Month: January 2022

Here is my promotional paragraph for my audio paper for a non-academic audience.

How bad is noise pollution? What does noise pollution do to our bodies and wellbeing? Where can sound arts situate itself amongst sound-related topics? This audio paper aims to speak about the relationship sound arts can have with noise pollution. It speaks upon scientific studies showcasing the damage noise pollution can give to a human body, as well as the social-political. It speculates on the reasons why politicians are not acting upon this important subject of city design. As well as what current sound artists are doing with their work around noise pollution. Such as Sam Auinger creating giant permanent sound installations recycling noise pollution into harmonic noises. If you wish to find out more about this tune in and remain an open mind.

I listened to three platforms I might potentially publish my audio paper on. The first was Soundcloud, I didn’t think about using SoundCloud for an audio paper until I listened to ‘Ecoacoustics’ – composed documentary for Critical Waves Radio (2015) by Jono Gilmurray. His published audio paper gave me a lot of inspiration around a similar topic of eco sound work. His presentation on his audio document was similar to how I wanted to approach mine and I think his audio document gave me the last push I needed to confirm how I wanted to present my work. I think being a free program, not requiring you to sign up to listen to the audio document is a bonus. Although I will say not having or being specifically for only audio documents and mainly for music can make it that if you don’t have a link it will be difficult to receive exposure.

The second platform, Youtube. I use youtube an incredible amount, I think similar to SoundCloud it’s free and anyone can use it that has an internet connection. The benefit of SoundCloud is the completely different content available on Youtube. This would allow my audio document to not seem out of place as it might perhaps be on Soundcloud. Although youtube is a visual and audio platform promoting videos over just audio might interfere with the promotion of my paper.

The third platform is Bandcamp. Another platform I think is good for the ease of downloading. There is a trend amongst my choices of not being strictly academic or podcast related platforms. I believe the freedom of downloading and accessing knowledge for free should be at the forefront of every paper. With Bandcamp, I could enable people to download my work for free or support the audio paper by paying what they wish.

I showed my two housemates my audio document, They spoke that they enjoyed my voice and felt it was presented very professionally. They wanted to hear sounds and things to introduce the audio paper which I replied to was in the next step after feedback. One of my housemates spoke about me giving more substance to the things I’m stating. For example, there have been studies that show…

She states I should state the study and when speaking about studies or artists instead of saying just that. Saying their names and projects or work that they’ve done.

I will take this on board when rehashing my audio paper.

I also remember back to my one to one with Ingrid. She spoke about my plan for my audio paper structure which I believe I’ve followed. We agreed to start with speaking about what noise pollution is, why it’s bad for our well-being. The factual information. Then to continue on to my experience with noise pollution and why I felt motivated to write this. Finally, finish with sound artists and their current work and what this means for the future.

Perhaps when revisiting this feedback I remembered I should add more towards the ending, I only end up speaking about two artists. I might have spent too much time on the first part of my audio document which was the effects of noise pollution.

I recorded my redraft again as I felt my previous performance wasn’t representing the information accurately. The voice and tone I was using didn’t make me feel interested. I switched it up and gave myself more time in between recordings and did more takes.

I present the rough draft 2.0 with no sounds just narration. I will ask now for feedback from my peers.

I’ve decided to redraft my audio document and include notes for sounds. As well as spacing out my text and creating more of a relaxed feel when performing. See below.

SCRIPT STARTS HERE:

Sound: busy cityscape field recording plays

Dereck: Noise pollution, An ever-growing problem in our inner-city lives. 

Dereck: Noise pollution is a global issue that at first mainly associated with cities, has now spread further amongst rural locations due to overpopulation and landmass being uninhabitable. 

Sound: soundscapes fade from busy cityscapes to rural soundscapes with noise pollution.

Dereck: Since the development of cities and modern society, noise pollution has been an issue. When we slowly evolved from small tribes to villages to towns and then megacities, sound has always been an important part of human life.

Sound: Swoosh sound effect to simulate travelling through the years, play short extracts of soundscapes of each type of example stated, eg tribes, a small village.

Dereck: But now instead of sound giving us cues to our daily life. For example the sound of roosters waking us up. The sounds of predators warning us to take heed or the footsteps of someone approaching. 

Sound: Play the cues stated, cockerels making noise,

Sound has instead become a nuisance, and our ears are in turn an overstimulated sensory organ. This has in turn made it increasingly difficult to listen in our society and to pick apart what we really want to pay attention to. 

Sound: Play annoying sounds that are deemed noise pollution and slowly towards the end of the paragraph make it almost inaudible.

