Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T08:04:50.551Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sonic Placemaking: Three approaches and ten attributes for the creation of enduring urban sound art installations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2016

Jordan Lacey
Jordan Lacey*
Affiliation:
School of Architecture & Design, RMIT University, Building 100, Level 9, 124 La Trobe Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, AUSTRALIA
*
*Email: jordan.lacey@rmit.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article investigates the approaches and attributes of publicly situated sound installations which have achieved the status of permanency, and have attracted ongoing local, and even international, visitors. The article draws on international fieldwork in 2015 that documented several enduring sound installations in the United States, UK and Europe. Through an inductive process including listening exercises, sound recordings, observations and interviews, the analysis identifies three approaches to creating sound installations and ten attributes of operative sound installations. It is argued that by encouraging public listening, the discussed sound installations successfully establish a sensory connection between people and their environments. By extension, it is argued that this emergent sense of place is commensurate with the installations’ capacity to augment a pre-existing ‘spirit of place’. These findings culminate in a sonic placemaking tool for situating sound art installations in urban spaces. It is suggested that urban planners and designers can apply the presented sonic placemaking tool to augment a site’s spirit of place, thereby affecting new experiences in everyday urban life.

Type
Articles
Information
Organised Sound , Volume 21 , Special Issue 2: Situating the Avant–Garde: Conformity and oppositional culture , August 2016 , pp. 147 - 159
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Augoyard, J. and Torgue, H. 2005. Sonic Experience: A Guide to Everyday Sounds. Trans. Andrea McCartney and David Paquette. Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press.Google Scholar
Carter, P. 2004. Ambiguous Traces, Mishearing and Auditory Space. In V. Erlmann (ed.) Hearing Cultures: Essays on Sound, Listening and Modernity. Oxford and New York: Berg.Google Scholar
De Certeau, M. 1984. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Edensor, T. 2012. Illuminated Atmospheres: Anticipating and Reproducing the Flow of Affective Experience in Blackpool. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 30(6): 1103–1122.Google Scholar
Edensor, T. and Sumartojo, S. 2015. Designing Atmospheres: Introduction to Special Issue. Visual Communication 14(3): 251–265.Google Scholar
Fleming, R. L. 2007. The Art of Placemaking: Interpreting Community Through Public Art and Urban Design. London: Merrell.Google Scholar
Gleick, K. 1987. Chaos. London: Cardinal.Google Scholar
Hellström, B. 2012. Acoustic Design Artifacts and Methods for Urban Soundscapes: A Case Study on the Qualitative Dimensions of Sounds. Internoise 2012. New York, 19–22 August. www.acousticdesign.se/upload/files/InterNoise_NY_Paper.pdf (accessed 1 August 2015).Google Scholar
Jivén, G. and Larkham, P. J. 2003. Sense of Place, Authenticity and Character: A Commentary. Journal of Urban Design 8(1): 67–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kapusta, A. 2007. The Sea Organ: A Musical Connection between Land and Sea. www.gotland.se/88323 (accessed 2 March 2016).Google Scholar
LaBelle, B. 2006. Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art. New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
Lacey, J. 2014. Rupturing Urban Sound(scape)s: Spatial Sound Design for the Diversification of Affective Sonic Ecologies. PhD thesis, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.Google Scholar
Lacey, J. 2016. Sonic Rupture. New York: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Lefebvre, H. 1991. The Production of Space. Trans. D. Nicholson-Smith. Malden, MA; Oxford; and Carlton, Victoria: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lefebvre, H. 2004. Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life. Trans. S. Elden. London and New York: Continuum International.Google Scholar
Mandelbrot, B. 1977. The Fractal Geometry of Nature. New York: Freeman.Google Scholar
Ouzounian, G. 2008. Sound Art and Spatial Practices: Situating Sound Installation Art Since 1958. PhD thesis, University of California, San Diego.Google Scholar
Pine, B. II and Gilmore, J. 1998. Welcome to the Experience Economy. Harvard Business Review 76(4): 97–105.Google Scholar
Stamac, I. 2005. Acoustical and Musical Solution to Wave-Driven Sea Organ in Zadar. 2nd Congress of Alps-Adria Acoustics Association, Croatia, 23–24 June. www.gotland.se/88323 (accessed 2 March 2016).Google Scholar
Whyte, W. H. 1980. The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Washington, DC: Conservation Foundation.Google Scholar

Lacey supplementary material S1

Supplementary Audio

Download Lacey supplementary material S1(Audio)
Audio 2.9 MB

Lacey supplementary material S2

Supplementary Audio

Download Lacey supplementary material S2(Audio)
Audio 2.9 MB

Lacey supplementary material S4

Supplementary Audio

Download Lacey supplementary material S4(Audio)
Audio 2.8 MB

Lacey supplementary material S5

Supplementary Audio

Download Lacey supplementary material S5(Audio)
Audio 2.4 MB

Lacey supplementary material S6

Supplementary Audio

Download Lacey supplementary material S6(Audio)
Audio 4 MB

Lacey supplementary material S7

Supplementary Audio

Download Lacey supplementary material S7(Audio)
Audio 3.1 MB

Lacey supplementary material S8

Supplementary Audio

Download Lacey supplementary material S8(Audio)
Audio 4.3 MB

Lacey supplementary material S9

Supplementary Audio

Download Lacey supplementary material S9(Audio)
Audio 2 MB