In this thesis, I examine listening as a neural, cognitive, and behavioral phenomenon that just as much accounts for subject-formation as any other practice of everyday life. I center the performed sonic and musical characteristics of mundane sound objects found within the home and beyond – through direct sensory observation, domestic field recordings, contemporary sound performance, and ethnographic interviews – to ultimately uncover an analytic of precarious listening, or material-semiotic relationships built between sound objects and listening subjects through co-occurring articulations of precarity, such as the breaking down of a family heirloom during end-of-life care, or the shared liminality of transborder students and objects of their material culture. As the domestic soundscape continues to relationally permeate social, material, and environmental significance to (non)humans, I offer precarious listening as a tactic towards an ethics of care against the normative logics of which late modernity operates.

Through its portfolio of practical case studies and its engagement with critical thinking from a range of disciplines, the PhD investigates the following key question: what are the technical, aesthetic and conceptual impacts of using binaural technology to create a soundscape? ‘Using binaural technology’ implies users and users are essentially at the heart of this impact because users mediate the technical and aesthetic aspects of binaural technology and also inherently shape the theoretical ideology of this technology. By analysing users’ interactions with binaural technology from a social constructivist perspective, this thesis gains rich insights into the impact of using binaural technology when creating soundscapes. Chapter One explores sound artists’ and field recordists’ work that use binaural technology for the shared purpose of documenting urban soundwalks. The first case study “Audio Postcards” is also informed by questions drawn from acoustic ecology, socio-political theories on the practices of everyday life and the challenges that arise in finding, recording and preserving ‘soundmarks’. Chapter Two outlines practitioners’ applications of binaural technology to create an intimate connection to an art piece such as theatre director David Rosenberg’s productions. Peter Salvatore Petralia’s concept of headspace is applied to the chapter’s case study: “From Austria To America” to further understand binaural technology’s psychoacoustic effects. Chapter Three studies the impact of social groups who use binaural technology to record classical music performances. Traditional stereo and binaural classical music recording conventions are shaped in a new direction in two case studies: “Point of Audition” and “From Page to Stage”. Questions of ‘fidelity’ also arise from this creative practice. The outcomes of this reflective binaural practice unearth deep layers of understanding. This thesis discovers the impact of binaural technology moves beyond the effect it has on a listener to realise this recording practice also impacts a recordist’s decisions in the field and a sound artist’s creative choices when crafting soundscapes. The beneficial impact of binaural technology including its inconspicuous nature, the ability to imprint an artist’s subjective signature on recordings and its lifelike immersive qualities in playback are revealed through practice and reflection. Representing the real, the role of artist and point of audition are also themes explored throughout each chapter. Ultimately, insights gained are woven together as a means of constructing an original theoretical framework for an under-theorised subject: understanding how social user groups shape the impact of using binaural technology when creating soundscapes.

The thesis explores how painting is affected by its sonic environment. The research stems from an artistic response to noise in the environment and how this can be explored through artistic practice. The boundaries of art have and continue to be challenged as visual art has embraced an increasing range of approaches. This research explores the visual experience of viewing a painting alongside the all-encompassing time based nature of a sonic experience and readdresses the way painting operates within its own sound environment. It asks how these different elements can affect the reading of one another and in particular focuses on installations in extreme acoustic spaces, such as anechoic and reverberation chambers. It investigates how introducing sound to the painting arena can affect the reading and also transform the parameters of the painting. The research is practice-based and takes the form of a series of exhibitions, latterly in the form of site-specific installations, which have been evaluated, interpreted and responded to. This has led to a fundamental investigation, both practical and theoretical, into the way that sound and vision work together and how they relate within the context of art. Through the research the format of the painting developed in tandem with the temporal and audio considerations, resulting in all-encompassing installations bringing together panoramic paintings and 3D soundscapes.

Through interrelating the Acoustic Communication concepts of soundscape with contemporary collective memory studies, this research project explores the relationship between commuters and the London Underground (LU) soundscape in order to create an interactive sonic environment on the Internet. The methodology combines fieldwork and artistic work, focusing on commuters’ perceptions of time and space, and on their sonic memories, as elements through which to interpret the space. The objective of the fieldwork is to investigate commuters’ aural memories of the LU soundscape, including the feelings and sensations that it stimulates. The artistic objective is to facilitate the interaction between the soundscape and its users through an interface that allows a creative combination of sounds to assemble aural memories into a sound-driven multimedia experience. Twenty-four commuters participated in the ethnographic study during the three phases of the research; they followed the researcher’s model, which combines the processes of listening and remembering. The researcher thus developed an interactive sonic environment where commuters can experience a non-linear virtual journey through the soundscape of LU, then apply this as a means of reflecting on the original commuting experience. The interactive nature of the process makes it possible for individual memories to be linked in a creative shared experience; it fosters the development of on-line sound-driven narratives.

