stuffinablank::listen to the world: online soundscapes



THIS EXHIBITION SHOWS SOME ONLINE PROJECTS OF SOUNDSCAPES. + The word soundscape was coined by composer R. Murray Schafer to identify sounds that describe a place, a sonic identity, a sonic memory, but always a sound that is pertinent to a place. + the world soundscape project wikipedia mediatecaonline + selection by PEDRO TORRES

project carried out by institution artist/personal soundmap level global regional local	SELECTED PROJECTS
		THE BRITISH LIBRARY HOLDS ONE OF THE WORLD'S FOREMOST SOUND ARCHIVES WITH A COLLECTION OF OVER 3.5 MILLION AUDIO RECORDINGS. The Archival Sound Recordings is the result of a development project to increase access to the British Library Sound Archive's extensive collections. The audio recordings come from all over the world and cover the entire range of recorded sound from music, drama and literature, to oral history, wildlife and environmental sounds. Online we can explore miles of selected recordings of music, spoken word and human and natural environments in interactive soundmaps.

		SOUNDCITIES IS A HUGE SOUNDSCAPE OF THE WORLD MADE BY STANZA, A LONDON BASED MULTIMEDIA ARTIST. AS HE DEFINES: Soundcities is an online database of the thousands of sounds from around the world. The website also has series on online mixing desks where you can mix these sounds. Soundcities uses city recorded soundscapes from world cities made over the last five years. All the sounds are now online also online as open source sounds. The database allows full open sourced access and listening to the individual sounds. The Database is also open so anyone can upload sounds they collect from world cities, thereby making a contribution to the project and making an online sounds archive.

		RADIO APOREE MAPS IS AN OPEN PROJECT ABOUT THE EXPLORATION OF PUBLIC SOUNDSCAPES. It collects and organizes recordings of daily surroundings and other sonic environments from all over the world. The sounds are organized within a mashup system of mapping software, databases, telephone networks and the internet.

		LOCUSTREAM SOUNDMAP IS AN ONLINE PROJECT OF LOCUS SONUS, A RESEARCH GROUP SPECIALIZED IN AUDIO ART. This group is organized as a post graduate lab by the Art Schools of Aix en Provence (ESAA) and Nice ENSA Villa Arson. Locus Sonus is concerned with the innovative and transdisciplinary nature of audio art forms, in the framework of networked sonic spaces, some of which are experimented and evaluated in a lab type context.

		THE FREESOUND PROJECT AIMS TO CREATE A HUGE COLLABORATIVE DATABASE OF AUDIO SNIPPETS, SAMPLES, RECORDINGS, ETC RELEASED UNDER THE CREATIVE COMMONS SAMPLING PLUS LICENSE. Through the geotagged map of sounds we can find a world soundscape.

		SOUNDTRANSIT IS A COLLABORATIVE, ONLINE COMMUNITY DEDICATED TO FIELD RECORDING AND PHONOGRAPHY. In this website we can find field recordings from all over the world.

		SOUNDMAPS OF TOKYO, AICHI, CHIBA, IBARAKI, NAGANO, KANAGAWA.

		QUIET AMERICAN, A SAN FRANCISCO BASED ARTIST, MAKES FIELD RECORDINGS AND WORKS WITH THEM IN DIFFERENT WAYS. In his website we can find field recordings of Vietnam, Fiji Islands, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Nepal and the San Francisco Bay; not showed as a soundmap but giving an idea of the sonic identity or memory of those places.

		ESCOITAR IS AN OPEN NETWORK COMMUNITY AND HAS ITS FOCUS ON THE SOUNDSCAPE OF GALICIA, SPAIN. BASED ON PREMISES THAT: the sounds are not renewable materials and to capture them and expose them implies enlarging their life, generating new spaces, alive and mutants.To find the bioacustic balance of a place, to create portraits or sound postcards, and to create an online situation map and a description of these places through its sonic landscapes helps the construction of a geographical zone identity; the sound as patrimony, the sound as historical document.

