Assignment 1: Soundscape Project Analysis

Arctic Live / Arctic Soundscape Project/Phase I

Yan Man Yin, Erin     15216896

     Soundscape studies, in general, is to consider the sound created by the living things or the environment in a particular place. From these project, people can get to know more about the environment of those places by listening to these sound recorded. Soundscape can give people a full picture of what is happening in a place and how things carry out different activities and movements. Most importantly, is to know the relationship between living things and the nature.

     The soundscape project I have chosen is an Arctic soundscape project carried out by Bernie Krause, Martyn Stewart, Kevin Colver, Bob Moore and other colleagues in 2006. These people are sound recordists, field researchers and ecologists. They have carried out a soundscape project at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by spending two-week time there. The aim of this project is to study the habitat of the natural lives at the Arctic. Also, it is a great way to arouse people’s attention and alertness to the natural environment, according to Robert Moore, one of the sound recordists in the team.

     According to Bernie Krause, the founder of Wild Sanctuary, soundscape is the voice of the living habitat, and to the extend it connects with a perspective of health in the habitat, which is so critical. He agrees that people nowadays is more into this idea. Therefore, through this project, they recorded all the sound they heard at the Arctic.

     At the beginning of the video, there is only sound of wind blowing. There are not much living lives at the Arctic comparing to cities or jungles or forests due to the extreme climate there. However, the sound of wind blowing somehow creates a spacial concept or idea for people. It is easy to feel or to imagine the space at the location by listening to the sound. This is probably how soundscape works out. The second section is about the crew starting to record the sound. There is sound of people walking on fallen branches. It somehow gives out a lively picture as people usually imagine that there are no plants at the Arctic.  As the recording continues, there is wind blowing continuously and people’s heavy breath. It tells that the weather there might be very cold all the time and people can hardly breathe there.

     Another section of recording is the water flow. There is dynamic change as the velocity of water flow increases. The water flow increases maybe due to different reasons such as ice melting rapidly or there may be slopes. In my opinion, I think the first reason is most likely to be the explanation of why the water flow increases since global warming is getting much more serious these days.

     As the crew were recording the necessary data for the project, there is a slightly sound of the branches moving and cracking. This might be due to people sitting or pushing on the branches so that it creates the sound. Branches are not commonly seen in the imagination of people towards Arctic places. I think this is kind of interesting and people have to listen very carefully to sort it out from the recordings. According to the crew, they were hoping to record the sound of ice shifting and cracking since the warm temperature is favorable to the ice movements.

     Another part of the recordings is the ice cracking sound. It is made by people walking on the thin layer of ice and it cracks immediately. Along with the cracking sound, there is also sound of river flow. It is because the ice is right above the river, and when it cracks, people’s feet will just step right into the river.

     Besides, there is also another type of ice breaking sound. This time, the sound is much thicker and sharper than before. This is because the ice layer is also much thicker than the previous one. It sounds like glass breaking which gives me an impression that it is vulnerable.

     Another main purpose of this soundscape project is to raise people’s awareness and sensitivity towards global warming. All the ice shifting and cracking sounds were created due to the problem of global warming. If the temperature keeps rising, the ice will melt much rapidly and it might disappear after a short period of time. There might be no more ice cracking sound for people to listen anymore.

     I found this soundscape project very meaningful. It does not only shape the natural environment there nor record the sound, but it becomes an alarm for people to care for the environment even if the location is far away from where they live. If unfortunately, the ice really melts that fast and disappear in the future, this project will be very valuable as it captures sounds which won’t be created again.

     I have studied this project at least twice, once with visual on and one with visual off. I found that I was more focused on the sound when with visual off. I can even hear insignificant sound which helps to create a full image of the environment.