ARTICLES ONLINE

This is a limited collection of articles available online. Please note that links are often broken in cyberspace. We will try to keep this collection current but sometimes breaks will happen.

A Literature Review on Effects of military noise on wildlife. Effects on wildlife of noise associated with military training activities, especially vehicle noise, artillery, small-arms and other blast noise, and helicopter noise, are reviewed, but not effects on aquatic animals and effects of fixed-wing aircraft engine noise and sonic booms. Source: Ronald P. Larkin, Center for Wildlife Ecology Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign, Illinois

Art Of Sound. NoTAM is engaged in visualizing computer music. The aesthetic idea varies, but the common denominator is a desire to visually represent musical or conceptual aspects in the music that might otherwise easily be overlooked. This linking of image and sound represents a new form for art expression that draws directly on knowledge developed in the natural sciences.Article Online Source: Norwegian network for Technology, Acoustics, and Music.

Composition and Diffusion: Space In Sound In Space. By Barry Truax. Composition and diffusion can be understood as two complementary and related processes: bringing sounds together, and spreading them out again in an organized fashion. In the Western tradition, these two processes are frequently carried out by different people at different times, each drawing on specialized knowledge. Article Online: Simon Fraser University.

Dealing with Condo Noise. By Richard Wright. " As more and more of us are moving into condominiums and townhouses, the likelihood of our peace and quiet being disturbed by inconsiderate neigbours is higher than ever. But when we are disturbed by noise from another unit or from the common property, how does the law determine what level of noise is excessive? " Article Online Source: Right To Quiet.

Dependence brings us closer to nature. David Rothenberg's e-mail interview by Maria Åkerman. "To fully understand all the aspects of interaction between man and nature and the role of technology in the human relationship with nature we should combine philosophical, aesthetical, political and ethical points of view." Article Source Online: Eko.fi Internet Magazine.

Douglas Quin's Antarctica Journal. By Doug Quin. Join this wildlife audio recordist, as he traveles to the southern polar reaches of the world in conjunction with the National Science Foundation Antarctic Artist and Writers'. This is the artist's daily journal of his recording experiences in the frozen landscape of Antarctica.

Future Noise Policy (European Commission, 1996).. "This paper discusses the noise situation, analyzes existing noise abatement actions, and provides a framework for noise policy in the European Union." Article Online Source: Noise Pollution Clearing House

Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers (H.E.A.R). A non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the real dangers of repeated exposure to excessive noise levels which can lead to permanent, and sometime debilitating, hearing loss and tinnitus. Source: H.E.A.R.

Hildegard Westerkamp Interview. By Los Smolders. Hildegard is a prominent member of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, being coordinating editor of its periodical, The Soundscape Newsletter. She grew up in post-war Germany and emigrated to Canada in 1968. She has taught courses in Acoustic Communication at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. She has composed a number of film soundtracks and has produced and hosted radio programs such as Soundwalking and Musica Nova on Vancouver Co-operative Radio. Article Online Source: Hypperreal

How We Localize Sound. "Relying on a variety of cues, including intensity, timing, and spectrum, our brains recreate a three-dimensional image of the acoustic landscape from the sounds we hear." Article Online Source:American Institute of Physics.

Instead of separation, a sense of space. By James Pritchett. "I reached the Yevre itself, the center of les marais. It was here that I was able to appreciate what Cage loved about the place. What impressed Cage about this situation is that all these sounds, whether near or far, are so clearly and distinctly heard: each sound is separate from the others, its distance from you perfectly perceived." Article Online Source: Princeton.

Listening and the Electroacoustic Community. By: Barry Truax. "The technology of communication and the sensory modality it favours has a profound effect on the way in which we understand the world and interact with it. Article Source Online: Barry Truax.

Literature Review on Effects of military noise on wildlife. By Ronald P. Larkin. Effects on wildlife of noise associated with military training activities, especially vehicle noise, artillery, small-arms and other blast noise, and helicopter noise, are reviewed, but not effects on aquatic animals and effects of fixed-wing aircraft engine noise and sonic booms. Source: Center for Wildlife Ecology Champaign, Illinois.