		PAISATGE SONOR I TERRITORIS INTANGIBLES IS RUN BY PAISATGESONORUB, A RESEARCH GROUP IN SOUND ART based in the University of Barcelona. This soundscape is about the Catalonian region. Go to this link to see more links about soundscapes and sound art.

		SOUNDSCAPE OF BARCELONA IS A PERSONAL PROJECT BY PEDRO TORRES. THE AIM OF THIS PROJECT IS TO create a soundscape of Barcelona through field recordings of different parts of the city, making a spatiotemporal representation of the urban landscape.

		SONS DE BARCELONA IS A PROJECT BY FREESOUND.ORG AND THE MUSIC TECHNOLOGY GROUP OF UNIVERSITY POMPEU FABRA. The goal of Sons de Barcelona is the creation of a collaborative database of the sounds of Barcelona city.

		BADIAFONIA IS A SONIC CARTOGRAPHY OF BADIA DEL VALLÈS. THE PROJECT PROPOSES A WALK BY THE CITY through the memories, emotions and experiences of its residents.

		BERLIN WALL OF SOUND IS A PROJECT OF NETAUDIO BERLIN AND IS THE SOUNDSCAPE OF THE BERLIN WALL. As the festival theme of 2009 was ‘East meets West’ and it occurred just before the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall, Netaudio initiated this special project: Berlin Wall of Sound, a sound map of the Berlin Wall. Considering the variety of sites such as streets, parks, rivers and open countryside that lie on it’s route it should be possible to make a varied sonic tapestry of the entire route.

		BERLINCAST, SOUNDS AND NOISES FROM BERLIN, WAS LAUNCHED BY YUKIO VAN MAREN KING AS A PLATFORM to list some recordings of different public spaces in Berlin.

		THE SOUNDMAP OF COLOGNE CONTAINS A BUNCH OF SELECTED FIELD RECORDINGS MADE IN COLOGNE. The recordings are not Veedel-related; which means that no district in town is preffered or unfavoured. Step by step the profile of Cologne’s sonic world will be scaled down on the soundmap.

		LONDON SOUND SURVEY OFFERS DIFFERENT SOUNDMAPS OF LONDON THROUGH RECORDINGS OF BACKGROUND atmospheres and incidental noises from all over the city. London Sound Survey records the sounds of everyday public life throughout London and compiles past accounts, historical references, to show how the sound environment has changed.

		MONTRÉAL SOUND MAP IS DONE BY CESSA (CONCORDIA ELECTROACUSTIC STUDIES STUDENT ASSOCIATION). Its aim is to create an archival database of sound recordings from all over Montréal. The Montréal Sound Map is an ongoing and continually evolving project with the goal of a constant addition of new recordings being placed into a browsable tagging system.

		SOUND-SEEKER IS A SOUNDMAP OF NEW YORK CITY AND IS PART OF NYSOUNDMAP PROJECT OF THE NEW YORK Society for Acoustic Ecology (NYSAE), an organization dedicated to exploring the role of sound in natural habitats and human societies, and promoting public dialog concerning the identification, preservation, and restoration of natural and cultural sound environments. The project reaches across the city's geographic, economic, educational, cultural and racial divides. It is at once a historical record and a subjective representation of the city.

		IN THIS PROJECT, FOLK SONGS FOR THE FIVE POINTS, WE FIND A SOUNDMAP OF A CONCRETE PART OF NEW YORK, WHICH IS USED AS A RESOURCE TO MIX THE RECORDINGS CREATING WHAT THEY CALLED FOLK SONGS. Folk Songs for the Five Points was created in response to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum’s invitation for a project which responded to the request for works that explore contemporary immigrant experiences in New York City.

		IN SILENCE RADIO THE NOTION OF SOUNDSCAPE IS QUESTIONED IN A SPECIAL EDITION CALLED 'SOUNDSCAPE FOREVER', DONE IN COLLABORATION WITH KUNSTRADIO. Silence Radio is a space of listening dedicated to contemporary radio creations.