<p>Sound is a key sensory modality for Hawaiian spinner dolphins. Like many other marine animals, these dolphins rely on sound and their acoustic environment for many aspects of their daily lives, making it is essential to understand soundscape in areas that are critical to their survival. Hawaiian spinner dolphins rest during the day in shallow coastal areas and forage offshore at night. In my dissertation I focus on the soundscape of the bays where Hawaiian spinner dolphins rest taking a soundscape ecology approach. I primarily relied on passive acoustic monitoring using four DSG-Ocean acoustic loggers in four Hawaiian spinner dolphin resting bays on the Kona Coast of Hawai‛i Island. 30-second recordings were made every four minutes in each of the bays for 20 to 27 months between January 8, 2011 and March 30, 2013. I also utilized concomitant vessel-based visual surveys in the four bays to provide context for these recordings. In my first chapter I used the contributions of the dolphins to the soundscape to monitor presence in the bays and found the degree of presence varied greatly from less than 40% to nearly 90% of days monitored with dolphins present. Having established these bays as important to the animals, in my second chapter I explored the many components of their resting bay soundscape and evaluated the influence of natural and human events on the soundscape. I characterized the overall soundscape in each of the four bays, used the tsunami event of March 2011 to approximate a natural soundscape and identified all loud daytime outliers. Overall, sound levels were consistently louder at night and quieter during the daytime due to the sounds from snapping shrimp. In fact, peak Hawaiian spinner dolphin resting time co-occurs with the quietest part of the day. However, I also found that humans drastically alter this daytime soundscape with sound from offshore aquaculture, vessel sound and military mid-frequency active sonar. During one recorded mid-frequency active sonar event in August 2011, sound pressure levels in the 3.15 kHz 1/3rd-octave band were as high as 45.8 dB above median ambient noise levels. Human activity both inside (vessels) and outside (sonar and aquaculture) the bays significantly altered the resting bay soundscape. Inside the bays there are high levels of human activity including vessel-based tourism directly targeting the dolphins. The interactions between humans and dolphins in their resting bays are of concern; therefore, my third chapter aimed to assess the acoustic response of the dolphins to human activity. Using days where acoustic recordings overlapped with visual surveys I found the greatest response in a bay with dolphin-centric activities, not in the bay with the most vessel activity, indicating that it is not the magnitude that elicits a response but the focus of the activity. In my fourth chapter I summarize the key results from my first three chapters to illustrate the power of multiple site design to prioritize action to protect Hawaiian spinner dolphins in their resting bays, a chapter I hope will be useful for managers should they take further action to protect the dolphins.</p> / Dissertation

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional & Community Planning / Alpa Nawre / Anne Beamish / Sound has always been an integral part of the outdoor environment. However, since the onset of the Industrial Revolution, and given the continual emergence of new technological sounds, society’s aural awareness and sensitivity has continued to decrease (Schafer, 1977). While the visual often dominates the perception of the outdoor environment – especially within the design field – all five senses are vital to a holistic experience. A greater emphasis on sound in landscape architecture is critical as landscape architects move toward a more holistic approach to designing the outdoor environment. The primary learning objective of this thesis was to evaluate the effectiveness of soundwalks and listening exercises for landscape architecture students, as a way to increase their aural awareness and sensitivity. The first part of this study established the current status and need for an acoustic education in landscape architecture by examining university course offerings and surveying professionals and faculty members in the field. The remainder of the study involved a listening experiment conducted with landscape architecture students from Kansas State University. Participants were assessed on their ability to listen to and analyze sounds before and after participating in soundwalks, listening exercises, and lessons in interdisciplinary sound terminology. This study provides a clearer understanding of the role of sound in landscape architecture and, more broadly, the environment. The surveys revealed that respondents more often consider sound as noise to be mitigated rather than as inspiration for design. Respondents also indicated that sound is an important consideration in design and that an acoustic component can be valuable in landscape architecture education. Those who participated in the listening experiment also indicated that an acoustic education, including soundwalks and listening exercises, can be effective in increasing aural awareness and sensitivity. While this study did not explore all approaches to an acoustic education, it provides a suitable point of departure for future related research.

