Searching for Silence

One in five citizens of European cities are exposed to harmful sound levels. Noise pollution is nowadays one of the most widespread and at the same timemost persistently ignored hazards in the civilized world. In a visually oriented society soundscapes change rapidly and protection of them is an issue that attracts marginal attention. The paper describes how Witold Lutosławski and Raymond Murray Schafer fought for silence and clarity of sound. The description of the World Soundscape Project demonstrates how everyday sounds can be rethought and creative ways of activating the public to take care of the soundscapes around them developed. The paper focuses on a series of workshops held in Krakow, Poland. Four meetings with different groups of citizens (high-school students, university students, senior citizens, and people with visual impairments) provided the material for an analysis of how people’s reactions change when they take a walk focusing on the soundscape. They also provided an opportunity to explore the differences in the perception of soundwalks by fully sighted citizens and those with visual impairments.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Izabela Zawadzka

Conference

Publication date: August 2019

Publication date (Print): August 2019

Pages: 177-180

Affiliations

[0001]Jagiellonian University

Theatre and Drama Department, Gołębia 14-16, 30-007 Krakow, Poland

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/RESOUND19.27

SO-VID: 2cfe675b-fbb2-4d9a-8165-a4a95b51829a

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: RE:SOUND 2019 – 8th International Conference on Media Art, Science, and Technology

Conference acronym: RE:SOUND 2019

Conference number: 8

Conference location: Aalborg, Denmark

Conference date: August 20-23, 2019

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Media Art, Science, and Technology

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/RESOUND19.27

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

D.J. Levitin 2007 This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession New York Plume/Penguin
Z. Skowron 2007 Lutosiawski on Music Lanham Scarecrow Press
R.M. Schafer 1969 The New Soundscape Scarborough, Ontario Berandol Music Limited
F. Springer 2019 Springer szuka ciszy. Pejzaz, Vogue https://www.vogue.pl/a/springer-szuka-ciszy-pejzaz 4 August 2019
World Health Organization 2018 Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region

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[1] D.J. Levitin 2007 This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession New York Plume/Penguin

[2] Z. Skowron 2007 Lutosiawski on Music Lanham Scarecrow Press

[3] R.M. Schafer 1969 The New Soundscape Scarborough, Ontario Berandol Music Limited

[4] F. Springer 2019 Springer szuka ciszy. Pejzaz, Vogue https://www.vogue.pl/a/springer-szuka-ciszy-pejzaz 4 August 2019

[5] World Health Organization 2018 Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region

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