CHAIR REPORT, WFAE BOARD: Nigel Frayne, Chair

 

A Small Slice Of Tranquility. (BBC) Beginning inside the mother’s womb, with the very first sounds we hear, this two program series is an evocative, absorbing and often surprising journey through a world of rhythms, noise and silence, in search of a small slice of tranquility.Read and Listen.

One Man's Noise. (CBC) When Tim Wilson fled the city for the quiet of a tiny fishing village, he found that he couldn't escape from noise. He reflects on the ecology, metaphysics and rich inner meanings of sound. Read More.

Noise dispute man 'shot himself' (BBC) Trevor Fallon worked as a caretaker for the Gwent Theatre Company
A theatre caretaker who had made numerous complaints about 'noisy neighbours' shot two brothers before killing himself, an inquest has heard. Read More

What you can do to cut back on noise pollution. (CBC) The best way to reduce noise is at the source of the noise: adjust or repair the source so it no longer produces (as much) noise. It's also possible to alter the workplace environment to adequately compensate for the noise, for example, building sound barriers between workers and the noise source. Read More.

"Silent Jet" Making Noise in Aviation Circles. (Globe and Mail) A radical new 'silent jet' that looks like a giant, flying sting ray and makes the noise of a washing machine is being touted as the quiet, clean future of air travel. Read More.

Hockey cheers may harm ears: study. (CBC) Three hours of sitting next to a roaring, buzzing chainsaw punctuated by the occasional deafening blast of a jet taking off wouldn't be anyone's idea of a good time. But that's the equivalent of what hockey fanatics endured during the Edmonton Oilers' Stanley Cup playoff run last spring, according to a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The study found that the ears of fans, staff and players were subjected to dangerously high noise levels, enough to potentially cause hearing problems. Read More.

Male Whales sing for love. (CBC) The low-frequency songs of fin and blue whales seem to be love ballads rather than navigational signals, scientists say. Unlike some other whales, fin and blue whales don't congregate in breeding areas to mate. Their low-frequency calls can travel long distances and would help in finding a mate, the researchers say. Read More

Doomed love songs of whales. (BBC) They are the loudest love songs in the ocean, sung by the largest animals on Earth. But scientists fear that the serenades of whales will disappear from the deep, drowned out by the noise of ships. Read More.

Back to nature for pain relief. (BBC) Distracting patients with images and sounds from nature has proved to be very effective in controlling pain in a certain type of surgical lung procedure. Read More.

Acoustic Ecology (In These Times) Steven Feld, in his documentary soundscape series The Time of Bells, brings European history alive as bells of all kinds—from animals, churches, bicycles, carnivals—form the raw material for short aural essays about particular places. “I work with time and space in order to tell a story about time and space,” says Feld. " Read Article.

Listen Up! Opening Our Ears to Acoustic Ecology. (Zoogoer) In the forest or on a city street, sounds bring the world alive. Whatever beauty or complexity, pattern or structure we might see around us, the world would be stark beyond recognition if we could not hear all that lies beyond our sight, hidden around corners or behind the screens of people or trees. The subtle voices of birds quietly chirping their territorial presence can fill a hillside, with an occasional outburst from the middle distance letting us know that crow, or chipmunk, is also nearby. These sounds can call us out of ourselves, so our awareness expands to know the land a little more fully, more intimately. Read More.

Puget soundscape Interactive Sound Map: A research project by Brett Becker. Click on map to access site. Turn up computer sound system to listen. See alternative Flash-based map.

The Puget Soundscape interactive sound map represents a novel tool for presenting location specific acoustic data. Sound files are embedded into the map at GPS locations that signify the coordinates where underwater hydrophone recordings were taken. The sound map opens an acoustic window into the keynote sounds of the Puget Sound; the calls of Orca pods J, K and L are sharply contrasted by the haunting din of shipping traffic. Through online accessibility the map allows terra-bound homo sapiens the possibility of listening to a world of underwater sounds that most are unaware of. The primary version of the map was created by using publicly available code from Google Maps API. An alternate, Flash-based map, dynamically responds to curser movement and pushes the map more toward that of a musical instrument.
      The Puget Soundscape interactive sound map is the culmination of research performed by Brett Becker while enrolled in the Beam Reach Marine Science and Sustainability School.

