Soundwalk Around UCSD Medical Center #1

I wanted to do a soundwalk from my neighborhood to the UCSD Medical Center, so on a Saturday (5/31/14) I recorded my walk to the hospital, around the hospital, and back to where I started. This was my first soundwalk and I was surprised at how the soundscape was moderately quiet. I knew there would be less traffic on a Saturday, but I thought there would be more ambulance sirens and human activity around the building. However, I found myself listening more to trees rustling and birds chirping when I was by the canyon behind the hospital. Once I made it around the hospital though into the neighboring streets, there were more cars passing by, people talking, and construction going on.

In this recording I was walking towards the hospital and there were more traffic sounds. There is a bus transit stop next to the hospital, which contributes to the traffic. (Sorry for the squeaking from my shoes. I won't wear those flip flops for soundwalks anymore!)


Here, I am starting from the UCSD shuttle pick up point on the side of the hospital then circling behind the hospital.

In front of me

Behind me

Pictures of the canyon:

After circling the hospital, I walked on the neighboring streets and lingered by a small construction site toward the end of the recording. 

The construction site:

 No one was in the front of the site:

My first Soundwalk experience:

I was nervous at first going on a soundwalk because I did not know what to expect. Instead of walking in the neighborhood to reach a destination, I was walking with a different purpose. My hearing was more acute and I was focused on sounds that I usually qualify as ambient and usual. I was also nervous because I was holding my black recorder in my hand and had on headphones so I could listen to what the recorder was hearing. I thought that passersby would look at me weirdly and question why I had a recorder in my hand. I was very paranoid that someone would think I was from the NSA. However, no one really cared.

At one point in the previous recordings a neighbor said hello to me and people running or walking passed me were in their own zones. When I was closer to the hospital I was more nervous since there are security cameras and officers on duty. There was one officer who looked at me briefly when I was recording the hum of a generator, but he eventually got into his car and drove off. Other than that, I walked around the hospital with no problems.

I recommend anyone who is interested in recording and documenting a soundwalk to try it. My attention to detail and awareness of my surroundings increased. I looked at the landscape of people's yards, what trees were moving in the wind, the direction of car sounds, and how each sound contributed to the overall soundscape.

Some Issues of Soundscape and Acoustic Ecology

Throughout both online and academic articles, there is a debate about which is more beneficial for humans: natural sounds or sounds of human activity. The distinction that these sounds are for humans is important. Unless you are searching for animal rights or national park sources, the impact of sounds on the non-human residents is discussed. The noise impact on animals and insects will have to be investigated later, but this is one issue when discussing the discourse on soundscapes and acoustic ecology.

As mentioned before, Murray Schafer divided the soundscape into lo-fi and hi-fi. Lo-fi is associated with noisy soundscapes that depict busy city life and hi-fi is when "sounds overlap less frequently; there is more perspective--foreground and background" (1977, 43). A hi-fi soundscape is more rural and quiet.

Dr. Andra McCartney questions this method of defining soundscape by asking,"if hi-fi and lo-fi is to delineate a boundary between modern and pre-modern, industrial and natural, city and countryside, what do we do with noisy nature and sparse city soundscapes?" (24). She argues that people seek out both hi-fi and lo-fi soundscapes for different reasons. People may have emotional and personal ties to a soundscape that should be accounted for when discussing the merits of natural and human sounds. In this project I am similarly asking the same question and my recordings seem to convey a sound that is between a hi-fi and lo-fi soundscape. At times, I am within a sparse city soundscape.

Later in the article she discusses soundscape compositions. At the beginning of my soundscape interests, I thought I would create a piece based on the field recordings from my neighborhood. I entertained the idea of including clips of everything I heard in the past month or a compilation track of only ambulance sirens. However, after much thought I decided not to compose a piece out of the soundscape. I was not sure why I was so against creating a piece until I read McCartney's article. She says that, "(e)ach time a soundscape composer designs a soundwalk or a theatre piece, an installation or broadcast work, relationships with the world are expressed through how the maker treats the place, the sounds and the audience" (24). She goes on to describe how the composer has to make decisions about what aspects should be highlighted and what ideas are being masked unto a place.

