Writing Project #3

April 19, 2019 by lalodhi

Opposing Soundscapes of Davidson College and Main Street

Listening to the variety of sounds on Davidson Campus and Main Street there is a clear differentiation between the atmospheres they create. The use of typing specific sounds helps formulate layers through which the importance and impact that sounds have on the location, can be determined. Modes of listening allowed the soundscapes to be understood in deeper listening exercises, helping understand the way the sounds formulate such specific actions of people in the two opposing areas.

As organisms, we have the ability listen to everything, to hear and pick up every sound that comes our way. Sounds like the ones we hear commonly in a specific area, tell us the location we are in. This leads to the understanding that as humans living in this complex society, certain sounds can tell us how to behave. The determination can be made that with each passing sound, a landscape of the environment around us is laid down, it is paved together almost like an architectural blueprint of a building, or land. Schafer in The Soundscape, evaluates, “…how sounds affect and change his [mankind’s’] behavior,” (Schafer, 96), which takes us into how the sounds on Davidson Campus creates an alternate behavior in comparison to the sounds on heard on Main Street. Sounds affect how mankind acts in an area, and Schaffer goes a step further trying to understand how mankind, “creates an ideal soundscape for that other life…” (Schafer, 96). By that other life, he means the distinction between the soundscapes form completely different realties, spaces – I use the spaces of Main Street, and the one on Davidson Campus. In attempting to differentiate the soundscapes of these places, it is integral to note that there is a very fine visible barrier between them, the area where the grass on the campus meets the sidewalk of the street. This barrier is able to separate the sounds from each area, keeping them distinct in their nature, holding an autonomy that provides the identity of the space. I chose these locations because of how central they are to my life right now, and how they differ greatly from any other areas I have lived in. As Schafer describes understanding a soundscape, he creates categories of different types of sounds, I will employ the use of “keynote”, “signals”, “soundmarks”, and “noises”, to enhance the purpose of the sounds heard on Davidson Campus and Main Street. When we listen intentionally to a space, we begin to understand the sounds that produce the qualities that manifest in that space specially.

Main Street is symphony of loud and differing sounds. The movement, humming of cars are unavoidable and prominent to the area, as they are ‘soundmark’ sounds, they are “…derived from landmark and refers to a community sound which is unique or possesses qualities which make it specially regarded or noted by people…” (Schafer 101). The importance of these sounds is how they encapsulate the main points, essentially, of the area. ‘Noises’ as Schafer defines are, “sounds we have learned to ignore,” (Schafer, 95), and these become sounds of the people chatting. These are frequent and abundant, fading into the background, while the chiming of doors and footsteps trotting along exhibit properties of a keynote sounds, as they are sounds that, “…are overheard but cannot be overlooked…” (Schaffer 100). They force us to be listening to something that reminds us constantly of the location we are in. The ‘signals’ are, “…quite elaborate codes permitting messages of considerable complexity to be transmitted to those who can interpret them,” (Schafer, 101). These are the honks and speeding up of cars, as well as the voice of the pedestrian signal, that alert an individual to the alteration in the movements of the space. As I walked along Main Street the general perception, I got was that this was not a slow-moving space, it was not a space conducive to quiet activities, but rather held a community for gathering, of social interactions and meandering to be the norm. Sounds exhibited here focus the space to being loud and distracting, the forces of sounds are overwhelming, and brought me a higher sense of alertness. Together these types of sounds created by Schafer, produce layers of sounds ranked in a form of importance.
Sitting on the benches near the metal sculpture in front of Chambers at around 12:40pm, the movement along campus was slow. It was a relatively peaceful day with the ‘noises’ being the wind brushing through the trees slightly, and few footsteps were heard walking along the paths. As a result, I do not usually may much attention to the sounds produced by these ‘noises’, as they are usually hushed and isolated. Throughout the campus ‘soundmarks’ are heard, with the faint sound of the doors to Chambers opening and shutting every now and then, obvious by the ‘swoosh’ sound made by the door, and the speak of the button being pressed to hold the door open. While sitting there the Church Bells rang once, with their tune playing out for a couple of seconds, the humming and clanging of the bells creating a symphonic sound that engulfed the quiet campus. The sounds of two golf carts that were driven through the pathways caught my attention as they bumped along to paved paths. The sounds of both the church bells and golf carts are those of ‘signals’, telling a person that there is something different happening than the usual tranquility on campus. Keynote sounds I hear involve people chatting along the path, and birds chirping in the trees. These levels of sounds that formulate a map in my mind, of the campus, ranking the sounds for the understanding of how the sounds make the space, how sounds dictate behavior of individuals. Here on campus, the mindset of individuals is to be in a formal setting, a setting in which there is a constant sense of direction and purpose.

From the time Davidson College was built in 1837 the college has been committed to being “…a liberal arts college, to maintain itself as a residential community of scholars…” (Davidson College Website). This “residential community of scholars” is evident in the way the college acts on a daily basis, with the lawns outside the academic buildings remaining serene and quiet. Walking over the boundary, one is situated in the alternate hustle bustle of a small town that now holds a variety of stores that attract people daily from neighbouring towns. Main Street however, used to hold a similar soundscape to Davidson College, with a former student who graduated in 1993 saying that, “Main Street was completely dead, all there was for special occasions was this shitty chinese restaurant.” The complete change was at first shocking to the alumni who was impressed by how “new and busy” the location was. This change, while some can claim is only natural with a Division 1 athletic college near it, is even more interesting because of how the campus itself has still maintained its tranquillity.