The Hum of Lima by Kathy Kennedy. I spent July 2006 trying to capture the essence of Lima, Peru by making field recordings for an upcoming installation project. To arrive into a bustling metropolis and find the signature sounds of that environment presents a real challenge. This is a brief account of my findings.
      The city of Lima has a population of 5 million, and a long history of being a bustling metropolis. During the 19th century, Lima was the biggest and most important city in all of South America, and that is why it has an infrastructure for roads and grand buildings. It is located on the coast of the Pacific ocean, at an average altitude, unlike much of this mountainous country. The weather is generally unchanging, un-windy and humid so that sound travels well.
       Apart from the doves I heard each morning in the bohemian suburb of Barranco where I stayed, there were very few other distinctive sounds.  The roar of traffic is pervasive, of course some areas with more truck sounds than others. Taxis, which are the predominant form of travel, beep their horns as soon as they see anyone on the street who may be interested in a ride. Buses, smaller than the north American variety, would be no more outstanding a noise factor than other vehicles if it weren’t for the bus attendants who lean out and call destinations in rapid, auctioneer style. They make a kind of song phrase out of each stop that builds to a climax of pitch and tempo each time. There is a tremendous agency with which these men hurry on the passengers or hurry along the driver. Expressways in and out of the city are 4-5 lanes each way.
        I found it difficult to find specific sounds of the city of Lima (or keynote sounds) since the sound of traffic and horns was always so dense, seemingly at all times of day. There is a traffic sign in strategic places with a symbol like a trumpet with a bar across it saying "silencio." The sign is there to discourage drivers from abusing their car horns, and I’m told that tickets have been given out (although you would not think so based on the current behaviour). The next most predominant sound is of street merchants and restauranteurs advertising their wares. Peru is one of the more poor countries of South America, and the competition to sell merchandise is fierce.
       Fortunately for me, I was also scheduled to give a workshop on acoustic ecology as part of the VAE10 (visualidad arte electronica) festival, where I would learn much more from my keen students about this noisy soundscape. Most were unfamiliar with the formal concepts and so we began indoors with several listening exercises from Schafer’s book 'A Sound Education.' We took our first soundwalk together through a fairly busy neighbourhood, paying attention to the different kinds of spaces available from the sidewalk (grand foyers with tall ceilings, tiny, overcrowded shops, many half open patios, etc). I learned through them that the sounds of ice cream vendors and knife sharpening trucks have been prey to noise disturbance citations. These and bus attendants have been warned by city police to keep the noise level down. This seems rather futile and short sighted since they are only trying to be heard above the existing din!
        In addition to the workshop, I proposed a group performance piece that culminated into a very successful event. It is called 'The Hum' and is one of a series of performances that I hope to realize in many different contexts.

A group of performers occupy a long line of physical space. They are placed at a distance from each other just far enough so that one ‘hummer’ can only hear the person on either side of them. This is a volume guideline that ensures that no one is humming too loud or too soft. The idea of this piece is to create a vocal, human complement to the surrounding sounds. It is particularly effective in a noisy, urban environment, where the vast majority of sounds are not human. The presence of the Hum creates an organic accompaniment that highlights the opposing qualities of the predominant sounds. The Hum is also a metaphor for the individual voice in a public, civic place. The volume is unimposing and the sound is porous, through which other sounds still can be heard.  In fact, other sounds are suddenly heard even better, given this new point of reference from which the ear very quickly learns to adjust. (I have noticed consistently that during the process of the 30-45 min. of humming, most surrounding sounds do gradually drop in volume.

Soundtrack. A Research Project by Gokce Kinayoglu. Gokce Kinayoglu is a Ph.D. Candidate in Architecture Department at the University of California at Berkeley. He is interested in the contribution of auditor perception in making sense of place, in both real and virtual spaces. He is working with Prof. Yehuda Kalay from Architecture, as well as Prof. David Wessel from CNMAT, and Greg Niemeyer from Center for New Media. Concept: Soundtrack brings together the bird's-eye experience provided by a satellite map with an immersive and intimate feeling of a stereo sound recording.The technique that is employed involves outdoor sound recordings made on the move ie. 'soundwalks', and GPS track-log generated during the walk.