This is exactly why I chose not to do a composition. I am in the early stages of investigating soundscapes and somehow I feel it would be a disservice to represent the neighborhood as having a surplus of  ambulance sounds or natural sounds. This would go against my previous argument that a diversity of sounds exists in the neighborhood. The soundscape has a certain amount of nature and sparse urban soundscape that at this point would not be represented well if I had my own composition. The recordings thus far are not compositions. They are field recordings and soundwalks that represent my interest in certain sounds in the neighborhood, but are not altered or edited for a specific purpose.

Dr. Andra McCartney is the major researcher in Sound Walking Interactions, so I will continue to model some of her soundwalking methods as the project progresses.

In the article Discrete Mapping of Urban Soundscapes, Olivier Balay describes how the E.U. directive of June 25, 2002 created an influx of research grants and public sector spending on quantitative acoustic maps. He asks, who is going to use them? And, how will they serve to improve the urban soundscape? He wants to build new kinds of sound maps that are more descriptive and can supplement the information provided by the mapping of acoustic measurements.

Instead of creating an attitude of control and insulation of urban sounds from the domestic space, society should listen to urban sounds to describe what sounds are comforting and what sounds are not. This may help to gauge what people within a territory think of their surroundings. This method may also engage and facilitate debate between all those involved in urban development. In Acoustic Ecology and some literature on Soundscapes, urban planning and development is a major theme. Balay is coming from this background and incorporates sound as an important component in designing urban spaces.

Although I am not explicitly looking at the historical urban development in Hillcrest, I think it is important to include how other people describe the landscape and soundscape of the neighborhood. When other buildings were built or torn down, did the sounds change? There are residents who have lived in the area for years, while others have just moved in. Having a multitude of descriptions would help to create a better explanation of the neighborhood soundscape.

McCartney, Andra. "Ethical Questions about Working with Soundscapes." Journal of Acoustic

Ecology (2010): 24-25.

Schafer, R. Murray. The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Rochester:

Destiny Books, 1977.

A Soundscape of Ambulance Sirens

Emergency vehicle sirens are a necessary evil in the urban environment. The combination of lights and sirens are a warning to the surrounding traffic. However, the tonal sounds produced are not always directional, so it can be difficult to tell where the emergency vehicle is coming from. This chaotic reaction includes those in vehicles, pedestrians, and those inside their homes. In my apartment, the walls are paper thin and chances are good that the windows are open.

Within a neighborhood that is neither a rural or densely urban soundscape, the ambulance's piercing sirens can be all the more disturbing. The sirens are both expected and not expected. The sounds are expected because the presence of two hospitals in the neighborhood forms a soundscape of occasional high trafficked sound. Ambulance sirens, helicopters, and car traffic are characteristic sounds of this residential/urban neighborhood. 

Yet, the ambulances are unexpected because they cannot be tracked exactly everyday. Accidents happen and as they occur, ambulances respond at any time of the day. The time of day and amount of traffic effect what kind of siren the ambulance will make. Small warning sirens occur when there is less traffic and contains unexpected rhythms and variations of sounds, while a full volume customary siren usually occurs when there is more traffic.

At any rate, the sirens are loud and unpredictable. Although ambulance operators mostly abide by the aforementioned less traffic, more traffic rules, unexpected loudness within a moderately quiet soundscape can be frustrating and daunting. Sometimes in the wee hours of the morning sirens will be wailing enough to wake up everyone in the neighborhood. Is this action too excessive? Many articles describe this exact problem. Are emergency vehicle drivers abusing their power? And are there ways to change the current siren norms? 

Both Noise Abatement Society and Rodney C. Lawley's article Emergency Fire and Police Sirens; The Loud Noise Bully of the Twenty-First Century, address issues of emergency vehicle technology and excessive noise or noise pollution.

Noise Abatement Society is a UK based group that raises awareness of noise pollution. They have many campaigns that they lobby for, one topic being emergency vehicle sirens. To end the confusion and non-directional siren technology that currently exists, they are advocating for "a broadband sound siren [that] matches current needs, but [has] greater directivity and less adverse impact on the health and safety of staff, patients, the public, especially at night, and other road users (pedestrians, cyclists and motor vehicle drivers) and the environment (noise nuisance)" (NAS). Broadband sound technology is directional and uses multiple frequencies of sound. However, it is unclear whether this type of technology would be able to cut through loud car stereo systems and general urban noise. There is no agreement as to whether this type of technology would be quieter than conventional sirens.