Dereck: So why is noise pollution bad for our wellbeing. Well it has been heavily reported and studied and Scientists and doctors have reported on the damage it causes to our wellbeing and our physical bodies, but it’s been mainly ignored. Why you ask? Well, we can only speculate, but this is a typical trend amongst things that we can’t instantly see with our eyes. Even when presented with data, politicians fail to act and change our experience with noise for the better.

Sound: Play scientists speaking about noise pollution and soundscapes of politicians in parliament.

Dereck: So what is noise pollution? Noise pollution in this audio document will be defined as dangerous or unwanted sounds, For example. As Greg Hainge says in his book Noise Matters. 

Dereck: ”Many others, especially those belonging to the anti-noise lobby, qualify it as ‘any auditory sensation which is disagreeable or uncomfortable”. 

Dereck: Now this could very much be interpreted in different ways but it really does constitute to the individual. Noise pollution could be a police car driving past and waking you up. Loud aeroplanes flying over your property. The busy streets with conversations taking presence over everything. But there is an opposition in the noise world and although some scholars speak on how noise and modern noise pollution is a part of our new sonic landscapes in our modern society. This doesn’t disprove the data on how noise pollution affects our bodies in harmful ways.  

Sound: Play sounds of the examples of noise pollution, police cars, aeroplanes, busy streets. 

Dereck: The World Health Organisation report that there is a general agreement that exposure for more than 8 hours to sound levels in excess of 85 dB is potentially hazardous; to place this in context, 85 dB is roughly equivalent to the noise of heavy truck traffic on a busy road. 

Sound: Play a busy road, and shout over it to emphasise how loud that is!

Dereck: A huge portion of people that live amongst main roads suffer this on a daily. If the effects of noise pollution were taken as seriously as the effects on our wellbeing then properties would be properly sound insulated. 

Sound: Play busy streets while Dereck speaks.

Dereck: Noise pollution is also the most major disturbance of sleep as well as cardiovascular disease. The strongest evidence for the cardiovascular effect of noise has been the study on blood pressure alongside occupational noise exposure. There are studies that show workers experiencing over 85dB for 8 hours a day have considerably higher blood pressure.

Dereck: A few of the worst cities for noise pollution currently are.

Dereck: Karachi, Pakistan. The capital of Pakistan is known to have a huge population of 15 million. No wonder it’s one of the largest noise polluters.

Sound: Play Karachi soundscapes.

Dereck: Mumbai, India, it’s said the noise levels in the streets of Mumbai have been recorded to go over 100dB. Way above levels of harming human hearing.

Sound: Play Mumbai soundscapes. 

Dereck: Cairo, Egypt, Actual deaths have been linked to noise pollution in this city.

Sound: Play Cairo soundscapes.

Dereck: I decided to write and produce this audio paper after my experience with noise pollution when first I arrived to live in London to study for my degree in Sound Arts. Before living in London I lived in a small city called Brighton by the seaside. Noise pollution was apparent but a very small amount in comparison. 

Sound: Play Brighton soundscapes as they slowly morph into London soundscapes.

When moving to London I found difficulty in sleeping due to noise pollution from main roads near my bedroom as well as this traversing the city made me feel stressed and claustrophobic with the sounds of thousands of conversations happening simultaneously. 

Sound: Busy streets sounds of conversations consume the narrator.

This was only more so enhanced by my increased attention to listening and passion for recording field recordings and being surprised when monitoring my recordings back that what I thought was noise pollution-free was not. 

Sound: Play rural location field recording with noise pollution.

This led me to research the effects of noise pollution and the impact it has to give myself answers to my thoughts. Through attending the visiting practitioners series hosted and curated by Dr Annie Goh through Crisap I discovered sound artists using permanent sound installations to recycle and combat noise pollution. Alongside current climate change news and pressure on governments to switch to more eco-friendly practices due to scientific studies showing we have five years to act before it’s too late. I felt this audio paper couldn’t come at a greater time. To speak to the sound arts cannon, to question and speculate on what role a sound artist can have in combating noise pollution. Whether It is in raising awareness or in other means.

Sound: Play some visiting practitioners in the background speaking and finish with climate change interview recordings. 

Dereck: So what are sound arts? Sound arts can be a very loose term and I felt Jono Gilmurray defined it better. In his audio documentary, he calls them sound works.

Sam Auringer is a sound artist the works with architects and city planners as well as doing public sound installations. He works with Bruce Odland on a project called O+A. Their work under this name predominantly spans around hearing perspective and they are known for large public permanent sound installations that convert city noise pollution into harmonic noise. This is interesting because science and art are usually enemies, I think sound arts has the potential for bridging a gap. O+A’s work shows that art can sometimes alongside science produce results that are more efficient than just one alone. 

Sound: Play O+A installation sounds.

