Showing papers on "Soundscape published in 2023"

Soundscape in city and built environment: current developments and design potentials

Abstract: Abstract In the field of environmental acoustics, the conventional approach of reducing ‘sound level’ does not always deliver the required improvements in quality of life. Soundscape, defined by the ISO as the ‘acoustic environment as perceived or experienced and/or understood by a person or people, in context’, promotes a holistic approach, regarding sounds as ‘resources’ rather than just ‘wastes’. The first part of this review/position paper, mainly using the works by the author and the teams/collaborators as examples, discusses the current developments in soundscape, in terms of soundscape understating and exchanging, collecting and documenting, harmonising and standardising, creating and designing, and outreaching, showing that while considerable works have been carried out, much work is still needed, in terms of basic research, and more importantly, research towards practice. The second part of this paper then explores a soundscape approach in the urban sound design/planning process. With a proposed framework for designing soundscape in urban open public spaces, considering four key components, including characteristics of each sound source, acoustic effects of the space, social/demographic aspect of the users, and other physical conditions, design potentials are demonstrated.

The relationship between environmental context and attentional engagement in podcast listening experiences

Abstract: Introduction Previous research has shown that podcasts are most frequently consumed using mobile listening devices across a wide variety of environmental, situational, and social contexts. To date, no studies have investigated how an individual's environmental context might influence their attentional engagement in podcast listening experiences. Improving understanding of the contexts in which episodes of listening take place, and how they might affect listener engagement, could be highly valuable to researchers and producers working in the fields of object-based and personalized media. Methods An online questionnaire on listening habits and behaviors was distributed to a sample of 264 podcast listeners. An exploratory factor analysis was run to identify factors of environmental context that influence attentional engagement in podcast listening experiences. Five aspects of podcast listening engagement were also defined and measured across the sample. Results The exploratory factor analysis revealed five factors of environmental context labeled as: outdoors, indoors & at home, evenings, soundscape & at work, and exercise. The aspects of podcast listening engagement provided a comprehensive quantitative account of contemporary podcast listening experiences. Discussion The results presented support the hypothesis that elements of a listener's environmental context can influence their attentional engagement in podcast listening experiences. The soundscape & at work factor suggests that some listeners actively choose to consume podcasts to mask disturbing stimuli in their surrounding soundscape. Further analysis suggested that the proposed factors of environmental context were positively correlated with the measured aspects of podcast listening engagement. The results are highly pertinent to the fields of podcast studies, mobile listening experiences, and personalized media, and provide a basis for researchers seeking to explore how other forms of listening context might influence attentional engagement.

Sounds of snapping shrimp (Alpheidae) as important input to the soundscape in the southeast China coastal sea

Abstract: As a biological sound source widely distributed in temperate and tropical coastal waters, snapping shrimp produce strong pulses which can serve as honest signals to indicate habitat-specific soundscape. The past decade has witnessed the growing interest in investigating the acoustical activity of snapping shrimp across many shallow waters including the coastal line of the west Pacific Ocean. It was extended to the Southeast China coastal area where snapping sounds and the associated soundscape were recorded at four sites. Customized codes incorporating bandwidth and amplitude threshold operations were developed to detect snaps from the ambient noise to estimate snap rate and extract snaps individually. The subsequent analysis suggested that snaps recorded at different sites were unanimously stronger than background noise. Sound pressure level of the snaps ranged from 150 dB to 190 dB (re 1 μPa). The characteristics of snaps, including sound pressure level, duration, peak frequency, -3dB bandwidth from different sites are examined to evaluate the variability across the sites. Though snapping pulses had peak frequencies and the -3 dB bandwidth consistently below 10 kHz, snaps had considerable energy extending to the high frequency range over 200 kHz. The analysis of the acoustic data received for 7 consecutive days at one site indicated that the snap rate corresponded to tidal level periodicity. A high tide was accompanied with a local high snap rate regardless of light but this local snap rate peak was much higher at night. The mean rate fluctuated between 2000 and 4000 snaps per minute and more snaps were recorded after sunset suggesting that snapping shrimp living in the area snapped in response to light. These data may indicate that snaps are important communication means in light-limited condition and deepen our understanding on the correlation of snapping behavior and ecological environments.

The sound of restored soil: Measuring soil biodiversity in a forest restoration chronosequence with ecoacoustics

Abstract: Forest restoration requires monitoring to assess changes in above- and below-ground communities, which is challenging due to practical and resource limitations. With emerging sound recording technologies, ecological acoustic survey methods—also known as ‘ecoacoustics’—are increasingly available. These provide a rapid, effective, and non-intrusive means of monitoring biodiversity. Above-ground ecoacoustics is increasingly widespread, but soil ecoacoustics has yet to be utilised in restoration despite its demonstrable effectiveness at detecting meso- and macrofauna acoustic signals. This study applied ecoacoustic tools and indices (Acoustic Complexity Index, Normalised Difference Soundscape Index, and Bioacoustic Index) to measure above- and below-ground biodiversity in a forest restoration chronosequence. We hypothesised that higher acoustic complexity, diversity and high-frequency to low-frequency ratio would be detected in restored forest plots. We collected n = 198 below-ground samples and n = 180 ambient and controlled samples from three recently degraded (within 10 years) and three restored (30-51 years ago) deciduous forest plots across three monthly visits. We used passive acoustic monitoring to record above-ground biological sounds and a below-ground sampling device and sound-attenuation chamber to record soil communities. We found that restored plot acoustic complexity and diversity were higher in the sound-attenuation chamber soil but not in situ or above-ground samples. Moreover, we found that restored plots had a significantly greater high-frequency to low-frequency ratio for soil, but no such association for above-ground samples. Our results suggest that ecoacoustics has the potential to monitor below-ground biodiversity, adding to the restoration ecologist’s toolkit and supporting global ecosystem recovery. Implications for Practice This is the first known study to assess the sounds of soil biodiversity in a forest restoration context, paving the way for more comprehensive studies and practical applications to support global ecosystem recovery. Soil ecoacoustics has the potential to support restoration ecology/biodiversity assessments, providing a minimally intrusive, cost-effective and rapid surveying tool. The methods are also relatively simple to learn and apply. Ecoacoustics can contribute toward overcoming the profound challenge of quantifying the effectiveness (i.e., success) of forest restoration interventions in reinstating target species, functions and so-called ‘services’ and reducing disturbance.