A intenção desta tese é sugerir um método avaliativo, cujo índice de desempenho venha ao encontro dos indicadores da cognição de lugares, e por fim qualifique a paisagem sonora de espaços vivenciados. Pois, entende-se que a qualidade ambiental acústica dos lugares pode ser quantificada a fim de facilitar o seu entendimento. Nesse ideário, este trabalho visou, estabelecer a interação dos fatores perceptivos do usuário com os atributos físicos da paisagem sonora relacionando-os segundo o referencial teórico: soundscape. Defendeu-se que a qualidade sonora das ambiências urbanas seja resultado da avaliação da inerência acústica da envoltória ambiental do espaço vivenciado. Buscou-se, nesse sentido, parâmetros que a fizessem mensurável, para apreender a empatia ou a repulsa às ambiências sonoras de certos locais, ou seja, a aceitação ou a recusa de suas características acústicas intrínsecas e perceptivas. O método avaliativo foi aplicado nas ambiências acústicas do campus sede da UEM, e foi balizado com a análise estatística multivariada de critérios de desempenho acústico qualitativos e quantitativos. Foram determinados todos os atributos e, valorados com a finalidade de determinar o ranking das ambiências estudadas. Finalmente, conseguiu-se as áreas qualificadas e hierarquizadas que podem auxiliar em uma tomada de decisão para futuras adequações do plano diretor do campus sede, fato que, possivelmente, norteará também adequações dos outros sete campi da UEM. Assim, através da metodologia proposta avaliou-se a qualidade acústica de parte do campus sede da Universidade Estadual de Maringá UEM, como também, validou-se a exequibilidade do método. Entendeu-se que o espaço de um campus universitário deva proporcionar ambiências sonoras de qualidade para a tríade pedagógica: ensino, pesquisa e extensão. Portanto, esta pesquisa justifica-se, pois, vem ao encontro dessa necessidade, haja visto que a ambientação sonora dos lugares de trabalho é extremamente importante ao desempenho e a vivência de qualidade. Abre-se uma porta que identifica o potencial de verificação da paisagem sonora como norteador para o planejamento espacial urbano, além de ajudar na compreensão de como as cidades e os seus lugares satisfazem, ou não a expectativa de seus habitantes. / The intention of this thesis is to suggest an evaluation method, where performance index must meet the indicators of cognition places, and finally qualify the soundscape of experienced spaces. Therefore, it is understood that the acoustic environmental quality of the places can be quantified in order to facilitate their understanding. In this ideology, this work aims to establish the interaction of perceptual user factors with the physical attributes of soundscape relating them according to the theoretical framework: soundscape.It was argued that the sound quality of urban ambiance is a result of evaluation of acoustic inherent environmental envelope of the experienced space. Looking for this direction, parameters that made measurable, to learn empathy or disgust to sound ambiences of certain sites, or the acceptance or refusal of their intrinsic perceptual and acoustic characteristics. It was proposed that the evaluation method is applied to the acoustic ambiance of the campus headquarters of UEM is based on multivariate statistical analysis of qualitative and quantitative acoustic performance criteria. Thus, all the attributes were determined and rated for the purpose of determining the ranking of the studied ambiences. Finally, they were qualified and prioritized areas that may assist in a decision-making for future adjustments of the master plan of the campus headquarters, a fact that possibly also will guide adjustments of seven other campuses of UEM. Thus, through the proposed methodology evaluated the acoustical quality of the headquarters campus of the State University of Maringa - UEM, but also validated to the feasibility of the method. It is understood that the area of a university campus should provide ambiance sound quality for pedagogical triad: teaching, research and extension. Therefore, this research is justified once it meets this need, due to the fact that the sound ambience of workplaces is extremely important to the performance and the experience of quality. A door that identifies the potential to check the soundscape as a guide for urban spatial planning it opens and helps in understanding how cities and their seats meet or not the expectations of its inhabitants.

Soundscape Ecology, the physical combination of sounds at a particular time and place, is a rapidly growing field. As acoustic technology advances, several possible future uses of passive acoustic monitoring (PAM), such as biodiversity counts and monitoring of habitat health, are being explored. This thesis is divided into two chapters; each is a stand-alone paper. The first chapter provides a review of soundscape ecology, ambient sound, current recording methods and data analysis used in PAM studies, and identifies several major future recommendations for the field. One of these recommendations is to standardize recording methods and indices used during analysis in long-term studies. The second chapter analyzes a 55-minute continuous recording on a coral reef in Tunicate Cove, Belize in 1996 by Professor P. Lobel. This recording was then subsampled with several intermittent recording schedules to explore the amount of acoustic information lost as periods of active and inactive recording vary. The continuous recording consisted of a high frequency band (3-4 kHz), which may correspond to abiotic sounds, and a low frequency band (0.1-0.5 kHz), which generally corresponds to biotic sounds. Two recording schedules, 30 seconds every 4 minutes and 2 minutes every 10 minutes, were significantly correlated with the continuous recording. The statistical significance of the other five recording schedules varied among the three parameters tested in this study (average power (dB), average entropy, and aggregate entropy).

