Recalling the sonic perception of visually impaired people of Surabaya�s urban parks

Urban parks in a developing country hardly accommodatepeople with disability. The objective of this study is to investigate thepossibility of improving urban parks using the perception of visuallyimpaired people of urban parks� sonic environment. This study wasconducted off-site the urban park using a questionnaire survey with twogroups of participants: sighted people (35 participants) and visuallyimpaired people (35 participants). The analysis was conducted usingsemantic analysis of the word used for explaining the sonic environment. This study shows that the visually impaired participants explained thesonic environment with more terminologies (56 terminologies for visuallyimpaired participants and 32 terminologies for sighted participants). Itindicates the engagement with the sonic environment is higher for thevisually impaired participants compared to the sighted participants. Ingeneral, the visually impaired participant perception of urban parksrepresents a similar terminology, but with more perception compared to thesighted participants, i.e., safety, directivity, and space. The later stage is touse the on-site method to validate and enrich this finding to arrive at thedesign proposition for the improvement of urban parks

Sound perception of different materials for the footpaths of urban parks

Over the years the environmental potential of urban parks has attracted increasingly attention. In order to preserve their positive influence for communities, the sonic environment perception (soundscape) must be considered too. Urban parks’ sonic environment is influenced by attenders moving around; indeed, walking sounds have very high occurrence in such contexts. However, studies investigating both walking sounds and soundscape are limited. This study investigates the influence of different footpath materials on the sonic perception. A laboratory listening experiment was carried out with four walked-on materials: grass, wood, stone and gravel. Preliminary results show a significant material effect on soundscape perception

Audio Cartography: Visual Encoding of Acoustic Parameters

Our sonic environment is the matter of subject in multiple domains which developed individual means of its description. As a result, it lacks an established visual language through which knowledge can be connected and insights shared. We provide a visual communication framework for the systematic and coherent documentation of sound in large-scale environments. This consists of visual encodings and mappings of acoustic parameters into distinct graphic variables that present plausible solutions for the visualization of sound. These candidate encodings are assembled into an application-independent, multifunctional, and extensible design guide. We apply the guidelines and show example maps that acts as a basis for the exploration of audio cartography

Natural Selection: A Stethoscopic Amphibious Installation.

This paper discusses emergence as a complex behaviour in the sound domain and presents a design strategy that was used in the creation of the sound installation Natural Selection to encourage the perception of sonic emergence. The interactions in Natural Selection are based on an algorithm derived from an innately sonic emergent ecological system found in nature, that of mating choices by female frogs within a calling male frog chorus. This paper outlines the design and implementation of the installation and describes the research behind its design, most notably the notion of embodiment within a sonic environment and its importance to the perception of sonic emergence

Soundscape monitoring

The soundscape: the sonic environment as perceived and understood within a context by a user is hard to measure. Still being able to approximately mimic how a human listener would interact with the sonic environment in electronic equipment would open a wide range of opportunities for the soundscape researcher and designer. Monitoring how the soundscape evolves over the day, the week, the seasons, gives insight in the acoustic ecology that is hard to grasp during a short visit or a sound walk. Therefore computational intelligence techniques were developed and implemented on sound monitoring networks that are able to mimic part of the human perception of the sonic environment. For such systems to work in diverse sound environments, some form of learning and adaptivity is essential. In addition attention and gating mechanisms must be implemented to be able to determine the sounds that a human listener would most likely notice. Holistic indicators are added to assess effects on mood and emotion that do not involve sound recognition. The soundscape monitoring system has been deployed as part of the IDEA project at several urban locations and the results are compared to human observations

The Assessment of Soundscape Quality in Urban Parks - A Case Study in Penn Park

The sonic environment is an invisible but crucial part of the urban environment. Increasing density of population and diversification of social functions driven by urbanization lead to a more complex sound environment in our daily life. As an important multifunctional service area, the urban park is usually regarded as a buffer for urban noise pollution. The assessment of the sonic environment in urban parks can help park-users and park-designers get a better understanding of the health of the park environment. This study approached the urban noise pollution in urban parks with a soundscape quality assessment, from both acoustical and psychological perspectives. An urban park on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania named Penn Park was selected as a case study for soundscape quality assessment. Sound Pressure Level (SPL) was measured at ten sampled positions in Penn Park and processed in ArcMap to make the sound maps, which clearly shown the uneven distribution of the average sound energy in the park: inner part of the park with trees surrounded was the “quietest” and the part along the edge with areas of grass was the “loudest.” In three months (May, June, July) when sound pressure level was recorded by the sound pressure meter, park-users’ subjective responses to the sonic environment of Penn Park were investigated by randomly recruiting park visitors to complete a questionnaire about the soundscape quality. In total, 90 questionnaires were collected and analyzed on SPSS. Results demonstrated that there was a significant positive correlation between overall landscape quality, overall soundscape quality, and overall impression. Compared to mechanical sounds and human-made sounds, visitors preferred more natural sounds (birds, insects, wind) to be increased in Penn Park. Overall, the sonic environment of Penn Park was perceived as pleasant, quiet, smooth, varied, calming, directional, natural, and steady. The results of this study may have implications for the enhancement of soundscape design in other urban parks that are similar to Penn Park