Lawley discusses emergency vehicle sirens in general (police, fire department, ambulance), but his concerns are also borne out of frustration and distrust in the operators of those vehicles. Also, to combat the "current onslaught of noise" new technology (the Howler) is becoming the standard piece of equipment in emergency vehicles throughout the U.S. The Howler uses a low frequency bass tone to penetrate vehicles two-hundred feet away. Essentially, people would literally feel the siren before they could hear the higher siren frequencies or see the vehicle. The siren would in theory also be able to penetrate homes and residences as it passed by as well. I have not experienced this type of technology yet, however how emergency vehicles are negotiating between noisy urban soundscapes and the need to warn those on the road is disturbing. The stress and physical harm that these sirens are causing is still uncertain.

After a month I was able to finally record the perfect ambulance example. At other times I was not near my recorder nor was not home to witness the sound. However, I hear this type of siren a few times a week. The ambulance nears the intersection by the apartment at full siren volume and then speeds away, while the dogs in the background are howling. 

Lawley, Rodney C. “Emergency Fire and Police Sirens: The Loud Noise Bully of the Twenty-First

Century.” Last modified December 23, 2012.

http://kryptowrite.hubpages.com/hub/Emergency-Vehicle-Sirens-The-Noise-Bully-of-the-Twenty-First-Century

Noise Abatement Society. “SoundScape.” Accessed May 12, 2014.

http://noiseabatementsociety.com/soundscapeezine/past/

Hillcrest Hospitals

UCSD Hillcrest Medical Center 

Before I explain the topic of ambulance and emergency vehicle sirens, I would first like to describe the institutions in Hillcrest that are the foci for the sirens. The UC San Diego Health System began in 1966. The private teaching hospital is the region's only academic medical center and contains 386 hospital beds. 

Scripps Mercy Hospital

The hospitals are about five blocks away from each other. This private Catholic teaching hospital was founded in 1890 and is the oldest hospital in San Diego county. The hospital has 700 beds, employs 1,300 physicians, and receives more than 2,100 trauma patients every year (Scripps: About Page).

It appears that the Scripps Mercy Hospital receives more emergency patients than UCSD Medical Center. However, I live closer to the UCSD Medical Center and encounter this hospital more often. This is not to say that the ambulance sirens are not coming from UCSDMC, but the combined noise I am hearing must be coming from both hospitals.

Nature v. Human Sounds

Behind the UCSD Hospital and

A small construction site within a short walking distance of the hospital

As stated in my previous post, what is most interesting to me are the amounts of nature and human sounds that are present in the neighborhood. This observation may not be unique and other neighborhoods might also share this trait. I have found that there is a constant stream of natural sounds underlying the sounds of human activity. The soundscape I am describing is neither a high trafficked, condensed urban area or a rural/suburban residential area that is surrounded by quietness. The soundscape is somewhere in between. Sometimes it is hard to hear birds, crickets, dogs, and trees creaking, but they are present along with bus engines, car alarms, and helicopter propellers.

However, there are times when the soundscape is so quiet that it is unnerving. The usual sirens, buses, helicopters, etc. are not heavily present in this recording:


Divisions:

Nature v. Human

Much soundscape literature describes a division between sounds of nature and sounds of human activity. According to Bernie Krause, the soundscape is comprised of three active acoustic sources, biophony, geophony, and anthrophony. The sounds of living organisms are biophony; landscape sounds (running water and trees rustling) are geophony, and human activity (construction and moving vehicles), which are called anthrophony. These acoustic sources can sometimes be independent of one another, or combine in various combinations. Most of my recordings contain biophony and anthrophony, but some of the soundwalking recordings especially by the canyon behind the hospital contain geophony. I will not use this terminology throughout the blog, but instead cite it as an example of how there are different types of natural and human sound.

Lo-fi v. Hi-fi and Reactions to Sound

Murray Schafer describes two distinct soundscapes created by the environment, which are hi-fi and lo-fi. A rural landscape contains more hi-fi fequencies because more discrete sounds can be heard since there is little background noise. Conversely, lo-fi soundscapes are characteristic of an urban or city soundscape. Every sound is close and compact because there are too many sounds, and you can only clearly hear close encounters.