Making Wildlife Sound Recordings. British Library. The best wildlife sound recordings are made on good quality, specialised, equipment. This article provides details about what is needed.

Noise: A Health Problem. A 1978 document "... is a somewhat dated but still very helpful EPA document about noise and health." Article Online Source: Noise Pollution Clearing House.

Noise and Its Effects. By Dr. Alice H. Suter. "This report, written by a leading noise expert, provides the most comprehensive and up to date overview of the noise problem. It clearly illustrates the numerous reasons for concern about noise problems and provides an excellent noise bibliography." Article Online Source: Noise Pollution Clearing House

Noise and Silence: The Soundscape and Spirituality. By Hillel Schwartz. "Silence is now a commodity of the same sort as darkness; we buy polarized sunglasses, heavy curtains, and blindfolds to tone down the light as we buy noise cancellation or white noise devices, soundproofing panels, and ear plugs to keep ourselves, or others, safe from excess noise. " Article Online Source: Noise Pollution Clearing House

The Phenomenology of Reverb. By David Rothenberg. ""Turn up the reverb, man." That's what the singer up on stage says to the soundman at the mixer at the back of the hall during the sound check. He's like all the rest of us: He likes the way his voice sounds in the shower better than it does in the dry room of reality. He wants that bathroom echo, that sound that fills his ears as it bounces off the tiles. What he really wants, though he may not know it, is the echo you hear in caverns and cathedrals, that massive reverberation which makes sound seem to be more than what it is, which actually turns sound into space. Reverb makes the music last. And are we not the music while the music lasts?" Article Online Source: Hermenaut

Schizophonia vs. l'objet sonore: le paysage sonore (soundscape) et la liberté artistique / Schizophonia vs. l'objet sonore: soundscapes and artistic freedom. By Francisco Lopez. "The concept of soundscape has been developing over the last twenty years. Speaking more properly, it has been the term, rather than the concept, since "soundscape" embraces not only different types of works and aural systems but also antagonistic conceptions of the relationships between art and life. Leaving aside purely instrumental creations that are presented under this term, it usually refers to a concern with real sound environments. It is precisely the definition of this concern what makes the difference between the different conceptions of soundscape." Article Source Online:eContact

Sounding Places with Hildegard Westerkamp. By Andra McCartney. Developed from a PhD dissertation submitted to York University Graduate Programme in Music. In this writing, I consider the significance of Hildegard Westerkamp's work to current scholarship in the area of feminist epistemology, and to contemporary electroacoustic music in the genre of soundscape composition, specifically in her receptive, dialogic approach to particular places and their sonic, social, political and technological resonances. Article Online

Sounds of the Seasons. By Ivars Peterson. "People certainly react strongly to bothersome noise, whether from a neighborhood construction project, low-flying aircraft, or leaf blowers. Many pay close attention to various kinds of music and to the quality of the sounds that come out of stereo equipment and other audio gadgets. Speech is pervasive. Few people, however, fully appreciate the extent to which sounds in the environment influence and condition human behavior." Article Online: Science News Online, December 21, 1996.

Soundscape as aesthetic category. By Michael Rüsenberg. "I had become convinced that photography was the superior documentary medium and lost faith in the ability of sound to document and mirror circumstances in the way that I believed photography had done before I met Horvat. I felt myself being drawn to the opposite notion that listening to a soundscape recording, without any written accompaniment in the form of a booklet or verbal explanation, is a purely aesthetic act

Soundscape Composition as Global Music. By Barry Truax. The paper covers the background of soundscape composition, as initiated by the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University, and soundscape documentation as an activity that is being increasingly practiced worldwide. Today there are two striking manifestations of this work: the increasing globalization of the electroacoustic community, and the increasing sophistication of digital techniques applied to soundscape composition. Article Online: Barry Truax

Soundtrekking Soundscapes. By Morten Rømer Jespersen. There can be as many scapes as there are senses, and with technological enhancement, maybe even more. The scape is a particular way of spatially relating the observer, or the actant to space and time. A scape is thus a way to focus on particular aspects of the dynamic relationship between an actant and the environment. Landscapes concerns vision, soundscape concerns hearing, smellscape concerns odour. Scapes can be understood as the spatial configuration of an environment related to an isolated sense of an actant. Since, initially, this scaping is anthropocentric, scapes is a way of considering relationships in the dynamic networking between humans and non-humans.

