//Unheard_Landscapes - listening | resonating | inhabiting 10th FKL/ENP/AAU_CRESSON International Symposium on Soundscape BLOIS | October 27 -30

Unheard landscapes: this metaphor leaves space to imagination, to the un-thought, to the un-known, to past and future, as well as unexplored sound scenarios. It also reaches the field of auditory perception, the acoustic domain. Sound, through auditive qualities, acoustic phenomena, design practices, artistic creations, and listening experiences, offers an inspiring transversal entry onto landscapes and ambiances. Beyond the discussions on “soundscape”, approaching ordinary environments through sounds increases the awareness of our own capacities to feel, while we inhabit and move across different worlds. From an ecological perspective, resonance appears a key word, too. It puts sound and space together. It implies the idea of a plurality of bodies, things and living beings vibrating all together, sharing common contexts of time and space. The act of listening bypasses the passive meaning it usually receives. It contains in itself a completely unexpressed potential, connoted with «project», «pro-action» and «active decision» by individuals. What will be the sounds of the future and the soundscapes in which we will live, or would like to? How can listening practices evolve, how will we listen or how differently could we listen to the world around us, tomorrow? Inhabiting the world brings to us questions about how we want to manage our being in it. How do we want to inhabit the world sonically? How sound and listening do actually affect our way to inhabit it? Have we lost some of our abilities to resonate with the world? What remains to be heard? Where could the practices of listening and attuning take us to?

Ari KOIVUMÄKI | FI |

Paper

How to study the feeling of safety?

Abstract

In my paper I will continue to study the relationship of ambiances and the feel of safety as I did in my presentation in Ambiances, Alloaesthesia: Senses, Inventions, Worlds 4th International Congress. At TAMK University of Applied Sciences, I have been involved in SURE-project: Smart Urban Security and Event Resilience ( https://www.uia-initiative.eu/en/uia-cities/tampere ). One of the objectives of SURE is: “How to make the daily lives of citizens and urban environment safer by using innovative co-creation methods, to develop and test security in connection with actual urban development projects and public infrastructure in Tampere, Finland.” Of the concepts of smart city, safety and security see Lacinák & Ristvej 2017. Now, in the middle of the project we have got some preliminary results: the more you get to know the people, their ways, and norms in places, the more secure you feel and can share with the others in urban events and environments. The feeling of safety increases once you get familiar with others – and with places – entwined with senses, bodily sensations, and experiences. To hear or listen to the sonic environment is always related to our physical capability and mental awareness in the present time, but the meaning-making of what and how we hear is changing and interacting with the circumstances we have. The meaning-making depends on the situation where we stand and what we are going to do. Since we are social beings, interaction with others is always there. The same goes for the experiences and memories we have. As Ingold wrote: “Whereas sensations are private and individual, representations are public and social” (Ingold 2000). Listening means an ability to be aware and control the surrounding acoustic environment: distance of people or traffic approaching or moving away, the sonic quality is a way to recognize the sound sources. All important aspects are related to safety and to a better urban ambiance. But does that require open and silent places? Or familiar sounds coming from people, children – nature? Yet again in parking places made in caves muzak is often used to cover the silence, to make the desolate place more comfortable. In SURE project we have found evidence of how important it is to study how people experience and understand safe acoustic phenomena and places compared to study how our environment is made, how it looks and sounds. In my paper I will study further the methods and outcomes we have used and got from SURE project. Keywords: ambiance, security, safety, urban planning, soundscape

Biography

Principal lecturer of Media production, Liaison manager in Mediapolis, Tampere, Finland Doctor of Arts from Aalto University, School of Art and Design, Film and Television (2018); Licentiate of Arts in Theatre and Drama focused in Sound Design from Theater Academy (2001), Tampere University, Master of Social Sciences, Social Psychology (1991) I have been lucky to take part in many Soundscape projects and publications in Finland together with Finnish Society for Acoustic Ecology ( http://www.aanimaisemat.fi/ , https://soundcloud.com/akueko) and in European level (http://europeanacousticheritage.eu/). I coordinate two MA-level degree programs: Media production and Screenwriting, work as a Liaison manager in Mediapolis campus, and participate in R&D programs focusing on digitalizing wellbeing services and solving challenges related to population aging in cooperation with companies and public organizations. I have also been involved in student projects from radio documents, video and multimedia works, virtual reality experiments to theatre performances and opera. For eleven years I have been organizing Resonanssi (https://resonanssi.eu/ ) – a sound design seminar for students and professionals. For publications: https://ambiances2020.ambiances.net/ and Coincidental and Bottom-up Method for Soundwalking. Nicolas Rémy (dir.) ; Nicolas Tixier (dir.). Ambiances, tomorrow. Proceedings of 3rd International Congress on Ambiances. Septembre 2016, Volos, Greece, vol. 1, p. 283 - 2879

<<< back

Tip

Tip