustic ecologist Bernie Krause in 1993, [24] refers to the process in which organisms partition the acoustic domain, finding their own niche in frequency and/or time in order to communicate without competition from other species. The theory draws from the ideas of niche differentiation and can be used to predict differences between young and mature ecosystems.

In mature ecosystems, species will sing at unique bandwidths and specific times, displaying a lack of interspecies competition in the acoustic environment. Conversely, in young ecosystems, one is more likely to encounter multiple species using similar frequency bandwidths, which can result in interference between their respective calls, or a complete lack of activity in uncontested bandwidths. The degree of partitioning in an environment can be used to indicate ecosystem health and biodiversity.

List of compositional works

"Dominion" by Barry Truax

"Dominion" uses Canadian soundmarks that were made in different province by the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University for an event of cross-country tour that happened in 1973. What is interesting about those sounds is that they are stretched over the time, so the extended versions allowed the people that listen to the sound in a more harmonic way. Those unique sound signals, were picked up by the live performers and then amplified to give the best experience possible to his audience. [25]

Archaeoacoustics

This is a subfield of archeology and acoustics that in general study the relation between people and sound along the history. This is an interdisciplinary field that has methodological contributions from acoustics, archeology and computer simulation. Many cultures explored through archaeology were mostly focused on the oral, which lead the researchers to believe that studying the sonic nature of archaeological sites and artifacts may reveal new information on the civilization being scrutinized. [26] Marc E. Moglen (2007) recreated pre-historical Soundscapes (Acoustic Ecology) at University of California, Berkeley's Department of Anthropology, combining compositional techniques with site recordings for a non-diegetic piece in the virtual world of Second Life, on "Okapi Island" [ citation needed ]. At the Center for New Media the acoustic ecological setting of the former jazz scene in Oakland, CA was developed for a virtual world setting.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acoustics</span> Branch of physics involving mechanical waves

Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics technology may be called an acoustical engineer. The application of acoustics is present in almost all aspects of modern society with the most obvious being the audio and noise control industries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noise pollution</span> Excessive, displeasing environmental noise

Noise pollution, or sound pollution, is the propagation of noise or sound with ranging impacts on the activity of human or animal life, most of which are harmful to a degree. The source of outdoor noise worldwide is mainly caused by machines, transport and propagation systems. Poor urban planning may give rise to noise disintegration or pollution, side-by-side industrial and residential buildings can result in noise pollution in the residential areas. Some of the main sources of noise in residential areas include loud music, transportation, lawn care maintenance, construction, electrical generators, wind turbines, explosions and people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acoustical engineering</span> Branch of engineering dealing with sound and vibration

Acoustical engineering is the branch of engineering dealing with sound and vibration. It includes the application of acoustics, the science of sound and vibration, in technology. Acoustical engineers are typically concerned with the design, analysis and control of sound.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bioacoustics</span> Study of sound relating to biology

Bioacoustics is a cross-disciplinary science that combines biology and acoustics. Usually it refers to the investigation of sound production, dispersion and reception in animals. This involves neurophysiological and anatomical basis of sound production and detection, and relation of acoustic signals to the medium they disperse through. The findings provide clues about the evolution of acoustic mechanisms, and from that, the evolution of animals that employ them.

A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term was originally coined by Michael Southworth, and popularised by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, ranging from urban design to wildlife ecology to computer science. An important distinction is to separate soundscape from the broader acoustic environment. The acoustic environment is the combination of all the acoustic resources, natural and artificial, within a given area as modified by the environment. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standardized these definitions in 2014.

Natural sounds are any sounds produced by non-human organisms as well as those generated by natural, non-biological sources within their normal soundscapes. It is a category whose definition is open for discussion. Natural sounds create an acoustic space.


Sound studies is an interdisciplinary field that to date has focused largely on the emergence of the concept of "sound" in Western modernity, with an emphasis on the development of sound reproduction technologies. The field first emerged in venues like the journal Social Studies of Science by scholars working in science and technology studies and communication studies; it has however greatly expanded and now includes a broad array of scholars working in music, anthropology, sound art, deaf studies, architecture, and many other fields besides. Important studies have focused on the idea of a "soundscape", architectural acoustics, nature sounds, the history of aurality in Western philosophy and nineteenth-century Colombia, Islamic approaches to listening, the voice, studies of deafness, loudness, and related topics. A foundational text is Jonathan Sterne's 2003 book "The Audible Past", though the field has retroactively taken as foundational two texts, Jacques Attali's Noise: The Political Economy of Music (1985) and R. Murray Schafer's The Tuning of the World (1977).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernie Krause</span> American musician, author, soundscape recordist and bio-acoustician (*1938)

Bernard L. Krause is an American musician and soundscape ecologist. In 1968, he founded Wild Sanctuary, an organization dedicated to the recording and archiving of natural soundscapes. Krause is an author, a bio-acoustician, a speaker, and natural sound artist who coined the terms geophony, biophony, and anthropophony.