A Study on the Soundscape of Underground Commercial Space in Lu’an City and Hefei City, China

Abstract: Soundscape is an important part and one of the main factors of the underground space environment. Field surveys were conducted to evaluate the soundscape of underground commercial spaces and to compare it with the soundscape of the above-ground commercial spaces between two cities (Lu’an City and Hefei City) in China, consequently presenting the construction strategy of the soundscape of underground commercial spaces in urban areas. The results showed that the sound in the shopping center, which people found comfortable, was at the lower to intermediate level. The main sounds that people perceived as “general” sounds were environmental sounds such as music, the humming of the air conditioning, people talking, walking, and the hawking of the stores. Nevertheless, “very comfortable” sounds were background music and the sound of live performances, which were indicated in the majority of people’s opinions on evaluating a comfortable feeling, thus reflecting the impact of the sound of mall music on people’s cognitive psychology. Therefore, it is necessary to control the volume of environmental noise at a certain level so that people’s health is not adversely affected. It also helps shoppers to feel more comfortable psychologically and physiologically.

Implications of wind and vessel noise on the sound fields experienced by southern resident killer whales Orcinus orca in the Salish Sea

Abstract: The soundscape of critical habitat for southern resident killer whale (SRKW) Orcinus orca in the Salish Sea, the waters around southern British Columbia, Canada, and northern Washington State, USA, is shaped by wind and wave noise as well as heavy commercial and recreational vessel traffic loads. First, we used recordings from 6 passive acoustic moorings to characterize the acoustic landscape experienced by SRKW in this region, focusing on the frequencies used for communication and echolocation. Mid-frequency wind noise was prevalent in winter sound fields, whereas higher-frequency noise levels associated with increased numbers of recreational vessels increased during summer. Commercial vessel presence was consistent, with acoustic inputs prevalent in the western part of the study area. The potential implications of these additions on SRKW acoustics use were then explored for the frequency band 1-40 kHz to represent communication calls and at 50 kHz to consider echolocation. The inputs of wind were extrapolated from modelled hourly wind speed measures and commercial shipping noise. The noise impact was expressed as a proportional reduction of communication and echolocation extent compared to maximum acoustic ranges at ‘minimum ambient’ levels, void of vessel and abiotic noise. The reductions calculated were substantial, with the presence and impact of vessel noise greater than wind-derived additions and the greatest impacts around shipping lanes. Impacts were found for SRKW foraging areas, with implications for group cohesion and feeding success. This interpretation of the influence of natural and vessel noise more clearly demonstrates the potential implications of altered soundscapes for SRKW.

Using GPT-3 to Achieve Semantically Relevant Data Sonificiation for an Art Installation

Abstract: Large Language Models such as GPT-3 exhibit generative language capabilities with multiple potential applications in creative practice. In this paper, we present a method for data sonification that employs the GPT-3 model to create semantically relevant mappings between artificial intelligence-generated natural language descriptions of data, and human-generated descriptions of sounds. We implemented this method in a public art installation to generate a soundscape based on data from different systems. While common sonification approaches rely on arbitrary mappings between data values and sonic values, our approach explores the use of language models to achieve a mapping not via values but via meaning. We find our approach is a useful tool for musification practice and demonstrates a new application of generative language models in creative new media arts practice. We show how different prompts influence data to sound mappings, and highlight that matching the embeddings of texts of different lengths produces undesired behavior.

Shared soundscapes: The (re)activation of an institutional and individual archive of Peruvian music and dance