Submitted by Leda Lopes (ledacplopes@hotmail.com) on 2017-08-10T14:11:00Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) André_Barbachan_Silva_Dissertação.pdf: 23179209 bytes, checksum: b037e2ca582fb54acd790914af848747 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2017-08-10T21:13:21Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) André_Barbachan_Silva_Dissertação.pdf: 23179209 bytes, checksum: b037e2ca582fb54acd790914af848747 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Aline Batista (alinehb.ufpel@gmail.com) on 2017-08-10T21:14:49Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) André_Barbachan_Silva_Dissertação.pdf: 23179209 bytes, checksum: b037e2ca582fb54acd790914af848747 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-10T21:14:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) André_Barbachan_Silva_Dissertação.pdf: 23179209 bytes, checksum: b037e2ca582fb54acd790914af848747 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-05-23 / Qual o som deste lugar? Investigações poéticas acerca da paisagem sonora é o resultado de uma pesquisa em poéticas visuais, desenvolvida no Mestrado em Artes Visuais da Universidade Federal de Pelotas, na linha de pesquisa “Processos de Criação e Poéticas do Cotidiano”, durante o período de 2014 a 2016. Tem como objetivos a documentação de algumas de minhas obras de arte que possuem características sonoras e também a adequação sonora dos conceitos studium e punctum de Roland Barthes (2015) configurando-os como “studium e punctum sonoros”. O processo se deu a partir do esclarecimento do termo “soundscape” cunhado por Murray Schafer (2011), e com a análise das sonoridades geradas por obras de arte interativas e sonoras. / What is the sound of this place? Poetic investigations on soundscape. It’s the result of a research in visual poetics, developed in the Visual Arts Master’s degree of the Federal University of Pelotas, in the research pipeline “Process of Creation and daily poetics”, during the period of 2014 to 2016. It has as objectives the documentation of some of my works of art, that has sound characteristics and also the sound suitability of the concepts studium and punctum of Roland Barthes (2015), configuring them as ”Sound studium and punctum”. The process was made from the clarification of the term “soundscape” coined by Murray Schafer (2011), and with the analysis of the sonorities created by interative and sound works of art.

“falei em voz ALTA”: ERRAGEM, Voz e Outros Sons em Performances Sônicas investiga as manifestações sonoras na minha produção artística em performance. A presença, a experiência e a ressonância do corpo, se manifestam através da voz (falada, cantada, processada) e dos eventos sonoros com os quais meu corpo se relaciona (escuta, capta, produz) no tempo e no espaço. Minhas performances se misturam e ou partem de situações da vida diária e tem como principal elemento, o som. Por conta disso, são chamadas de performances sônicas. Ao trabalhar com o som, destaco as questões de duração nas Artes Visuais, nas suas variações: tempo instantâneo, simultâneo, desconectado, transposto, em movimento, proporcionado pelas mídias móveis e arquivos audiovisuais; do erro que define ou não, recomeços; da memória que coexiste em diversos planos e permite historicização e atualização. A pesquisa faz uso do conceito de paisagem sonora (Murray Schafer e equipe WSP), da noção de ruído (Luigi Russolo) e da presença da voz (Paul Zumthor). Criou o conceito e opera a metodologia ERRAGEM que busca atualizar questões sobre tempo, espaço em movimento e erro. Através da ERRAGEM – errar para pequenos formatos, para pequenas ações, articulei a produção artística relativa a essa pesquisa e a sua difusão, para que acontecessem em deslocamento ou seja, fossem construídas com/em viagens. Apesar de heterogêneos, concebidos com procedimentos e tempos diferentes, realizados em lugares específicos (in-situ) e, por conta disso, na sua maioria, foram orientados para vídeo e áudio. Os dez trabalhos que compõem a tese, foram agrupados em dois formatos-conceito: Guias acústicos e Instant Bands e encontram-se disponíveis na Internet. / "Spoke aloud ": ERRAGEM, Voice and Other Sounds in Sonic Performances investigates the sound manifestations in my artistic production in performance. The presence, experience and resonance of the body manifest through the voice (spoken, sung, processed) and of the sound events with which my body relates (listening, capturing, producing) in time and space. My performances mix and or, depart from situations of daily life and has as its main element, the sound. Because of this, they are called sonic performances. In working with sound, I highlight the issues of duration in the Visual Arts, in their variations: instantaneous, simultaneous, disconnected, transposed, moving, provided by mobile media and audiovisual archives; Of the error that defines or not, restarts; Of memory that coexists in different planes and allows historiography and updating. The research makes use of the concept of soundscape (Murray Schafer and WSP team), the notion of noise (Luigi Russolo), the presence of voice (Paul Zumthor), created the concept and operates the ERRAGEM – methodology that seeks to update questions about time, Space in motion and error. Through ERRAGEM - to err for small formats, for small actions, I articulated the artistic production related to this research and its diffusion, to happen on the displacement, built with / on trips. Although heterogeneous, designed with procedures, different times, performed in specific places (in-situ) and, for that reason, were mostly oriented to video and audio. The ten artworks that compose the thesis were grouped into two formats-concepts: Acoustic Guides and Instant Bands, available on the Internet.