Three Tools for Sonic Rupture: Translating Ambiance, Biophilic Sound Design and More-Than-Human Listening
Three Tools for Sonic Rupture: Translating Ambiance, Biophilic Sound Design and More-Than-Human Listening

Summary/Abstract: Sounds of the city shape everyday perception; thus, as sounds change,so do our moods and responses to the environments in which we live. This articleis part of a discourse trying to recognise the essential role that soundscape designshould play in urban planning to improve quality of life experiences. It aimsto discuss three tools for creating sonic ruptures in urban environments: translatingambiance, biophilic sound design, and more-than-human listening. The three toolsare related to the sonic rupture concept, introduced as a form of soundscape designfocused on improving the quality of life for urban dwellers and creating new possibleapproaches for urban design. Translating ambiance leverages ambiance theoryto explore the prospects of translating the affective qualities of the natural worldinto cities. The biophilic sound design tool combines biophilic design and fieldrecording practices to discover innovative ways to bring the sounds of nature intothe city. The more-than-human listening tool explores the possible recordings thatmulti-microphone arrays can make in natural environments that, while impossibleto hear with the human ear, can be integrated into urban installations. In combination,this suite of tools presents new ways of thinking about the roles artisticresearch can play in urban soundscape design as a means to expand the rangeof human experience – and thus the quality of life – in urban environments. Thenature term, as used here, refers to those expanses of land free of urban developmentthat present unique sonic experiences and expressions to the artistic researcher,which can be applied to urban design. The described approach has beentested in the creation of the Sonic Gathering Place, an installation that integratesthe three post-sonic rupture tools, which will be touched on briefly in this paper.

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