Abstract: “Shared soundscapes” is a key concept that allows us to identify the multiplicity of agencies involved in historical sound recordings and their reactivation today. We use the notion to compare two very different Peruvian case studies concerning Asháninka and Nomatsiguenga peoples of the Central Rainforest and Muchik, Quechua, and mestizo peoples in the Lambayeque region, along with their respective music traditions. Part of their sonic legacy is stored in archives; one was created by an individual anthropologist, and the other is an institutional ethnomusicological archive. The comparison of historical and current soundscapes brings to the fore anthropological issues regarding how a web of actors—among them sonic activists from academia and these communities—have shaped these archives as a process and practice. It raises questions about collaborative approaches to decolonize repositories, which implies handing over rights to individuals and communities so that they can make decisions about their sonic legacies. “Paisajes sonoros compartidos” es un concepto clave que permite identificar la multiplicidad de agencias involucradas en las grabaciones sonoras históricas y su reactivación en la actualidad. Utilizamos esta noción para comparar dos estudios de caso peruanos muy diversos: el de los pueblos Asháninka y Nomatsiguenga de la Selva Central; y el de los pueblos Muchik, Quechua y mestizos de la Región Lambayeque, junto con sus respectivas tradiciones musicales. Parte de su legado sonoro está almacenado en dos archivos, uno creado por un antropólogo y el otro es un archivo institucional de etnomusicología. La comparación entre paisajes sonoros históricos y actuales pone en relieve cuestiones antropológicas sobre cómo una red de actores—entre ellos activistas sonoros del mundo académico y de las comunidades—ha configurado estos archivos en términos de prácticas y procesos. Surgen interrogantes sobre las aproximaciones colaborativas para descolonizar repositorios musicales, lo que implica ceder derechos a individuos y comunidades en la toma de decisiones sobre sus legados sonoros. Shared soundscapes often emerge when local music and dance traditions are appropriated by different actors for identity politics and cultural revival. Our engagement as anthropologists interested in music, dance, storytelling, and a range of verbal arts, as well as our work with two archives, an individual and an institutional archive, respectively, motivated us to compare two case studies: they concern Asháninka and Nomatsiguenga peoples of the District of Pangoa in the Central Rainforest and Muchik, Quechua, and mestizo peoples from the Lambayeque region on the northern coast of Peru. The point of departure was an exchange between anthropologists Kummels and Cánepa, who realized that the Peruvian regions they had followed closely since the early 1980s and early 1990s, respectively, lacked a comparative framework. We started from the assumption that there are indeed marked differences between our case studies, and that these are connected to the specific local and wider historical contexts in which the audio and audiovisual materials were recorded, stored, and circulated. It seemed probable that a “return” or reactivation of these materials might take different courses depending on the particular archive, its characteristics, biases, and its potential for empowerment based on the agencies operative in the historical recordings and the actors willing to mobilize them today. We considered that musicians, promoters, teachers, political leaders, descendants of former collaborators, and new stakeholders alike, as well as us as anthropologists, would want to get involved in reactivating traditional genres as sonic activists and coresearchers. The term coresearcher highlights the expertise of our interlocutors based on recordkeeping skills that originate in their own societies. It also emphasizes the negotiation of a relationship as equals in the quest to generate knowledge jointly in decolonized ways. We assume that varied constellations of protagonists and the policies they engage in decisively impinge on soundscape dynamics and therefore on the emic notions and uses of sound. Accordingly, the people who intervene may choose to emphasize sound's multifaceted immaterial aspects (words, melody; Yamada, 2017), its material ones (instruments; Borras, 1995), its poetics and performativity (Feld, 1982), or its potential for decolonization (Robinson, 2020; Kummels, 2023) to further their interests. The abovementioned features are our main interest since they allow for a better understanding of the way soundscapes are shaped by social hierarchies; forms of discrimination based on race, class, ethnicity, gender, and geographical origin; and struggles for more parity. We set out to know more about the way soundscapes are constantly negotiated in the face of inequalities; shared is meant to convey the ambivalence of the German term geteilt, which means both “shared” and “divided” and allows for perceiving unevenness and disagreement in the web of actors. The Shared Soundscapes project officially began in September 2021, and it now includes anthropologists Barreto and Kummels for the case study in the Central Rainforest and Maradiegue and Cánepa for the case study in the Lambayeque region (see https://www.shared-soundscapes.net).1 We have harnessed the analysis based on shared soundscapes for a collaborative research format with the peoples concerned. The format seeks to dialogue with and to empower them so that they can launch and manage their own repositories as skilled archivists. Acknowledging the multiplicity of actors, archival agendas, and techniques implies rethinking “sound repatriation”—or rather “the return of music to circulation in communities where it has been unavailable as a result of external power differences” (Seeger, 2018, 2)—along with reactivation activities that rely on the community's own memory and archival techniques as processes that are sometimes separated and sometimes entwined. This multiplicity is crucial for understanding the archive as a process and practice (Gilliland, 2017). Similarly to Miguel García (2017, 17; see also Ketelaar, 2017, 237), we interpret archival knowledge production as an open process in which many participate by investing their own cultural background of intellectual thought and experience. However, we are dealing with archives that are still riddled by postcolonial rifts with regard to technological assets, accessibility, education opportunities, and cultural rights, such as the limited recognition and official use of most of Peru's 48 Indigenous languages. The concept of soundscape not only allows for identifying and therefore mobilizing different agencies today but also relates them to the recordings as uneven historical soundscapes. The sonorities they captured can often be traced back to the agencies of stakeholders with different interests and archival skills. These imprints are not incidental: oratory, voice, music, and dance were emitted or recorded intentionally to achieve a certain purpose, that is, several sonic activists may have intervened in the recordings, and to advance their objectives they needed to collaborate. From the perspective of the archive as a practice and a process, we will briefly outline the characteristics of the repositories we are working with and show how they require that their epistemic foundations and access policies be questioned—and, thus, why they require decolonization. One context of the establishment of Peruvian archives is the republican geography of the nineteenth century, which created a threefold regional imaginary of Coast/Sierra/Rainforest that still influences how regional and local identities are represented and reproduced today as part of the nation (Orlove, 1993). Comprehensive studies of Peruvian music would often follow this tripartite imaginary, classifying musical instruments and genres as either Coastal, Andean, or Amazonian. This musical imaginary contributes to the widespread perception of sonic dynamics being encapsulated in the respective regions. Therefore, iconic dances, music, and musical instruments are generally ascribed to one of the three regions and its particular ethnic groups. Our case studies exemplify such biases. Initially, the IDE concentrated on collecting Andean traditional music, according to regional studies that distinguished between the Andes, the Amazon, and Coastal regions neglecting the latter two. This division, which echoed the geopolitical tripartition, was first questioned during fieldwork in the coastal and highland areas of the Lambayeque region. Later, field recordings were made in several districts of the northern Amazon, incorporating the collections of individual researchers, as well as new publications, to broaden the IDE's regional approach. Conversely, the private archive of Manfred Schäfer is representative of the emphasis given to Peruvian Rainforest peoples’ myths and music, primarily by individual anthropologists such as Stefano Varese, Gerald Weiss, and Alberto Chirif, during the period of IDE neglect. In many cases it was only as they approached advanced age that they donated their important personal collections to different research archives. Perhaps they maintained possession for as long as possible to guarantee control over materials that research archives might use for their own agendas. From 1978 on, Schäfer organized his materials for publication and to be freely distributed to a circuit of people with the common objective of empowering Rainforest peoples: to the communities in question, the German Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV, after its name in German), the Peruvian Centro de Investigación y Promoción Amazónica (CIPA, after its name in Spanish), and Indigenous organizations like the Interethnic Association of the Peruvian Amazon (AIDESEP, after its name in