Soundwalk recordings are synchronized with relative GPS-time series coordinates taken from the track-log. This makes it possible to present the soundwalks as 'tracks' on the map, letting the user explore and interact with the sounds of a place freely through the map interface.
    Soundtrack is an exercise that plays on the contrast between the distanced and two-dimensional character of the map with the intimate and temporal flow of the soundscape. It breaths life into the once dead and static map, by overlaying it with the liveliness and dynamism of the soundtrack. In the meantime, it imposes a dimension of rationality onto the soundtrack by laying it bare and flat on the Cartesian grid of the map. In this paradoxical duality, the user is immersed in the place of the map by hearing it, while maintaining the all-seeing and ever-present 'God's-eye' mode of vision that works against this subjective and ephemeral presence.

Note: Gokce Kinayoglu is currently visiting Turkey and making sound recordings in Istanbul. He welcomes feedback about his work. Visit the Soundtrack web site.

January 17, 2007
New Adventures in Sound Art
Ryerson University, Toronto
    New Adventures in Sound Art will turn the Ryerson Student Campus Centre and various venues around the city into Surrealist cabarets of sound poetry, experimental music, and performance art for a day long celebration of Art and inter-continental communications exchange. "Art's Birthday" is an annual event first proposed in 1963 by French artist Robert Filliou.
      Art's Birthday. Net - an annual exchange-art event celebrated on January 17th by a loose collection of artists and artist organizations around the world. He suggested that 1,000,000 years ago, there was no art. But one day, on the 17th of January to be precise, Art was born. According to Filliou, it happened when someone dropped a dry sponge into a bucket of water. Modest beginnings, but look at us now. More Information.

February 10-11 2007
Introduction To Film Sound and Film Music
School Of Sound - UK
      A two-day series of talks introducing the creative use of sound and music with the moving image. The talks deconstruct the soundtrack, showing the interrelationship between sound, music, image and story. The programme includes a discussion of strategies and concepts for working with sound and music, from pre- to post-production. Participants will have time on the second day to discuss their own projects.
      These talks are devised for anyone working in screen-based media with relevance for directors, writers and producers as well as sound designers, editors and composers.
       Presenters: Larry Sider, Prof. Stephen Deutsch and Annabelle Pangborn. See Courses and Consultancy on our website for details on fees and venue. Limited to twenty places.

March 1-3 2007
2007 Santa Fe International Festival of Electroacoustic Music
College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe New Mexico, USA
    SFIFEM has a 10-year history of presenting cutting-edge international electroacoustic music performances, broadcasts, and installations in Santa Fe, New Mexico. For more information, see the festival website.

March 14, 2007
'Sounder Spaces' Conference, London Zoo
     A one day conference, endorsed by the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, and supported by the Mayor of London, EPSRC Noise Futures Network, UK & Ireland Soundscape Community, London Parks and Green Spaces Forum, and Zoological Society of London, is being held at the zoo on Wednesday 14 March 2007.
     It will explore how noise management and soundscape design can improve the use and enjoyment of London's green spaces and public realm. The Environmental Noise Directive, which requires noise mapping in London by mid 2007, is raising the profile of noise and 'quiet areas'. This conference explores not just practical management of negative impacts, but new dimensions of soundscape design - how the most can be made of the rich diversity of positive sounds in open spaces. The conference offers the chance to discuss issues with leading experts and contribute ideas at a formative stage in this novel area of work.
     Further details and an application form can be downloaded from http://www.noisefutures.org/sounderspaces.php Please return it to ben.crofts(at sign)london.gov.uk, or telephone 020 7983 4317 or Minicom 020 7983 4458 and ask to speak to Benjamin Crofts.

May, 2007
Translocal Events - Deep Wireless Festival
    May, 2007 will be the first Deep Wireless festival to include translocal events (performances and broadcasts that occur simultaneously in more than one location locally and internationally). For details on how you can participate or to send your own proposal e-mail naisa@naisa.ca.

