About

City Sound Blocks is a project that grew out of a Graduate seminar in Ecomusicology. I had only heard of Murray Schafer and the term soundscapes earlier this year. I also listened to one of Annea Lockwood's works (A Sound Map of the Hudson River 1982). I became curious about what soundscapes entailed and how I might document my own sound experiences in an unfamiliar territory. As a new California resident, I find San Diego to be very different from Kansas City, Missouri. The changes in visual and aural surroundings are only exacerbated by the neighborhood I live in. I am located in a residential area on the edge of Hillcrest and Mission Hills. There are palm trees, hummingbirds, apartment buildings, homeless people, traffic from cars, dogs barking, helicopters, and most notably for me, ambulance sirens. 

I am primarily interested in those soundscapes that include "noisy nature" and "sparse city soundscapes" (McCartney 2010). Much research has dealt with soundscapes that are in densely compacted urban areas or rural and suburban soundscapes. However, very loud (lo-fi) and very quiet (hi-fi) soundscapes are only a snippet of the kinds of soundscapes that exist. In my recordings so far, I hear sound that is somewhere in-between, lo-fi and hi-fi. I have included pictures, recordings, and brief descriptions of my work so far in daily blog posts.

I 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, urban development, loud and unpredictable sonic environments, and explorations of human versus natural sounds.

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. Even the terrain of the neighborhood is perplexing, as there are high trafficked streets, residential side streets, and then roads that come to a dead end because of a canyon that Hillcrest is built beside. With both natural and unnatural sounds and structures existing, I want to see where these conflict and resolve in everyday life.

Project Vision and Goals:

A.      I hope to compare and contrast previous urban soundscape and acoustic ecology literature.

                                                              i.     Then, frame my own project within that research

B.      Sound map my immediate environment and create a methodology

C.      Document daily sounds and sights in Hillcrest and Mission Hills
                                      i.      Start by investigating the ambulance, emergency vehicle, helicopter, and general hospital traffic sounds. Look into the history of Hillcrest hospitals, ambulance companies, siren technology, compare the emergency traffic between UCSD Medical and Scripps Mercy.

D.      Evaluate strengths and weaknesses of soundmapping

                                                              i.      Evaluate my more descriptive approach

E.      Future goals

                                                              i.      I would like to talk to people within my neighborhood about what they think of the soundscape. Also, I hope to expand the project to other neighborhoods and allow others to submit their recordings to the blog.
                          ii.      I want people  to become engaged in their own surroundings and think of their environment as an interactive place instead of an unchanging and ambient constant. Or, at least think differently about their aural and visual surroundings.