The Icebreaker: Soundscape works as everyday sound art

Chapman, Owen

doi:10.1017/s1355771809000120

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Composed soundscapes are used widely in various contexts, including movies (d'Escriván 2009;Leonard and Strachan 2014), music performances (Truax 2008;Freeman et al 2011), artistic installations (Chapman 2009;Koutsomichalis 2013), and VEs (Eckel 2001;Turner et al 2003;Turchet and Serafin 2013). To date, soundscape composition is facilitated by the availability of freely available online sound repositories as well as high-quality commercially available sound effects libraries, conceived especially for creating environmental sounds in movies.…”

Section: Soundscape Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

FreesoundVR: soundscape composition in virtual reality using online sound repositories

2022

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The intersection between sound and music computing and Virtual Reality (VR) has grown significantly over the past decades, amounting to an established area of research today. However, still scarce research has been conducted on the development of specific tools for sound design and composition. In this paper, we investigate a new way of exploring online sound repositories to retrieve sounds to be used in soundscape composition, which leverages the VR medium. Specifically, we created a VR system that allows users to search, download, and explore Freesound content in an immersive manner, as well as to use it for soundscape composition practices via a virtual digital audio workstation (DAW). The tags associated to a sound in the repository were converted into virtual objects and environments, which the user could navigate while listening to the sound. We conducted a user study with 16 composers where the developed system was compared against a conventional counterpart comprising the Freesound web version and the Audacity DAW. Overall, quantitative and qualitative results did not indicate a clear and generalized preference for a system over the other. The usability of the two systems along with their offered creativity support, cognitive workload and emotional impact were deemed to be at a comparable level. Nevertheless, the full potential of VR in creating novel compositional experiences also clearly emerged. Our study shows that VR is an effective medium to support users’ creativity during the process of exploring and selecting sounds from an online repository as well as for composing a soundscape.

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Section: Soundscape Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

FreesoundVR: soundscape composition in virtual reality using online sound repositories

2022

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“…She cites Daphne Oram’s comparison of the role of the composer to that of ‘a yachtsman in fierce mid-Atlantic’ who guides the vessel but is also taken along with the sea, and must be open to making changes and adjustments (cited in McCartney 2006: 27). Similarly, sample-based musician and scholar Owen Chapman thinks of his work with sound, particularly for an experimental project called the Icebreaker (in which piezoelectric pick-ups were frozen into a variety of ice formations) as comparable to flying a kite: ‘Simply put, the joy of flying a kite has to do with setting up the equipment, and then letting it go’ (Chapman 2009: 87).…”

Section: Situating Mobile Audio Production Appsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Situated Composition in Emerging Mobile Sound Production Technologies and Practices

Thulin

2017

Org. Sound

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This article introduces the concept of ‘situated composition’, examining it in relation to developments in mobile sound production technologies and practices. Situated composition draws attention to the specific circumstances in which sound production and compositional activity take place. With mobile devices and apps offering heightened mobility and ease-of-use, ways of working with sound increasingly may be undertaken in a wide range of contexts outside of controlled environments specifically designed for sound work such as studios. Situated composition emphasises the interconnections between the situation in which composition unfolds and the process of composition, approaching composition as inherently distributed and collaborative in multiple ways. This article begins by considering how to situate mobile audio production apps, then moves on to elaborate the concept of situated composition and investigate specific practices. Drawing primarily on interviews carried out with fourteen composers, sound artists, musicians and producers who use mobile devices and apps in their sound work, as well as on podcasts, forums and my own work as a sound artist, I identify seven approaches to using mobile interfaces, focusing particularly on practitioners’ relationships with the surroundings where compositional activity unfolds.

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“…Furthermore, some projects experimented with creating a platform for collaborative techniques for soundscape composition (e.g. Gregg Wagstaff's Touring Exhibition of Sound Environments (TESE) in the Isles of Harris and Lewis in northern Scotland (Drever 2002)), including multimedia applications through participatory design strategies and interactive arts (Chapman 2009; Freeman, DiSalvo, Nitsche and Garrett 2011; Harries 2013).…”

Section: The Convergence Of Soundscape Studies and Ethnographymentioning

confidence: 99%

In-Between Soundscapes of Vancouver: The newcomer's acoustic experience of a city with a sensory repertoire of another place

İşcen

2014

Org. Sound

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The ‘in-betweenness’ of a newcomer, which derives from being familiar with multiple sensuous geographies and living through diverse cultural regimes, creates for them an almost experimental situation. Their lack of habitual memory and ‘soundscape competence’ (Truax 2001) of the new city is full of creative potentials in terms of acoustic experience and expression. In order to explore the dynamics of such contexts in their richness, we need to develop sensorily rich methods of inquiry. In this regard, the field of soundscape studies has been offering performative methods for sensory methodologies including ethnography. On the other hand, by incorporating a sensory ethnographic process, we can also address some issues like cultural and social sensitivity within the field of soundscape composition. I drew upon methods such as the soundwalk and sound diary, which were turned into performative expressions by employing approaches to a soundscape composition and developing a collaborative and process-oriented sound installation. In this paper, I will be discussing the recent sonic ethnographic and artistic projects I developed in Vancouver,1and how these projects can contribute to our understanding of cultural soundscapes.

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The Icebreaker: Soundscape works as everyday sound art

Cited by 5 publications

References 4 publications

FreesoundVR: soundscape composition in virtual reality using online sound repositories

FreesoundVR: soundscape composition in virtual reality using online sound repositories

Situated Composition in Emerging Mobile Sound Production Technologies and Practices

In-Between Soundscapes of Vancouver: The newcomer's acoustic experience of a city with a sensory repertoire of another place

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