April 18-21, 2007
The School of Sound
    Since its inception in 1998, the School of Sound has raised the profile of sound in audio-visual media through an unequalled series of presentations which integrate practice with theory, and art with entertainment.
   Each edition features master classes by practitioners, artists and academics working at the highest levels of art and media. Directors, sound designers, composers, editors, and theorists have shown us the soundtrack from hundreds of new angles. They reveal the methods, theories and creative thinking that lie behind the most effective uses of sound and music. If you work in film, television, commercials or multimedia, this event will provide the perfect complement to your technical expertise. More Information.

On-Going Series
Artist Review Series: Immersivity, Art, Architecture, Sound and Ecology
Supported by the Networking Artists’ Networks Initiative (NAN) through a-n The Artist Information Co.
Co-organised by the Live Art Garden Initiative and Electronic Music Studios
Goldsmiths College, London, UK.
      Transdisciplinary presentations facilitating critical exchange, discussion and review through an informal and supportive atmosphere; and guided by specific research interests. The general focus areas are: live art and mixed media performance; landscape & interactive architecture and sustainability; critical studies and philosophy; biophysics, acoustics, ecology and sound art. The guest review presenters invited are drawn from these backgrounds and disciplines. The aims of the artist review meetings are both to support the development of researchers or practitioners, through the sharing and review of recent practice including work-in-progress, and the Live Art Garden Initiative, an art, architecture and ecology project. Visit web site for dates, times and location; the series full program; and all
further information.

• 20 Jan 2007 Ajaykumar, Charlotte Bernstein, Sebastian Lexer & Emmanuelle Waeckerle, Maria Llanderas, John Levack Drever & Lawrence Upton
• 14 Feb 2007 Robert Davis, Professor Johnny Golding, Helen Palmer, Dr. Aura Satz, Jon Thomson & Alison Craighead

Listen To Your Buds. Hearing loss is possible at any time, and prolonged exposure to certain loud activities (such as a functional jackhammer or the roar of lions) can create serious hearing problems. Of course, there is the more common danger of creating a hearing loss problem through the unsafe usage of personal audio devices. The site was created by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and is directed both towards educators and young people. The site’s visual and audio features are quite catchy, and the various interactive activities offered here include a game that informs listeners about the various decibel levels that they may encounter during the average day. The site is rounded out by a short section of videos that demonstrate both how the ear works and how loud noises can cause hearing loss. Visit web site.

Neuro. This animation by Bruno Bozzetto reflects the reasons why many of us have become acoustic-ecologists.
      Born in Milano , Italy , in 1938, Bruno Bozzetto produced three animated feature films "West&Soda", "Vip my brother superman", "Allegro non troppo" and many animated shorts. He has been awarded many prizes among which the Golden Bear to "Mister Tao" at the Berlin Film Festival in 1990 and the Oscar nomination to "Grasshoppers" in 1991. Together with Piero Angela he has also directed a hundred animated shorts of educational scientific matter. Bruno Bozzetto's best known character is Mister Rossi. Since 2000 he has been devoting his time to Flash animations for the web gaining great success. His website is www.bozzetto.com. Visit Neuro by click on the picture or this link.

EarToons by Tom Lamar

Resources

Oxford University Press|USA. Price: $45.00. See the book's web site for information and reviews.

Ways of Listening:
An Ecological Approach to the Perception of Musical Meaning
Eric F. Clarke

Accepting Submissions - Atrium Sound Space
College of Santa Fe
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
     The Atrium Sound Space gallery is accepting submissions of multi-CD based sound installations for programming consideration.
    The Atrium Sound Space is a gallery for sound installations located in the lobby of Benildus Hall, on the College of Santa Fe campus in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dedicated to presenting sound installations as sonic environment in public spaces, the Atrium Sound Space runs continuously throughout the year - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
    Though the Atrium Sound Space will be formally launched in early Fall 2006, it has already hosted installation pieces by Peter Swanzy and Al Margolis (in conjunction with the Santa Fe International Festival of Electroacoustic Music), and Steven M. Miller. The Fall schedule will be announced in September.
    Sound artists interested in submitting pieces for programming consideration can find technical specifications and submission guidelines/information on the Atrium Sound Space submissions page.