La Grande Sound

Back To Acoustic Space

Rationale For this Assignment
Noise, is a term that can subjectively be placed upon the likes of any sound. Metaphorically it can be interpreted as bad data or superflourous information, i.e., background noise. In the auditory sense, noise, to the ears of the beholder, can be good or bad. Sound, on the other hand, is a broader term which includes noise; and for much of our every day life, our geography, our space, is filled with sound. Much of this sound is taken for granted and melded into the background din so as to dissolve in our mind's ear. Some of it we find offensive, indeed, destructive. Some sounds we try to protect ourselves against, and some we can't. In some cases we have incorporated the use of technology to help attenuate unwanted sound. Sound-blanking ear phones, are a common means these days of blanking out sounds. Acoustic building material and design is also used to modify the sound space. Through it all, in essence, we form our own private acoustic space.

Sound can be powerful, strong, soft, offensive, pleasing, persuasive, and even memory inducing. It's levels can be the basis for planning laws and regulations. It can break eggs in nests near airports, and it can see babies in wombs. It can make one ask philosophical questions such as "does it exist if we don't hear it?" It can produce perceptual implications that emerge from a range of sonance; from the whimperings of a newborn puppy to inferences with political overtones. "Pardon our noise, it's the sound of freedom" pronounced a sign near the Naval Air Station on Whidbey Island, Washington. Sound or even the lack of it, can be used as a weapon itself. During World War II, the Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber was equipped with a screaming siren which was activated in the dive of the aircraft. The frightening sound emanating from this plane was simply there for one thing...the "surround sound effect" of psychologically terrorizing its targets." Sound can trigger post traumatic stress disorder, or it can stir up feelings for a lost love. The sound of a golden oldy can take you back to the "good old days" while the pounding of a bass guitar and drum beat to the latest hip-hop tune emanating from the car sitting next to you at the stop sign may be torture to your ears. Yet, it's elusive.....one person hears it, and another does not. It's subjective. Because that tune vibrating your windows might be an ego building experience for the other driver whose hearing...... may already be impaired. The streets are teaming these days with people whose ears are stuffed with blue toothed rigged earphones and little white ear buds. Perhaps they're worn to some degree for the visual impact, like designer jeans. But more so....these earphones are attached to devices that deliver a made-to-order alternate form of aural reality, that goes well beyond the notion of a brand name attached to a pair of tennis shoes. "Are you listening? Can you hear me? I don't hear you! Am I hearing you correctly?" These are the mantras from both sides of the auditory curtain that prevails today (in digital form) in acoustic space.

A component of this cultural geography course introduced students to the notion that culture has a spatiality. And, culture, at its most basic levels, is interpreted through and is indeed a composite of all the human senses. Sound is a part of the human sense. Thus, what sounds can be experienced and sampled that might help us define our cultural landscape in an auditory sense. This project attempted to not simply sample an oral interpretation of a landscape by words...but by the sounds that define the landscape itself in both concrete and abstract terms. What are the sounds....that define....La Grande.Oregon?

Questions considered in this study
How can sound have a spatial character?
How does sound define a region or a place?
How does time impact the character of the sound signature of a place.
What is environmental noise?
How is noise defined?
What factors are considered in acoustic planning?

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