Spanish). Since its inception in 1985, IDE access policies have included bringing back copies of items in the archive to the communities where they originated, disseminating its work via academic publications, and offering on-site consultation of the archive. In sum, when reactivating these archives, we must take into account the specific objectives of each collection, as well as differences with respect to their circuits of dissemination. One, based at a private university in Peru, was designed to promote the nation's cultural diversity; the other, an individual archive in Germany, was designed as an instrument to mobilize international solidarity with the Amazonian peoples, transcending the Peruvian rainforest as a nationally bounded geographical entity. Relying on the most recent recording technology at the time, both institutional archives and individual anthropologists depended on collaboration with local specialists who shared their archival skills concerning oratory, music, and dance. Nevertheless, this complex interplay of archival skills often received little recognition, and at times was even erased. The original metadata in institutional archives privileged the individual authorship of the academic investigator controlling the recording technology and funding and paid less attention—and often gave no rights—to persons whom we currently consider coresearchers. Locally, the authorship of music and dance is frequently considered to belong to families, congregations, or communities. This imbalance in recognition requires meticulous elucidation of authorship today. At the same time, historical soundscapes that were recorded and later stored in these archives contain potentially empowering agencies that we are now mobilizing for the reactivation of recorded historical music and dance. Reactivation today implies inviting those who were documented decades ago, as well as their descendants, to engage in the interpretation of historical materials based on their own archival methods; they should be the ones to decide how to deal with these recordings depending on their current interests and visions of the future. Our approach to reactivation is inspired by several traditions such as sound repatriation, which was developed in the academic realm of ethnomusicology, anthropology, and museum studies (for an overview, see contributions in Gunderson, Lancefield, and Woods, 2018). At the same time, local or regional identity politics and revival/recuperation movements rely on the reactivation of archival materials regarding music, dance, and verbal arts—whether maintained inside or outside the communities where they were originally memorized or documented—for the purpose of making political and cultural demands audible and visible. Local experts often resort to the specific archival know-how rooted in their regions. Reactivation involves triggering the empowering qualities of archives, and thus decolonizing them for the future. Redressing inequalities inscribed in an archive's historical recordings and renovating potentially emancipative qualities require relationships to be redefined in structurally altered ways: through a symmetrical recognition of knowledges that were once marginalized, by acknowledging the rights of individuals to sonorities and images they consider their own, and by including these knowledges and rights when engaging in joint theory building. These elements are part of a wider, complex picture of sonic decolonization (see the introduction to this issue). We first consider the reactivation of the archive initiated by Manfred Schäfer, which is connected to soundscapes that concern the Asháninka and Nomatsiguenga of Tres Unidos de Matereni. We then turn to a parallel discussion of the Lambayeque Collection, originally developed by a team of anthropologists and musicologists and now housed at the IDE. How do local coresearchers intervene in regional soundscapes and in what ways do they coproduce them with four anthropologists socialized in archival traditions marked by the specific biases of the Peruvian and transnational Peruvian-German setting described above? We also seek to identify decolonial archival practices that enable more equal modalities of access, listening, and cultural performance in collaboration with local coresearchers who are key players (see Gilliland, 2017). In the current digital era, documenting and archiving have become more accessible in the sense that those once considered nonspecialists now dedicate time to collecting, classifying, and publishing digital artifacts concerning oratory, music, and dance. Yet digital facilities and technology are also unevenly distributed in Peru. Given the constitution of current shared soundscapes, we ask: What archival practices can be developed in the era of digitalization to overcome differential access due to disparities in technology and educational training and to promote instruments that will enable local communities to manage and control their own archives? What kind of soundscape did Schäfer record on his first trip to Matereni in 1978? Many agencies are inscribed in this 80-minute-long, reel-to-reel tape that he labeled “Asháninca”—at a time when the discriminatory exonym “Campa” was still widely in use. His first visit to this community in the western Ene River basin was motivated by an action anthropology approach and his desire to support the community's efforts to obtain a land title as a Comunidad Nativa.2 Securing land based on the Velasco government's land reform was a strategy employed by the pioneer Asháninka organization led by Alberto Quinchoker to counteract the extractivist policies of the Morales Bermúdez and Belaúnde administrations. The state favored “colonization” or land grabbing by Andean settlers, which forced the original inhabitants to work for them as peons. To secure their remaining territory, Asháninka and Nomatsiguenga who lived from a combination of agriculture and hunting, fishing, and gathering joined forces and founded Matereni as a novel central settlement. Schäfer's audio recording documents the large centralizing festivities organized for building alliances. In 1983 those alliances resulted in the Peruvian state granting a land title to Tres Unidos de Matereni (to Matereni together with Chichireni and Anapati). The agencies registered on that tape and on later tapes are polyphonic and encompass the soundscapes of festivities, narrating myths, singing evangelical songs, shamanic chanting, and delivering speeches dedicated to claims on ancestral land. Schäfer recorded men, women, political leaders called pinkatsari, and the ayahuasca shaman at length as key actors in the political issues at stake; he also intervened in these soundscapes himself when coproducing the recordings with Matereni's inhabitants. The analyses supplied in this section are the product of a long-term, collaborative approach to unraveling the tapes and the current Shared Soundscapes project. As an anthropologist, I (Kummels) have kept the multimodal materials of my late companion in my home in Amorbach, Germany, and remember our experiences in Peru, while the people of Matereni have their own memories and tools for evoking these past events. Today various coresearchers from this community dedicate their time to devising collaborative record-keeping and share their archival expertise with that of us anthropologists (Kummels and Barreto) and vice versa. Cesario Chiricente, then Matereni's pinkatsari, was a key sonic activist in 1978 and throughout the 1980s. The tapes reflect his archival skills: the moderation and exegesis of performances at centralized festive soundscapes. His sonic interventions convey the decisive role that Asháninka and Nomatsiguenga ascribe to voices singing, since they perceive their intonation and pitch to be essential for communicating otherworldly forces and mobilizing humans. The voice is pivotal for matikantsi, cosmogonical songs chanted by men, maninkerentsi, sung by women dancing in a row, and tamporotantsi, songs accompanied by a drum. In addition, there are sonkatantsi, instrumental pieces played on pan flutes with five pipes (sonkari). The performers do not attribute agency solely to the materiality of musical instruments and do not keep them for a long time due to a moral obligation to trade almost any object if asked for it. Addressing both the tape recorder and the community gathered before him, Cesario commented on the role of music within Asháninka and Nomatsiguenga cosmology (Figure 1). He highlighted how the complementary performances of women singing and men playing sonkari serve in worshipping manioc, their sacred, staple food. He mobilized the audience by playing pan flute himself and thinking aloud as to how this future remembrance could be accomplished given the limited duration of the tape and batteries. Social hierarchies, gender issues, negotiation of leadership, and concerns over technology are audible in this historical soundscape—as interpreted in the present by his son Simón. In the 1980s, Schäfer would bring cassette copies and photos back to the community, but they have not survived the passing of time, whereas memories of these spectacular festivities, enhanced by novel recording activities, persist. Which sonic actors become involved in reactivating these keepsakes, and what does a collaborative approach entail? In 2014, after a 25-year-long absence, I (Kummels) returned to Matereni. I also started to bring back materials from my/Schäfer's private archive—printed photos, digitized films, and audio (Kummels, 2016). The people of this Comunidad Nativa immediately responded with enormous interest in accessing what they consider part of their local history of sound innovation in the context of land titling. Meanwhile, I was ascribed the role of bridge to the private archive, because I am now a 66-year-old witness to that local history. One of the major changes since the 1980s is the emergence of