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 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 ...
under the leadership of composer
R. Murray Schafer
Raymond Murray Schafer (18 July 1933 – 14 August 2021) was a Canadian composer, writer, music educator, and environmentalist perhaps best known for his World Soundscape Project, concern for acoustic ecology, and his book ''The Tuning of th ...
in Vancouver in the 1970s.
Hildegard Westerkamp
Hildegard Westerkamp (born April 8, 1946, in Osnabrück, Germany) is a Canadian composer, radio artist, teacher and sound ecologist of German origin.Kirk MacKenzie. "Westerkamp, Hildegard." ''Grove Music Online''. ''Oxford Music Online''. Oxford ...
, from the same group of artists and founder of th
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.''"
Schafer was particularly interested in the implications of the changes in soundscapes in industrial societies in children, and children's relationship to the world through sound. He was a proponent of ''ear-cleaning'' (cleaning one's ears cognitively), and he saw soundwalking as an important part of this process of re-engaging our aural senses in finding our place in the world.
Westerkamp used soundwalks to create multiple soundart pieces. "Cricket Voice", "A Walk Through the City", and "Beneath the Forest Floor" are all soundwalk inspired works.
Soundwalking has also been used as artistic medium by visual artists and documentary makers, such as
Janet Cardiff
Janet Cardiff (born March 15, 1957) is a Canadian artist who works chiefly with sound and sound installations, often in collaboration with her husband and partner George Bures Miller. Cardiff first gained international recognition in the art worl ...
.
Other Terms
Other terms closely related to soundwalking and used by Schafer
include:
* ''Keynote'': typically ambient sounds which are not perceived, not because they are inaudible but because they are filtered out cognitively, such as a highway or air-condition hum
* ''Soundmark'': a sonic landmark; a sound which is characteristic of a place
* ''Sound signal'': a foreground sound; e.g. a dog, an alarm clock; messages/meaning is usually carried through sound signals.
* ''
Sound object
In musique concrete and electronic music theory the term sound object (originally ''l'objet sonore'') is used to refer to a primary unit of sonic material and often specifically refers to recorded sound rather than written music using manuscript o ...
'': the smallest possible recognizable sonic entity (recognizable by its amplitude envelope)
* ''Acousmatic'': a description for sounds whose sources are out of sight or unknown. This also relates to
acousmatic music
Acousmatic music (from Greek ἄκουσμα ''akousma'', "a thing heard") is a form of electroacoustic music that is specifically ''composed'' for presentation using speakers, as opposed to a live performance. It stems from a compositional trad ...
.
See also
*
Soundscape ecology
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 Ba ...
*
Acousmatic music
Acousmatic music (from Greek ἄκουσμα ''akousma'', "a thing heard") is a form of electroacoustic music that is specifically ''composed'' for presentation using speakers, as opposed to a live performance. It stems from a compositional trad ...
*
Sound art
Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. According to Brandon LaBelle, sound art ...
*
Shinrin-yoku
Nature therapy, sometimes referred to as ecotherapy, forest therapy, forest bathing, grounding, earthing, Shinrin-Yoku or Sami Lok, is a practice that describes a broad group of techniques or treatments to use nature to improve mental or physica ...
References
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Sound
Acoustics
Art