Victoria Park Hong Kong (2:49) On Sundays Indonesian ladies who work in Hong Kong as domestic helpers gather in Victoria park, Causeway Bay, to enjoy their one day off. They find various ways to recreate their home culture in this public space open to all. The Hong Kong government does not provide recreational facilities for domestic helpers and they cannot afford to spend money on the paid entertainment opportunities that other residents can make use of. 18 December 2016. Source: YouTube
Why architects need to use their ears (9:45) Because of poor acoustics, students in classrooms miss 50 percent of what their teachers say and patients in hospitals have trouble sleeping because they continually feel stressed. Julian Treasure sounds a call to action for designers to pay attention to the “invisible architecture” of sound. Source: TedTalks.
Unexpected beauty of everyday sounds (13:04) Using examples from birdsong, the natural lilt of emphatic language and even a cooking pan lid, singer-songwriter and TED Fellow Meklit Hadero shows how the everyday soundscape, even silence, makes music. "The world is alive with musical expression," she says. "We are already immersed." Source: Ted Talk
War and the Soundscapes of Memory (1:09:04). As the generation with a living memory of the Second World War recedes, the critic and cultural historian Jeremy Eichler RI '17 asks us to open our ears. By exploring how the wartime past has been inscribed in music, he makes the case for hearing history and for reclaiming the power of sound as a unique carrier of meaning about the past. (Harvard University) Source:YouTube.
AE and Sonic Landscape Preservation (1:16). University of Michigan’s Dow Doctoral Fellow Patrick Harlan from the School of Music Theater and Dance discusses his project on Acoustic Ecology and the Preservation of Sonic Landscapes. Source: University of Michigan
On Listening (1:00) Arizona State University professor Garth Paine observes why he is an advocate to listening to the acoustic environment.
ASU Note: "Listen to the sounds of the SW USA on our Listen database http://www.ecolisten.org/sonic_events.php – gathered by ASU faculty and citizen scientists in National Parks across the SW USA, the recordings help document the transformation of the environment over time due to climate change and other environmental impacts." Source: Vimeo
Applied Soundscape - How sound connects us (17:54) In this talk, Lisa Lavia of the Noise Abatement Society (UK) and Harry Witchel from the Brighton and Sussex Medical School illustrate through a series of auditory demonstrations the importance of sound quality (rather than simply decibel levels) in the built environment. Source: YouTube.
About silence (4:17) American composer John Cage discusses his understanding of sound and silence and the importance of listening. Source: YouTube.