a myriad of Indigenous organizations—often in alliance with international solidarity groups—that have pressured the Peruvian government. Nevertheless, the latter continues to support private extractive industries, to an extent that state programs for forest management and promotion of cash crop production are unable to offset. The Asháninka and Nomatsiguenga are therefore forced to conduct tough negotiations and sonic diplomacy with the Peruvian government to affirm their identities and further the preservation of the Amazon rainforest. Indigenous leaders consider the recuperation of traditional Asháninka and Nomatsiguenga genres key for conveying demands to land, sustainable management, and education on their own terms. At the grassroots level, these demands are often negotiated within soundscapes where masato, a lightly alcoholic beer made from manioc, is shared by people of all ages, also with children. In Matereni I rapidly found myself explaining, answering questions, laughing and singing (as important forms of interaction) during masato gatherings. This everyday form of Asháninka and Nomatsiguenga sociality (Killick, 2009) has intensified despite radical changes that have occurred since the 1970s—or rather because of them. Exchanging views while drinking masato has been resignified as an antidote to the market logics that increasingly pervade other social realms now that the government has expanded transportation infrastructure into remote rainforest areas to promote cash crop agriculture. At these get-togethers, the skills of storytelling, chanting, and crafting artifacts are practiced, thereby generating knowledge (see Hugh-Jones, 2016). The voicing of queries includes listening to each other's expertise on everyday archiving in a respectful way (see Powell, 2019). The audio recordings that I had brought along were always discussed in this noisy atmosphere accessible to anyone. People brought recorded songs back to life by listening to and resinging them in different ways, often depending on their generation and its respective memories. Masato gatherings are also the soundscape where thorny issues are discussed: To whom do these historical songs belong? How can they be distributed in a way that does not affect the rights of the song's authors? How can they be protected from commercialization? Since the recordings render the voices of central ancestors and were made when the Comunidad Nativa was founded, the opinion that gradually formed was that they belong to the whole community; therefore, they are not an individual, but a communal affair, which requires a consensus at the General Assembly. I proposed publishing a CD compiling historical music from the private archive as a form of securing community rights to that music—discussions all conducted at masato gatherings before a decision was taken at the General Assembly (Comunidad Nativa Tres Unidos de Matereni and Kummels, 2022). In this context we (Barreto and Kummels), together with several community members, identified specific reactivation activities that seemed appropriate for leveling power biases inscribed in the historical materials and advancing the common goal of shifting agency in view of “Asháninkanizing” and “Nomatsiguenganizing” the individual archive: the people in question should be able to manage digital archiving of historical materials on the community's own Internet platform. We are now in close dialogue with Cesario Chiricente's children and the descendants of Shenkari Chobiavante (approximately 1904–1990), a legendary ayahuasca shaman, who play an active part in these issues, due to the agencies inscribed in the tapes. But new stakeholders as well, in particular bilingual teachers, request that the recordings, among them 75 songs of the shaman, circulate in digital versions. Against this backdrop, an event we called Matikantsi Festival was organized (see Kummels, 2023). It is inspired by revitalization activities that bilingual teachers carry out (see below). During the run-up to the anniversary of Matereni's land title, I (Kummels) was asked at the General Assembly to contribute financially; I responded by offering money prizes as an incentive for the best maninkerentsi, sonkatantsi, and matikantsi. On the main day, the anniversary program was packed with student presentations of folkloric music and dance, neatly divided in the tripartite scheme Coast/Sierra/Rainforest. No one seemed to have provided the space or the time for adult men to sing matikantsi. But to our surprise, as soon as land titles for schools had been handed over to the respective authorities, the pinkatsari of Tres Unidos de Matereni intoned a matikantsi. Other chiefs followed his example. All their traditional songs deal with animals and are cosmogonical songs that reflect on the fluid relationships between humans, animals, and nature. The local audience interpreted this soundscape in light of their claims for rainforest conservation, for a long time denied by Peruvian state policies that promoted cattle raising and deforestation as part of a settler extractivist livelihood. Bilingual teachers have become powerful sonic activists who have formed the Organization of Nomatsiguenga and Asháninka Bilingual Teachers of Pangoa (OMABINOAP, by its name in Spanish) to advance intercultural education based on Indigenous mother tongues and cultures. Their reactivation of traditional music has evolved in the context of the District of Pangoa, in which Matereni is one of the key player communities. Since the 1960s, Pangoa has been dominated by Andean settlers who invaded the region in response to the coffee boom; furthermore, teachers called hispanos, mainly of Andean origin, widely control public education, even in most Comunidades Nativas. The revitalization of Indigenous musicianship is tied to claims to age-old territory and giving priority to speakers of Asháninka and Nomatsiguenga to head intercultural education in community schools. Today, creating a soundscape dedicated to traditional genres is a crucial dimension of competitions commonly called juegos ancestrales, ancestral sports games, which include bow-and-arrow contests, Indigenous badminton, and a game similar to basketball. Ancestralidad is a term widely used by revivalists to refer to cultural expressions rooted in a long history, as opposed to what they regard as modern or urban and consider volatile and unsustainable. Ancestralidad forms part of a bilingual teacher's pedagogical framework for developing cognitive and physical skills that affirm children's status as descendants of the first inhabitants of the Central Rainforest. At the II . Educational Intercultural Reactivation of the Original Nomatsiguenga Asháninka Peoples of the Anapati Pangoa Basin in September 2022, bilingual teachers organized music resurgence in an intercultural, anticommercial soundscape: monolingual, Spanish-speaking teachers, mostly of Andean origin, were not invited. “Modern” clothing and industrial foodstuffs were banned. Instead, large quantities of masato were distributed from giant plastic barrels to the hundreds of teachers and pupils invited. A maninkerentsi sung by girls from a first-grade class conveyed ancestralidad: they were performing in elegant, bright yellow tunics (cushmas de gala) considered ancestral, though not at all usual some 30 years ago (see Figure 2). Their song's Nomatsiguenga lyrics were also contemporary: “We are singing to the whole population and our ancestors so that we will not be forgotten. We indeed exist!” Training schoolchildren according to Asháninka and Nomatsiguenga values in this soundscape is not purely symbolic but instead an essential instrument of “Amasonic politics” (see Kummels, 2023): at the strike they organized directly after this event in November, Asháninka and Nomatsiguenga teachers appeared armed with bow and arrow and intoned the same protest/war songs in their languages while blocking traffic all along the Central Rainforest's main artery over a week. They were successful in pressuring the ministry of education to restore their cultural rights (Channel N, 2022). What kind of practice and process does the individual archive become in the course of reactivation? Today the web of people collaborating on this endeavor does not only consist of descendants of those who were recorded decades ago. They also include men and women across several generations, as well as pinkatsari and bilingual teachers, who are increasingly becoming politically influential. When these sonic activists follow up on the diverse agencies inscribed in the recorded historical soundscapes, they modify and expand the private archive to advance a common goal: they believe that Indigenous communities like Tres Unidos de Matereni should decide where an individual archive containing part of their cultural legacy is ultimately stored and how it should be used. The Matikantsi Festival and the CD are examples of ways to strike new archival paths geared toward greater equality. The Lambayeque Collection is taking shape as we (Cánepa and Maradiegue) name it, use it, and reflect on its materials. In turn, the collection shapes the historical and contemporary soundscapes of the region.3 Previous recording methodologies of the IDE team in other regions followed a one-year calendar of religious festivals and rituals, prioritizing the recording of long sequences that captured performances from beginning to end, highlighting festive contexts of music and dance. Therefore, the identity of musicians and dancers and questions of authorship were overlooked. In Lambayeque, however, aside from public celebrations, private gatherings such as birthdays, marriages, and courtesy visits are important events where musical genres such as coplas, tristes, marineras, and tonderos are played for entertainment and dancing. Hence, in 1990 the IDE team arranged interviews and recording sessions during visits to musicians’ homes, which led to closer