Hildegard Westerkamp is a Canadian composer, radio artist, teacher and sound ecologist of German origin. She studied flute and piano at the Conservatory of Music in Freiburg, West Germany from 1966 to 1968 and moved to Canada in 1975. She received a Bachelor of Music from the University of British Columbia in 1972 and a Master of Arts from Simon Fraser University in 1988. She taught acoustic communication at Simon Fraser University from 1982 to 1991.

Sensory ecology is a relatively new field focusing on the information organisms obtain about their environment. It includes questions of what information is obtained, how it is obtained, and why the information is useful to the organism.

Biomusic is a form of experimental music which deals with sounds created or performed by non-humans. The definition is also sometimes extended to include sounds made by humans in a directly biological way. For instance, music that is created by the brain waves of the composer can also be called biomusic as can music created by the human body without the use of tools or instruments that are not part of the body.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to acoustics:

An autonomous recording unit (ARU) is a self-contained audio recording device that is deployed in marine or terrestrial environments for bioacoustical monitoring. The unit is used in both marine and terrestrial environments to track the behavior of animals and monitor their ecosystems. On a terrestrial level, the ARU can detect noises coming from bird habitats and determine relative emotions that each bird conveys along with the population of the birds and the relative vulnerability of the ecosystem. The ARU can also be used to understand noises made by marine life to see how the animals' communication affects the operation of their ecosystem. When underwater, the ARU can track the sound that human made machines make and see the effect those sounds have on marine life ecosystems. Up to 44 work days can be saved through the utilization of ARU's, along with their ability to discover more species.

The World Soundscape Project (WSP) was an international research project founded by Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer in the late 1960s at Simon Fraser University. The project initiated the modern study of acoustic ecology. Its ultimate goal is "to find solutions for an ecologically balanced soundscape where the relationship between the human community and its sonic environment is in harmony." The practical manifestations of this goal include education about the soundscape and noise pollution, in addition to the recording and cataloguing of international soundscapes with a focus on preservation of soundmarks and dying sounds and sound environments. Publications which emerged from the project include The Book of Noise (1968) and The Tuning of the World (1977), both by Schafer, as well as the Handbook for Acoustic Ecology (1978) by Barry Truax. The project has thus far resulted in two major tours, in Canada and Europe, the results of which comprise the World Soundscape Library. Notable members included John Oswald, Howard Broomfield, Bruce Davis, Peter Huse, Barry Truax and Hildegard Westerkamp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soundscape ecology</span> Study of the effect of environmental sound on organisms

Soundscape ecology is the study of the acoustic relationships between living organisms, human and other, and their environment, whether the organisms are marine or terrestrial. First appearing in the Handbook for Acoustic Ecology edited by Barry Truax, in 1978, the term has occasionally been used, sometimes interchangeably, with the term acoustic ecology. Soundscape ecologists also study the relationships between the three basic sources of sound that comprise the soundscape: those generated by organisms are referred to as the biophony; those from non-biological natural categories are classified as the geophony, and those produced by humans, the anthropophony.

Ecomusicology is an area of study that explores the relationships between music or sound, and the natural environment. It is a study which encompasses a variety of academic disciplines including musicology, biology, ecology and anthropology. Ecomusicology combines these disciplines to explore how sound is produced by natural environments and, more broadly how cultural values and concerns about nature are expressed through sonic mediums. Ecomusicology explores the ways that music is composed to replicate natural imagery, as well as how sounds produced within the natural environment are used within musical composition. Ecological studies of sounds produced by animals within their habitat are also considered to be part of the field of ecomusicology. In the 21st century, studies within the field the ecomusicology have also become increasingly interested in the sustainability of music production and performance.

Sound maps are digital geographical maps that put emphasis on the sonic representation of a specific location. Sound maps are created by associating landmarks and soundscapes.

A soundwalk is a walk with a focus on listening to the environment. The term was first used by members of the World Soundscape Project under the leadership of composer R. Murray Schafer in Vancouver in the 1970s. Hildegard Westerkamp, from the same group of artists and founder of the World Forum of Acoustic Ecology, defines soundwalking as "... any excursion whose main purpose is listening to the environment. It is exposing our ears to every sound around us no matter where we are."

David Monacchi is an Italian sound artist, researcher and eco-acoustic composer, best known for his multidisciplinary project Fragments of Extinction, patented periphonic device, the Eco-Acoustic Theatre, and award-winning music and sound-art installations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Lorenzi</span>

Christian Lorenzi is Professor of Experimental Psychology at École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France, where he has been Director of the Department of Cognitive Studies and Director of Scientific Studies until. Lorenzi works on auditory perception.

