210 869 097

COMN 4729

26 September 2013

Soundscape Listening Exercise

            As the communications 4729 course had begun, it has introduced itself with an extremely fascinating and fresh content, inaugurating several experiments and analysis that are going to be focused around sound and music. Various sounds and excerpts of music are included in our everyday life and although we hardly realize it, the course has already begun to explore the significant role that sounds have within daily life. Sounds are inescapable and are frequently used as signals constantly surrounding society. However, it is not often that one is tuned in and is able to internally appreciate the inescapable “noise” that is a part of our everyday life. Based on the work of Murray Schafer, this assignment gave me the opportunity to immerse myself in a setting where I was able to appreciate and internalize the soundscape of a particular area. The analysis opened my eyes to many affects that sounds have on me personally and helped me to realize how sounds are a concrete piece of society. My area of choice in the GTA is a local “Second Cup” located at 518 Eglinton Ave. West in Toronto, Ontario. I chose this area in particular because it is a fairly busy share of the city and the patio at this certain location is open to the public and faces the busy city road. My experiment was conducted on the morning of Monday September 23^rd at 10:00AM.

            As I took my seat at a small table with a nice view of the busy street and friendly neighborhood, the Monday morning rush was settling down and traffic was not crowding the street. I began to jot down notes of what I heard which primarily included traffic, car horns, conversations, the wind, cell phones, planes passing by and different sets of music playing in the nearby shops. Throughout these diverse sounds, the pitch and tone varied as the sound had come and gone. I began to notice the different reactions people had to the sounds that were “natural” to being in Toronto at that time and place. There were certain sounds that grasped people’s attention which I referred to as “signals” such as an ambulance or police car, a crying baby and the loud music which streamed through a couple of vehicles that passed. About 20 minutes into my experiment, the extremely high pitch of a fire truck made its way through the street giving everyone a signal to make way. This particular sound created a meaning for people to move aside and the reaction of the crowd of people that had to do so were normalized and tranquil of the signal. These particular traffic sounds would be considered “sound signals” and coincides with society’s everyday life in an industrial area such as the city. The traffic sounds that surrounded the area would also be the area’s “keynote” sound due to its ability to describe the urban area due to the constant traffic flow. Hearing the particular sound of the traffic, people walking around, and the faint music from the coffee shop automatically gave me an idea of an ideal rural setting on a weekday due to the constant hustle and bustle of people. Without having the ability to see, I would still be able to tell the setting I was at due to the sounds around me. As I stepped inside the coffee shop I could hear the jazz music louder, the constant sounds of coffeemakers and in depth conversations of business people and mothers with their small children. The conversations I was able to overhear were about business and a mother’s chores in which she was complaining about. At one point, a child began to cry which caught the attention of some and mildly disturbed others. The friendly atmosphere also included cell phones going off, water from the faucet, and mild traffic from outside. In this case, the interior of the coffee shop’s “keynote” would be the constant sound of the coffeemakers going on and off due to the loud pitch and long frequency. From listening and analyzing the sounds inside the shop, I received a friendly and calm vibe which established the ambiance of the shop itself.  In regards to the “sound mark” the only sound that I personally engaged with was the ambulance or police horn due to everyone’s known reaction to respect it. The place that I heard these sounds does matter to the meaning they have to me because they are the expected sounds that are found in a rural busy area. If I was in a calm large piece of land with only a few houses in the distance, it would be abnormal to hear the same amount of traffic sounds as I did in the city.

            As a result, my experiment turned out to be a learning experience as I got the opportunity to really analyze the sounds around me and the large role it plays in everyday life. This analysis gave me the interest to pay more attention to the sounds around me on a daily basis and be able to use them to my advantage.