In Tim Beatley's article Celebrating the Natural Soundscapes of Cities, he suggests that we "often tend to emphasize those sounds that are negative or dangerous or unpleasant, but we rarely work to understand what the important positive and therapeutic sounds are in our communities." As I began recording my neighborhood from my apartment and through soundwalks, I began to notice the subtleties of the natural sounds around me. The sounds I associated as negative (construction, ambulances, car traffic, etc.) still remained, but were not necessarily my focus of attention. Furthermore, Beatley says that non-human inhabitants can sometimes adapt to urban noise better than we can, as grasshoppers have adjusted the frequency of their calls and response. Also, sparrows have modified their songs in response to urban traffic noise. In some of my recordings, birds and crickets have kept making noise, while the ambulance sirens and loud construction remains a constant distraction for me. Of course, I do not know if their chatter is from fear or adaptation, but the presence of their sound warrants some mention.

The last interesting point from Beatley was that air conditioning is one reason why Americans have physical barriers (windows) to hearing the outside world. In this argument, I believe he is discussing neighborhoods that are not necessarily in dense urban areas. Beatley argues that keeping the windows open can at least create the "conditions for closer contact with the outside world." One can feel the natural breezes, smell the outside, and hear the neighborhood. Although this is a more intuitive claim, I can relate to the fact that I now live in a warmer climate and my apartment does not have air conditioning. As a result, I have to keep my windows open for fresh air and cool breeze. This also may be one reason why I have been extra sensitive to the sounds that occur outside.

The presence of both natural and human sounds is an important aspect of my investigation into the neighborhood soundscape. Although, I will focus on the intensity of hospital traffic (sirens, helicopters, buses, cars), there will be brief explorations into the surrounding natural sounds.

Here is a list of a few sounds I have recently heard and recorded:

Nature Sounds:

• Wind
• Trees Rustling, branches creaking
• Crickets
• Birds
• Dogs
• Cat
• Moderately quiet Hi-fi soundscape

Human Activity:

• Construction (saw, drill, jackhammer, hammer)
• Cars, motorcycles, buses at the four-way stop
• Neighbors talking, eating, watching tv
• Cars coming in and out of the garage below the apartment
• The clanging of the garage door opening below the apartment
• Ambulance sirens and emergency vehicles
• Helicopter (air lifts from hospital and police helicopters)
• Fireworks in the distance
• Not quite Lo-fi soundscape

Beatley, Tim. “Celebrating the Natural Soundscapes of Cities.” Last modified January 13, 2013.

http://www.thenatureofcities.com/2013/01/13/celebrating-the-natural-soundscapes-of-cities/

Krause, Bernie. "Anatomy of the Soundscape," Journal of the Audio Engineering Society (2008): 73-80.

Schafer, R. Murray. The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Rochester:

Destiny Books, 1977.

What is City Sound Blocks?

City Sound Blocks is a project that grew out of a Graduate seminar in Ecomusicology. There are a few other blogs dedicated to soundwalking and soundscape material, such as Soundwalking Interactions. This blog was partly inspired by the Soundwalking Interactions research group that explores soundwalks and interactive installations to engage people and raise issues about various locations and their histories. 

Instead of Soundwalking Interactions' approch of including the history of the neighborhood, creating compositions out of the soundscape or creating installations based on the soundscape, I would like to take a smaller, descriptive and focused approach to what I hear in my neighborhood.

I will draw from urban soundscape and acoustic ecology literature to describe the sights and sounds that I encounter in my apartment and on soundwalks around my neighborhood. The project is ongoing and will address issues of urban soundscapes, loud and unpredictable sonic environments (ambulance sirens), and explorations of human versus natural sounds. 

This is not the first time I have lived by a hospital, but it is the first time that I must encounter the hospital (from the outside) on a daily basis. The tall building in the sky is a visible reminder of emergency, help, and extra human activity. With an interest in the urban soundscape, I am recording and documenting the sights and sounds of my neighborhood, as it connects (or even disconnects) with the hospital. 

This project is not intended to discuss the uniqueness or mundaneness of my neighborhood. I simply want to explore a soundscape that I find both annoying and fascinating. I am constantly surprised at the amount of nature versus human noise present. With both natural and unnatural sounds and structures existing, I want to see where these conflict and resolve in everyday life.