References

  1. ↑ Wrightson, Kendall. "An Introduction to Acoustic Ecology" (PDF). WFAE. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 April 2014. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  2. 1 2 Paine, Garth (4 May 2017). "Acoustic Ecology 2.0". Contemporary Music Review. 36 (3): 171–181. doi:10.1080/07494467.2017.1395136. ISSN   0749-4467. S2CID   134270318. Archived from the original on 8 March 2022. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  3. ↑ "World Forum for Acoustic Ecology". Archived from the original on 11 December 2008. Retrieved 17 December 2008.
  4. ↑ Cobussen, Marcel (2005). "Towards a "New" Sonic Ecology" (PDF).
  5. ↑ "phonography.org". Archived from the original on 20 December 2008. Retrieved 17 December 2008.
  6. 1 2 "World Forum for Acoustic Ecology - Welcome!". World Forum for Acoustic Ecology. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  7. ↑ "World Forum for Acoustic Ecology 2006, in Hirosaki, Aomori, Japan". November 2006. Archived from the original on 6 October 2008. Retrieved 17 December 2008.
  8. 1 2 England, Phil (March 2002). "Sharp Focus on Acoustic Ecology". New Internationalist (343): 33 – via Explora EBSCOhost.
  9. ↑ Amor, Michelle G. (1 June 2021). "Ecologies of Sound and Sea: An Auditory Journey through Acoustic Ecology". EScholarship.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Krause, Bernie (2002). "The Loss of Natural Soundscapes". Earth Island Journal. 17 (1): 27–29 – via MAS Ultra - School Edition.
  11. 1 2 3 Stein, Rachel M.; Rachlow, Janet L. (March 2023). "Acoustic ecology of terrestrial mammals: a new Signaller–Receiver Conceptual Framework". Mammal Review. 53 (3): 143–157. doi:10.1111/mam.12314. S2CID   257546978.
  12. 1 2 Weiss, Sarah G.; Cholewiak, Danielle; Frasier, Kaitlin E.; Trickey, Jennifer S.; Baumann-Pickering, Simone; Hildebrand, John A.; Van Parijs, Sofie M. (1 August 2021). "Monitoring the acoustic ecology of the shelf break of Georges Bank, Northwestern Atlantic Ocean: New approaches to visualizing complex acoustic data". Marine Policy. 130: 104570. doi: 10.1016/j.marpol.2021.104570 . S2CID   236254741.
  13. ↑ "Bioacoustics - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics". www.sciencedirect.com. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
  14. ↑ Shannon, Graeme (17 December 2015). "How noise pollution is changing animal behavior". The Conversation. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  15. ↑ Amor, Michelle G. (1 June 2021). "Ecologies of Sound and Sea: An Auditory Journey through Acoustic Ecology". EScholarship.
  16. ↑ Stefanovic, Ingrid Leman; Scharper, Stephen Bede (2012). The Natural City : Re-envisioning the Built Environment. University of Toronto Press. pp. 163–164. ISBN   9781442698024.
  17. ↑ Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; Rey Baquero, Maria Paula; Parcerisas, Clea; Seger, Kerri; Perazio, Christina; Botero Acosta, Natalia; Mesa, Felipe; Acosta, Andrea Luna; Botteldooren, Dick; Debusschere, Elisabeth (1 December 2021). "Comparison of Two Soundscapes: An Opportunity to Assess the Dominance of Biophony Versus Anthropophony". Oceanography: 62–65. doi: 10.5670/oceanog.2021.supplement.02-24 .
  18. ↑ "Soundscape Ecology". Office of International Programs. 29 July 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
  19. ↑ Lee, John, David Hicks, Danah Henriksen, Punya Mishra, William Cain, Chris Fahnoe, Jon Good, Sarah Keenan, Rohit Mehta, Carmen Richardson, and Colin Terry. "Historical Soundscapes for Creative Synthesis." TechTrends 59, no. 5 (2015): 4–8. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
  20. ↑ Kang, Jian (2020). "Noise Management: Soundscape Approach1". Encyclopedia of Environmental Health. Elsevier Science & Technology. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  21. 1 2 3 Peterson, Ivars (December 1996). "Sounds of the Seasons". Science News. 150 (25/26): 400–401. doi:10.2307/3980071. JSTOR   3980071 – via Explora EBSCOhost.
  22. ↑ Vuorisalo, Timo; Tucker, Richard; Laakkonen, Simo, eds. (2017). The Long Shadows: A Global Environmental History of the Second World War. Oregon State University Press. p. 191. doi:10.1353/book56054. ISBN   978-0-87071-880-9.
  23. ↑ Wilford, Dylan Charles; Miksis-Olds, Jennifer L.; Martin, S. Bruce; Howard, Daniel R.; Lowell, Kim; Lyons, Anthony P.; Smith, Michael James (5 August 2021). "Quantitative Soundscape Analysis to Understand Multidimensional Features". Frontiers in Marine Science. 8. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2021.672336 . ISSN   2296-7745.
  24. ↑ Krause, Bernie (June 1993). "The Niche Hypothesis: A virtual symphony of animal sounds, the origins of musical expression and the health of habitats". The Soundscape Newsletter. 6 (June): 06–10.
  25. ↑ Dominion , retrieved 9 May 2022
  26. ↑ Witt, David E.; Primeau, Kristy E. (3 August 2017). "Soundscapes in the past: Adding a new dimension to our archaeological picture of ancient cultures". The Conversation. Retrieved 9 May 2022.

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