Development of the Acoustic Comfort Assessment Scale (ACAS-12): Psychometric properties, validity evidence and back-translation between Spanish and English

Abstract: A methodological proposal of a scale for human perception assessment of acoustic environment (acoustic comfort) in urban public spaces is presented: Acoustic Comfort Assessment Scale (ACAS 12). This paper shows the process of constructing this scale and its psychometric properties and validation. The approach is based on the soundscape conceptualisation collected in ISO 12913–1:2014 (Acoustics—Soundscape: Definition and conceptual framework). The proposed scale is a 5-point semantic differential scale made up of twelve pairs of bipolar adjectives, grouped around five theoretical dimensions. It is based on previous versions of 2-point and 3-point scales. The ACAS-12 scale is the result of several empirical studies carried out by the authors on environmental and acoustic comfort assessment, beginning in 2011 in some cities of the Basque Country (Spain). Selected urban open places cover a wide variability of acoustic and non-acoustic characteristics, as well as the type of participants (real users) and activities carried out in these places. The original language of this scale is Spanish. The back-translation technique has been applied to create the English version. The results highlight the good psychometric properties of the ACAS 12 scale (Cronbach’s alpha 0.91 and composite reliability 0.90) and indicate that the best factorial solution is that of a single factor composed of the 12 pairs of adjectives that would explain approximately 50% of the ACAS-12 variance (44% of extracted variance by Raykov’s method or 56% by the MAP test). The absolute and incremental fit indices were above the minimum reference value of 0.90 and the residual-based indices showed values close to suitability (SRMR = 0.057; RMSEA = 0.042). This result supports the consideration of the ACAS-12 scale as a general measure of acoustic comfort.

