Soundscape: Saturday Market Buskers

Saturday Market Buskers (5:26) The Saturday Market in Eugene, Oregon is one of the oldest in the nation. Each weekend, from early spring through the fall, the market is alive with the sound of musical performers. These buskers provide an acoustic soundscape through which thousands of tourists and residents explore the arts and crafts of the region. Source: VIMEO

Project: Repurposing Sound Gadgets

Circuit Bending (8:16) The soundscape of many contemporary households is filled with all types of gadgets that talk, make music, squeak or squeak and, at some point, they become discarded. Circuit bending is the creative short-circuiting of devices such as low voltage, battery-powered guitar effects, children's toys and small synthesizers to create new musical instruments and sound generators. Emphasizing spontaneity and randomness, the techniques of circuit bending have been commonly associated with noise music, though many more conventional contemporary musicians have been known to experiment with these "bent" instruments.

Lecture: Milton Garces - Primordial Sounds

Into The Deep End of Sound (6:56) What sound does a tsunami make? An earthquake? The whole Earth? Milton Garcés studies infrasound, sound that is lower in frequency than the “normal” limit of human hearing. He shares some of his recordings of storms, earthquakes and tsunamis. Perhaps most astounding of all, he plays the vibration humming at the core of the entire planet. Source Pop! Tech

Project: Hearing Hackney

Hearing Hackney (1:50) In preparation for the upcoming 2012 London Olympic games, Hackney Hear is an interactive GPS-triggered audio tour of London’s East End (host of the 2012 Olympic Games) that can be experienced on a user's iPhone or Android. 

As you walk the streets of Hackney, stories new and old will be channeled direct to your ears. You'll hear from famous residents like Iain Sinclair and Tom Hunter to the Turkish and Vietnamese migrants that now populate the area. We’ll also reflect the rich artistic community that have flocked here - commissioning new music, poetry and literature from voices such as Shane Solanki and Kaffe Matthews. These audio clips, which provide artistic renderings, historical tidbits and introductions to the borough's diverse communities, will be triggered as a user walks through the streets, creating his/her own personal soundscape. 

Lecture: Jad Abumarad - Bioacoustics

Sound and Science (15:41) From crayfish hairs to monkey neurons, Radiolab host and producer Jad Abumrad shares examples of how sound has been used to make scientific strides. Along the way, he explains how audio can convey failure or express error. Click2Read more about this presentation. 

Source: PopTech

Lecture: How Sound Affects Us

How Sound Affects Us (3:20) In this short film Julian Treasure explores the four effects sound has on us – physiological, psychological, cognitive, and behavioral. Source: SoundCloud/Vimeo 

(See also: Julian Treasure's TED Lecture on the same topic: 4 Ways Sound Affects Us.)

Soundscape: Cascade Mountain Winter

Sounds of Snow and Water  (6:07) The white sounds of snow falling with water freely flowing downhill in Olallie State Park in the Cascade Mountains of  Washington State. Source: YouTube

Sound Installation: Denver Soundwalk

Soundwalk: Sound Art in Downtown Denver (1:11) Pedestrians encounter a public art installation of Jim Green called Soundwalk while they stroll downtown Denver, Colorado. 

Soundwalk Denver (2:15) Most people who walk down this street simply think they are hearing things and pay little attention to the innocuous grates that line this one block of downtown Denver. Then there are those who look down and double back to investigate, for it is from these grates that the sounds are escaping. 

Source: YouTube