Soundwalk. By Tobias Morgan. "For my third year Contextual Enquiry Project I decided to make a Soundwalk. I am publishing this site so that my ideas can reach a wider context. There is a growing community of people that are interested in acoustic composition on the Internet, I hope to become part of this community by adding my own pages."

Theory of the Film: Sound. By Bela Balazs."The meaning of a floorboard creaking in a deserted room, a bullet whistling past our ear, the deathwatch beetle ticking in old furniture, and the forest spring tinkling over the stones. Sensitive lyrical poets always could hear these significant sounds of life and describe them in words. It is for the sound film to let them speak to us more directly from the screen"

Time is Everything / Time is Nothing: Reflections on Long-Duration Soundworks and Radio. By Chris Meloche. "It was just after midnight on a Friday night and I was scanning down the FM dial listening to Detroit radio stations with a pair of headphones strapped on. Amidst the rock, country and MOR music I suddenly stumbled across something very odd. It was a steady stream of strange electronic whirs and whistles. As I sat transfixed to the sounds filling my head, I heard the some real-world images amidst the sonic collage... jet engines, deep breathing and, most obviously, fragments of various national anthems. For an impressionable teenager, these sounds came as a revelation."

Trademark Registrability of the Harley-Davidson Roar: A Multimedia Analysis. By Michael B. Sapherstein. "Harley-Davidson's most recent endeavor to secure trademark protection is not only its most unconventional, it is also arguably, the most unusual and provocative trademark application ever filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). On February 1, 1994, Harley filed a registration for a trademark, then already in use, with the following description: "THE MARK CONSISTS OF THE EXHAUST SOUND OF APPLICANT'S MOTORCYCLES, PRODUCED BY V-TWIN, COMMON CRANKPIN MOTORCYCLE ENGINES WHEN THE GOODS ARE IN USE."[6] Put simply, Harley was attempting to trademark the sound of its motorcycles; which, of course, begs the question, can a manufacturer trademark the exhaust roar of its motor vehicle?" Article Source Online: Boston College

Traffic noise 'could harm children. By BBC News. "Living in an area with constant background noise, such as traffic, raises children's blood pressure and stress levels. Even though levels of noise from cars or trains may not be high enough to damage hearing, US and Austrian scientists report in New Scientist that constant, low-level sound can affect children." Article Source Online: BBC NEWS.

Wave Theory Of Sound. By Allan D. Pierce.Acoustics is the science of sound, including its production, transmission, and effects. In present usage, the term sound implies not only phenomena in air responsible for the sensation of hearing but also whatever else is governed by analogous physical principles.

Wiederbelebung der Auditiven Wahrnehmungserziehung durch die akustikökologische Soundscape-Bewegung? By von Wolfgang Martin Stroh. Kurzfassung: In einem Vortrag anlaesslich des 75. Geburtstages von Prof. Ulrich Guenther vertritt der Autor die These: Die Ziele der "Auditiven Wahrnehmungserziehung" die Ulrich Guenther in den 70er Jahren formuliert hat, werden heute auch von der Soundscape-Bewegung verfolgt. Allerdings ist das kommunikationstheoretische Paradigma durch ein postmodernes von Angebot und Nachfrage ersetzt worden. Der Author entwirft das Konzept eines "erfahrungsbezogenen Musikunterichts" im Umgang mit Soundscapes. Online Article: University of Oldenburg/Germany