CUREE: A Curious Underwater Robot for Ecosystem Exploration

Abstract: The current approach to exploring and monitoring complex underwater ecosystems, such as coral reefs, is to conduct surveys using diver-held or static cameras, or deploying sensor buoys. These approaches often fail to capture the full variation and complexity of interactions between different reef organisms and their habitat. The CUREE platform presented in this paper provides a unique set of capabilities in the form of robot behaviors and perception algorithms to enable scientists to explore different aspects of an ecosystem. Examples of these capabilities include low-altitude visual surveys, soundscape surveys, habitat characterization, and animal following. We demonstrate these capabilities by describing two field deployments on coral reefs in the US Virgin Islands. In the first deployment, we show that CUREE can identify the preferred habitat type of snapping shrimp in a reef through a combination of a visual survey, habitat characterization, and a soundscape survey. In the second deployment, we demonstrate CUREE's ability to follow arbitrary animals by separately following a barracuda and stingray for several minutes each in midwater and benthic environments, respectively.

Informing sound art design in public space through soundscape simulation

Abstract: Urban sound management often amounts to reducing sound levels with the underlying assumption of sound/noise as a nuisance. However, a reduction in sound level does not necessarily lead to a more pleasant auditory experience, especially in urban public spaces where vibrancy can be sought after. A proactive design approach that accounts for the human experience of sound environment is needed to improve the quality of urban spaces. Recent studies in soundscape research suggest that added sound and particularly sound art installations can have a positive influence on public space evaluations. Yet, the role of added sounds in urban context remains understudied and there is no existing method to date to inform sound art composition in public space through soundscape simulation. We present here a research-creation collaboration around the design of a permanent sound installation in an urban public space in Paris: Nadine Schütz's Niches Acoustiques. We report on a series of listening tests involving High-Order Ambisonic soundscape simulations of different prototypes to inform the sound artist's composition in order to optimize the quality of public space experience in the presence of the sound installation.

Noise and soundscape in Welsh planning policy

Abstract: In Wales, noise policy now sits within the sustainable development framework of our Well-being of Future Generations Act. Under this Act, public bodies must look to the long term; take an integrated approach; involve a diversity of the population in decisions affecting them; work with others in a collaborative way to find shared sustainable solutions; and act to prevent problems from occurring or getting worse. The Welsh Government has adopted a Noise and Soundscape Action Plan calling for the creation of appropriate soundscapes, meaning "the right acoustic environment in the right time and place". We have rewritten Planning Policy Wales and included appropriate soundscapes amongst our National Sustainable Placemaking Outcomes. We committed to providing further guidance to support planning policy on air quality, noise and soundscape, and drafted a new Technical Advice Note, with a supporting document on soundscape design. Soundscape design in Wales means more than just design of the sound environment. It is a process giving as much weight to people and context as to the sounds themselves, from the outset. This approach is expected to be followed, referring to soundscape standards where appropriate, when and to the extent it may be expected to result in better placemaking.

Measuring the Soundscape Quality in Urban Spaces; A Case Study of Historic Urban Area

Abstract: The goals of a good soundscape are to create a sense of place, provide comfort to the users, and encourage intractability in a public space. At the same time, many public areas in cities are having problems due to the weakness in creating the opportunity for people to attend. Therefore, knowing the importance of the subject, this study has measured the aspects of the sonic environment and investigated its effect on the attendance of 15 Khordad Street, District 12, Tehran. The results of this study showed that attendance in urban spaces based on the aspects of the sonic environment focuses on the quality of the surrounding environment as a source of sound. By assessing the perceptual and sensory aspects of sounds in the environment, it is possible to understand the effects of sound on the behaviors, activities, and overall pleasantness of the space for the users. Based on the three statistical communities related to the study, among the key findings, we show that the majority of attendance to the case area was for the purpose of studying, shopping, and work, and despite the fact that this case study is a historic area, people are less willing to attend it. This street, part of which is designed as a pedestrian area, encourages individualism, and not bringing friends and family along is reinforced by unpleasant psychological effects. Since nowadays the problems of the sonic environment are expanding in cities, and noise pollution in some parts of Tehran is considered a major environmental problem, the findings of this study have taken a step to increase urban sustainability and try to improve the main criteria and results, which were to rationally evaluate the existing situation of attendance in urban spaces affected by the qualities of the sonic environment, to promote the policy and strategic city planning for city managers.

Human diversity in acoustics. Towards a more inclusive sound environment.

