Instructor Notes
Above are the projects of five students
in the 105 cultural geography class at Eastern Oregon University.
The stereotype that the study of geography is nothing more than
the rote memorization of place names on maps is still strong amongst
many college students as they begin a geography course at the
collegiate level. These students grabbed on to the upper level
reasoning that's a part of any science or social science and by
building a scaffold from basic concepts and approaches that cultural
geographers use, they applied the scientific method to these questions:
How does a sound envelope define a space? Does sound have culturally
spatial significance? What are some of the sounds that we perceive
as defining La Grande.
There are some limitations to these studies. First, they are highly
selective, and must be because of time and space constraints.
Next, the quality of the sound samples, for the most part are
marginal since most of these were taken with simple cassette tape
recorders and then digitized. It would be nice if every student
had a sound digital recorder. Finally, students need training
not only in what to listen for, discern and the skills to spatially
analyze that data, but also they need to be familiar with the
process of collecting audio-based ethnographic. They need to have
access to simple mixing software and be able to download audio
files easily and quickly.
Personally I found that these students enjoyed
this field exercise. They were exposed to a new application of
technology in a geographic study. They formed ideas around sound
and space and began to constructively make links as to how acoustic
space is tied to environmental space and how this connection forms
the theoretical basis for environmental planning and even laws
that regulate sound in space. The students learned some physics
in this study. They learned what a decibel was, how microphones
have inherent sensitivity and that magnetic tape has hiss from
the ferrous oxides moving across the recorder's tape heads. Most
importantly to me is that they indicated to me that the ambient
sounds that they encounter on a daily basis will now be heard
through different perceptual ears, and that the sounds within
acoustic space are definitely a part of their personal geography.