Dereck: As the population increases every year and constant noise pollution issues are ignored we ask ourselves, what are the options? Can sound artists play a role in combating noise pollution? I think so, whether it is through ecological sound works as spoken by Jono Gilmurray in his audio paper documentary titled Ecoacoustics. Or working alongside science as O+A does in their work, I can’t say for sure but what I do know is. There is room in the sound arts cannon to challenge the norms and attempt to use our creativity alongside science to find new ways to combat this inevitable future we all face.

I recorded the first draft and it came to around 6 minutes. This was without any pauses or sounds playing just narration. I feel like this is a good time to receive feedback from my peers and see what they say about the script. Before I move to add sound and music.

I recorded in my bedroom which ironically has a lot of noise pollution present in the recordings. For the actual final recording, I should do it at the university.

See attached first draft of the script recorded.

I’ve sculpted the old script and research as it’s so similar. The only thing I’ve changed is to make it more about sound artists and less down to factual scientific information. Except when speaking about wellbeing. There are also a few topics I’m removing from this script that the previous one didn’t have. Another thing is the previous script was an essay that hadn’t been converted to a script. I’ve rehashed the information to this first rough script.

What Role Can A Sound Artist Have In Combatting Noise Pollution?

Noise pollution, An ever growing problem in our inner city lives. 

Noise pollution is a global issue that was at first mainly associated with cities, has now spreading further amongst our more rural locations due to overpopulation and landmass being uninhabitable. 

Since the development of cities and modern society noise pollution has been an issue. When we slowly evolved from small tribes to villages to towns and then mega cities, sound has always been an important part of human life. But now instead of sound giving us cues to our daily life. For example the cockerels waking us up. The sounds of predators warning us to take heed or the footsteps of someone approaching. 

Instead sound has become a nuisance, and our ears an over stimulated sensory organ. This has in turn made it increasingly difficult to listen in our society and to pick apart what we really want to pay attention to. 

Noise pollution has been heavily reported and studied. Scientists and doctors have reported on the damage it causes to our wellbeing and our physical bodies but that has been mainly ignored. Why you ask? We can only speculate, but this is a typical trend amongst things that we can’t instantly see with our eyes. Even when presented with data, politicians fail to act and change our experience with noise for the better.

So what is noise pollution?

Noise pollution in this audio document will be defined as dangerous or unwanted sounds, For example. As Greg Hainge says in his book Noise Matters.

“Many others, especially those belonging to the anti-noise lobby, qualify it as ‘any auditory sensation which is disagreeable or uncomfortable”.

Now this could be very much so interpreted in different ways but it really does constitute to the individual. Noise pollution could be a police car driving past and waking you up. Loud airplanes flying over your property. The busy streets with conversations taking presence over everything. Now although some scholars speak on how noise and modern noise pollution is a part of our new sonic landscapes. This doesn’t disprove the data on how noise pollution effects our bodies in harmful ways.  

The World Heath Organisation report that there is a general agreement that exposure for more than 8 hours to sound levels in excess of 85 dB is potentially hazardous; to place this in context, 85 dB is roughly equivalent to the noise of heavy truck traffic on a busy road. A huge portion of people that live amongst main roads suffer this on the daily. If the effects of noise pollution were taken as seriously as the effects on our wellbeing then properties would be properly sound insulated. 

Noise pollution is also the most major disturbance of sleep as well as cardiovascular disease. The strongest evidence for the cardiovascular effect of noise has been the study on blood pressure alongside occupational noise exposure. There are studies that show workers experiencing over 85dB for 8 hours a day have considerably higher blood pressure.

Now some of the worst cities for noise pollution are 

Karachi, Pakistan. The capital of Pakistan is known to have a huge population of 15 million. No wonder it’s one of the largest noise polluters.

Mumbai, India, it’s said the noise levels in the streets of Mumbai have been recorded to go over 100dB. Way above levels of harming human hearing.

Cairo, Egypt, Actual deaths have been linked to noise pollution in this city.

So I decided to write and produce this audio paper after my experience with noise pollution when I arrived to live in London to study my Degree in Sound Arts. Before living in London I lived in a small city called Brighton by the seaside. Noise pollution was apparent but a very small amount in comparison. When moving to London I found difficulty in sleeping due to noise pollution from main roads near my bedroom as well traversing the city made me feel stressed and claustrophobic with the sounds of thousands of conversations happening simultaneously.

This was only more so enhanced by my increased attention to listening and passion with recording field recordings and being surprised when monitoring that what I thought was noise pollution free was not.  This led me to research about the effects to give myself answers to my thoughts. As well as this through attending the visiting practitioners series hosted and curated by Annie Goh through Crisap I discovered sound artists using permanent sound installations to recycle and combat noise pollution. Alongside current climate change news and pressure on governments to switch to more eco friendly practices due to scientists studies showing we have five years to act before it’s too late. I felt this audio paper couldn’t come at a more greater time To speak to the sound arts cannon, to question and speculate on what role a sound artist can have in combating noise pollution. Wether It is in raising awareness or in other means.