Abstract: The study of human responses to sound generally recognises the great importance of taking into account the diversity existent in sounds and acoustics environments, but it rarely adopts the same approach with respect to the diversity in human beings and their responses, providing results as averages meant to represent the 'normal' response, and disregarding discrepancies as 'outliers'. In this paper, neurodiversity and autism is presented as part of the aural diversity factors that can lead to having different experiences of sounds, and an ongoing doctoral research project aiming at representing autistic people's experiences of the acoustic environment is introduced. Differences in perception of sounds can entail different challenges and needs, that are not currently contemplated in acoustics and soundscape research. The authors believe that all these aspects ought to be considered to widen our understanding of the field, to improve research and practice, and to create acoustic environments that are not just designed for a limited part of the population.

The effects of audio-visual perceptual characteristics on environmental health of pedestrian streets with traffic noise: A case study in Dalian, China

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected city dwellers’ physical and mental health and has raised concerns about the health of urban public spaces. This field investigation research in Dalian, China, examined the perceived audio-visual environment characteristics of urban pedestrian streets with traffic noise and their influences on the environmental health of the pedestrian streets. Five indicators reflecting psychological responses to environmental characteristics (willingness to walk, relaxation, safety, beauty, and comprehensive comfort) were used to measure environmental health of pedestrian streets with traffic noise. The results showed that safety was rated the highest, and willingness to walk was evaluated as the lowest among health evaluation indicators. The imageability and openness of the streetscape were associated with each health evaluation indicator. In contrast, the rhythm and continuity of the street buildings had a greater effect on willingness to walk than the other health indicators. There were negative correlations between LAeq for traffic noise and health evaluations. Positive health evaluations were observed when LAeq was less than 55 dBA. In contrast, soundscape indicators showed positive correlations with health evaluations, and acoustic comfort and noise annoyance, rather than sound preference and subjective loudness were associated with each health evaluation indicator. In terms of the combined audio-visual factors, acoustic comfort, the quantity of greening, annoyance, sky visibility, spatial scale, and building distance were examined as the determining factors affecting health evaluations, and 55.40% of the variance in health evaluations was explained by the soundscape and streetscape indicators. The findings provide references for better understanding the relationships between healthy experience and audio-visual perceptions. Moreover, they enable environmental health quality optimisation of pedestrian spaces considering audio-visual indicators and approaches in the post-epidemic era.

A journey through the field of fish hearinga).

Abstract: My interest in fish bioacoustics was ignited more than 50 years ago and resulted in a zigzag time travel between various interesting problems that were unsettled at the time. The present paper gives a brief overview of the main topics I have worked on in the field of fish hearing, i.e., auditory function of the swim bladder, directional hearing, function of the lateral line system, and infrasound sensitivity. Rather than being a comprehensive review of these issues, the paper is autobiographical and limited. The aim is to show young scientists that experimental science can be exciting, diverse, and rewarding-and open doors to a rich collegial network, collaboration, and friendships.

Differences in the whistles of two ecotypes of bottlenose dolphins from the Gulf of California.

Abstract: Intraspecific whistle variation in dolphins has been explained in the context of geographical isolation, soundscape, and social structure. Whistles of two ecotypes of bottlenose dolphins from La Paz Bay, Gulf of California, were analyzed. Both ecotypes showed similar whistle contours. However, they could be identified by contour maximum frequency which was predominantly above 15 kHz for oceanic dolphins and below 15 kHz for coastal dolphins. The different whistle frequencies of the two ecotypes could result from differences in group size and acoustic characteristics of their respective habitats, suggesting potential future passive acoustic monitoring applications.

The eventful environment that characterises Indonesia's urban soundscape

Abstract: Noise control is still one method to improve the urban acoustic environment in many countries, including Indonesia. The noise control tries to reduce the sound level in a particular space to increase comfort. In other words, the acoustic environment is designed to be comfortable and uneventful. Previous studies have shown that public spaces in Indonesian cities have a unique sound than cities in developed countries. Here, further studies to investigate whether the soundscapes of these cities are also unique are reported. Soundscape surveys added with sound pressure level (SPL) measurement and audio recording in 28 public places in ten major Indonesian cities indicate that a noise control approach to provide acoustic comfort and uneventful public spaces may not suit Indonesia. The analysis shows that, in general, the soundscape is perceived as an eventful environment, which is compatible with the SPL and audio recording. Furthermore, the results were significant among the ten cities. This study shows that soundscape improvement should focus on developing an environment that is perceived as eventful and comfortable at the same time. Therefore, a different strategy is needed to improve the acoustic environment in Indonesia.

Self-Consistent Soundscape Ranking Index: The Case of an Urban Park

Abstract: We have performed a detailed analysis of the soundscape inside an urban park (located in the city of Milan) based on simultaneous sound recordings at 16 locations within the park. The sound sensors were deployed over a regular grid covering an area of about 22 hectares, surrounded by a variety of anthropophonic sources. The recordings span 3.5 h each over a period of four consecutive days. We aimed at determining a soundscape ranking index (SRI) evaluated at each site in the grid by introducing 4 unknown parameters. To this end, a careful aural survey from a single day was performed in order to identify the presence of 19 predefined sound categories within a minute, every 3 minutes of recording. It is found that all SRI values fluctuate considerably within the 70 time intervals considered. The corresponding histograms were used to define a dissimilarity function for each pair of sites. Dissimilarity was found to increase significantly with the inter-site distance in space. Optimal values of the 4 parameters were obtained by minimizing the standard deviation of the data, consistent with a fifth parameter describing the variation of dissimilarity with distance. As a result, we classify the sites into three main categories: “poor”, “medium” and “good” environmental sound quality. This study can be useful to assess the quality of a soundscape in general situations.