CISA–Sonic Ecologies

The idea of “silence” in a discussion of “sonic ecology” is crucial. The silence that we discuss is not complete silence, as you and Schafer say, but it is the presence of background noise alone. In a world that it always humming with something, can true and pure silence exist? If we were to be put into a truly silent room, we would certainly hear the functions of our own bodies. Perhaps this is why the ideas of “sonic ecology” and the “soundscape” are so important; the world of sound is everywhere. In fact, I think that it is even more pervasive than the visual, tangible world.

In exploring the definition of “sonic ecology,” it is interesting to also explore seemingly silent environments. Simon Frith, author of Music and Everyday Life, writes, “And silence, as something valuable, to be bought, means not complete silence, but the absence of human or electronic or artificial sounds (Frith 94). While silence may be defined this way, it can be relative. Some people prefer to live in urban or more natural, rural places with less “noise.” It is ultimately subjective to individuals, however, underscoring that the definition of “sonic ecology” is multifactorial. As previously mentioned, at its core, “sonic ecology” relates sound and organisms in a given environmental context. Furthermore, the observer or the organism, perceive the context for themselves.

I think I am not going to expand my essay on sonic ecology. I think personally I am more interested in orchestra/ chamber music composition. The follow PDF is something I am reading and inspires me on how could I do my project on CISA sound work.

London’s language map is incredibly diverse

More than 100 different languages are spoken in thirty of the capital’s 33 boroughs, with only the City, Richmond and Havering failing to meet that quota. Over 300 languages are spoken in total.

Oliver O’Brien, a researcher in geovisualization (the interactive mapping of geographical data) at UCL created a map showing the most common second languages (after English) spoken at certain tube stops across the capital.

He showed that Turnpike Lane was London’s most linguistically diverse tube station, with 55.2% English speakers, 6.7% Polish, 5% Turkish, 2.8% Bulgarian and 2.5% Spanish. A total 16 languages are spoken by more than 1% of the area’s population.

“The voices float monotonously over commercial and privatized zones, fusing 27 an image of feminized “Englishness” with that of corporate culture. In other words, they
are symbolic of the destruction of the welfare state and the ambiguity of the “public,” as we
witness it being finally hacked to death, but they are not representative of those doing the

destroying (need it be pointed out that it is women and children who suffer most in times of economic crisis and benefit cuts). They are ideological sonic veneer for what lies beneath, the sonic equivalent of the “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster and its myriad spin-offs, a fusion of war and crisis made cute for the middle classes.

But what shall we do with the voices, the recordings that have replaced the real bodies of announcers and cashiers? We could do worse than to begin to pay attention to what they are saying, and not saying; of what they tell us about gender and the contemporary city, of where the power lies and where it doesn’t, of the ideological function of “certain” voices and the exclusion of others. The protester in the street chanting spontaneous slogans hears her opponent in every beat of the neo-liberal city: to reclaim the machines—from supermarket tills to parliamentary processes—we must first identify who speaks in the voice of the enemy, and who speaks from elsewhere.”