So what is sound arts? Sound arts can be a very loose meaning and I felt Jono Gilmurray defined it better and as he preferred it, sound work. 

An example of a sound artist currently combating noise pollution with his work is Sam Auringer. Sam is a sound artist that works with architects and city planners as well as doing public sound installations. He works with Bruce Odland on a project called O+A. Their work under this name spans predominantly around hearing perspective and they’re known for large public permanent sound installations that convert city noise pollution into harmonic noise. This is interesting because science and art are usually enemies, I think sound arts has potential for bridging a gap. O+As work shows that art can sometimes alongside science produce results that are more efficient than just one alone. 

As the population increases every year and constant issues are ignored we ask our selves what are the options? Can sound artists play a role in combating noise pollution? I think so, wether it is through eco sound arts pieces that raise awareness to the problem as spoken by Jono Gilmurray in his audio paper documentary titled Ecoacoustics. Or with giant mega installations recycling noise pollution into harmonic sounds. I can’t say for sure but what I do know is there is room in the sound arts cannon to challenge the norms and attempt to use our creativity alongside science to find new ways to combat this inevitable future we all face.

I’ll be writing my rough script based on this plan so far. Very rough but will give me a sense of guidance when writing the script.

Intro:

Introduce Noise pollution. – Noise pollution is….? Speak on examples of noise pollution. Neighbours are being loud. From small announces to major annoyances. Traffic or planes! Speak about Heathrow airport being the worst area! 55dB+! WHO says this is unliveable. Then why is this important? What does noise pollution do for our well-being? gives us blood pressure. Stress. Early death. Lack of attention in studying. 

Part 1:

Why I decided to write this audio paper. I feel completely attacked by noise pollution. Brighton being calmer than London and my adverse effects lead me to want to write about this topic. Studying sound made me more aware since joining this course and listening in general. Watching the visiting practitioner series curated by Annie Goh in the Crisap at UAL has presented me with new works from artists which I became interested in. Our current climate with not just noise pollution but global temperatures increasing and this being a topic also brought attention for me to this topic and made me want to research more. We will run out of land. Overpopulation will affect us and noise pollution is bound to get worse.

Part 2:

Speak about what current sound artists are doing. Sam Aubringer and research a few more. And speak why this is interesting and how important it is to combating noise pollution or perhaps even just raising awareness. Then speculate on what our future soundscapes will be like based on others and my thoughts. End the audio paper with why sound artists can help combat noise pollution based on the evidence provided and my thoughts and views.

Revised new abstract for the audio paper.

The role of a sound artist in our modern society has rarely been questioned, in fact even thought about. With art being a powerful medium used in the twenty-first century, how can sound artists use their medium to help combat noise pollution? This audio paper will artistically report its opinion on noise pollution, with information gathered from multiple sources to discuss the damage noise pollution can have on our wellbeing. As well as the importance of acknowledging noise pollution and correcting it in our modern society. Sound artists are already using their art form to currently bring awareness and even play with the medium of noise pollution but it’s at an early stage of understanding the true importance of why a sound artist should or what role they can acquire in combatting noise pollution. Whether it is to raise awareness on the subject or to balance art with science and to create structures that recycle noise pollution into permanent sound resonanting installations. This audio paper will discuss the above while having the opinion of the author discussing his own relationship to noise pollution as well as experience with it. The audio paper will also reflect on current works and speculate on the future of our society and what the importance of a sound artist could be in combatting noise pollution.

Since revisiting my initial idea for my audio paper I’ve decided to adjust it to make more sense for the brief and myself. And because of this, I’m going to rehash from the beginning the script. While using my previous information acquired and script as a reference taking bits that make sense as the topic is close but not the same this time.

Instructional Score two.

Introduce noise pollution, speak on what is considered noise pollution and play examples. Use sound to showcase the types of noise pollution and play with the sound effects alongside the narration.

Explain why noise pollution is bad for humans, How it affects us. What it does for wellbeing. Showcase examples of cities where it is incredibly bad. (This will offer the opportunity to use soundscapes from different cities around the world) As well as the limit of dB that it becomes bad for us. 

Speak about my personal experience with noise pollution. How it affects me and why I think it’s important. Why I decided to make an audio paper about this topic.

Then speak about Sound Artists using noise pollution in their work. Why this is interesting. What does it add to the sound arts cannon? How will this benefit the future? Speak about population increase, global warming meaning we lose landmass.

Finally, reflect on the importance of sound artists and noise pollution and what role they can have in combatting noise pollution.