“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?“
This philosophical thought, often attributed to George Berkeley, considers the manner of sound and perception, does sound exist outside of the listening ear? Using funding from the TLC Research Centre, we are trialling ways to record and edit the soundscape of a school, using the School of Education as a test case. However, some of the questions that we are grappling with are these: What is a soundscape? Whose soundscape are we recording and when? What about ‘human created’ sounds, such as footsteps, encounters between the fabric of the building and the visitor? Research into otoacoustic emissions suggest that our ears make sounds when listening (see, for example, Shera, 2022). If sound exists in relation to the listening ear, can the school have a soundscape or are there multiple layers of soundscapes? Should we say OUR soundscape or MY soundscape? If we are focusing on sounds in the periphery of consciousness, whose cognitive and emotional responses are being considered?
Thinking reflexively, there are inevitable consequences of relying on our own listening ears as researchers, our own personal responses that affect the process. The sounds recorded depended on the recording devices and studies show that we are affected by inaudible, hence unrecordable, hypersonic sounds (see, or example, Kawai et al, 2022). Further questions arise that ask: What sounds are recorded? What sounds exist that we, as the researcher team, have not previously been aware of? How can we capture what we do not know exists? How can we be in the moment, hear what there is to hear, rather than what we expect to hear? How do we deal with silence, which could be said to have no sound but can be impactful as part of a person’s soundscape?
The challenges of recording a soundscape are the dilemmas of what to include and exclude, what is known and not known, what is heard and not heard. It could be argued that a soundscape exists in the act of listening to sounds rather than the sounds themselves, the responses that a person has and the memories and/or affect that are invoked. Not objective but subjective, a tapestry of sound, listening and response.
References
Kawai, N., Honda, M., Nishina, E. et al. (2022). Positive effect of inaudible high-frequency components of sounds on glucose tolerance: a quasi-experimental crossover study. Sci Rep 12, 18463 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-23336-0
Shera, C.A. (2022). Whistling While it Works: Spontaneous Otoacoustic Emissions and the Cochlear Amplifier. JARO 23, 17–25 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10162-021-00829-9
A poem
Thoughts about soundscapes
lead to
questions
A sound scape
layering?
yours or mine?
Listening ears
Lack of knowledge?
In the moment?
Silence
Soundless?
Impactful?
A tapestry
listening?
response?