The two soundscapes hold similar properties in that there are people conversing, people walking, exerted movements that can for a short minute or less alter the pace of the location. However, on Davidson Campus, the general pace is lower and slower than that of Main Street. While people are goal oriented, walking specifically from dorms to Chambers, or other buildings, people were not in general walking aimlessly or killing time, nor is their intent to socialize. This does exhibit the purpose of a college campus, holding academics during the day to be the standard activity, as well as at night in this space. Main Street is opposite as it did not enforce a specific route to be taken, people chatted slowly, or walked fast, either way their intentions were generally to be present in the area in order to dine, socialize, shop, or visit a place for a while. What was interesting to note was the differences in where people talking fell onto the types of sounds outlined by Schafer. On Davidson Campus people chatting became keynotes, sounds that could not be overlooked, while on Main Street these sounds became noises, turned away as sounds to be noted prominently. I find this interesting as if truly does show a difference amongst the spaces, with talking due to being so common and prominent on main street being able to become background noises, whereas on the college campus, as talking is rarer, people are generally keeping a quieter mentality, hearing someone speak cannot be overlooked. Both places have pathways, paths people are meant to follow, and paths that people for some reason do stick to following. Society has shaped both spaces clearly, with underlying societal norms being held in these two spaces, aside from the different ones that each holds individually.

Michel Choin’s The Three Listening Modes highlights a section of listening called reduced listening, as she says that reduced listening is, “the listening mode that focuses on the traits the sound itself, independent of its cause and of its meaning,” (Choin, 50), and says that it is useful as we can, “…benefit from [the modes] disciplined attention to inherent qualities of sounds,” (Choin, 52). This mode of listening bares use in understanding the purpose of the soundscape around us as it allows someone to hear the more melodic natures of the sounds, as opposed to what their context is. From this mode we see that the melodic tendencies of Main Street are a lot faster, hold a greater variety of tones and of pitches, than those of Davidson College, that inhabits quieter sounds, and a more generic tones and pitches. I will however deviate from avoiding the contexts, in order to show that this form of listening shows the deliberate mentality that people inhabit around these different spaces with different melodies.

Each level of sound that is heard enforces the layout of the area you are surrounded by. Schafer’s distinction of types of sound creates categories by which we can understand the meaning and importance of the sounds that show what is held by humans as a typical sound to be found in this space, or a sound that this perhaps not common or meant to occur in the space. Both Schafer and Choin provide ways through which one can begin to realize their surroundings and understand how the space became that space. By Schaffer’s terms we can see the differences between which sounds are background noises and which are more in the forefront. Schafer’s terms further allow us to then understand why each sound in holds that definition, which ends up relating to the fact that in a different soundscape we act accordingly, and as a result the sounds that I observed are that way because the space was created to be a specific way, but as the circle must be completed, because the sounds exist the way they are, people happen to act in a specific manor.

Citations:

Choin, Michel. 1994. The Three Listening Modes. In Audio-Vision. Translated by C. Gorbman. New York: Columbia University Press. Pp. 25-34.
Schafer, R. Murray. 1994. The Soundscape. In The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books. Pp. 3-12.
“Statement of Purpose.” Davidson College, www.davidson.edu/about/statement-of-purpose.

April 15, 2019 by makaplan

The Natural Sound of the Unnatural

Abstract

The Davidson campus is a beautiful and scenic setting with many interesting soundscapes. The outdoors seems to dominate most of the conversation surrounding both the campus and its respective acoustics; and so, it was only fair to analyze the “natural soundscape of Davidson”. To accomplish this, I used my iPhone to record videos and pictures of the different soundscapes and explored their environmental and cultural contexts, and the role they play in what makes the soundscape of nature. Through discussion of three soundscapes differing in origin, I attempt to find the connection between what I deem “natural” and “artificial” sound.

The Natural Sound of the Unnatural

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, and perhaps even before, the sound of the manmade world seems to plague and contaminate the soundscape of the natural world. Within everyone lies this distinct association between metallic cacophony and the artificial world of transportation, industry, and technology. On the other hand, the natural world is often credited with its pleasurable and peaceful soundscape. The sound of a rooster waking everyone up at the crack of dawn or the sound of small waves crashing gently against a shore are culturally ingrained in the minds of listeners. This binary opposition between natural and artificial sound and their corresponding associations of peaceful and organic, and perverse and obnoxious tell us a great deal about the power and effects of soundscapes in the human mind. However, these associations are nothing short of stereotypes, as this rule is by no means concrete and often contradicted. The Davidson College campus provides a perfect plethora of real-life examples which serve as counterarguments to this. With unpleasant natural sounds, pleasant artificial sounds, and even seemingly natural manmade noise; the Davidson soundscape shows us that the human perception of natural and artificial noise is much more complex than good and bad. The Davidson soundscape shows us how often the soundscape itself is all we hear, rather than the noise producing it.

While the sound of nature is too broad and vague to be categorized as pleasurable or calm, it is certainly portrayed as such. However, not all the sounds of nature are as peaceful and soothing as the crashing of waves or the gentle hymn of insects. As a matter of fact, the hymn of insects can be quite the opposite, as observed on the path between Baker Dr. and the Duke residence hall. Between the two there is a small strip of trees and dirt with some wooden chairs; a rather pleasant and green setting. However, on any given night above sixty degrees without rain, the unmistakable call of cicadas drowns out just about any other noise. The incessant ringing is reminiscent of a broken air conditioner. In Michael Chion’s The Three Listening Modes he mentions three forms of listening of which one is particularly useful for observing these sounds in nature. Via “Reduced Listening”, we can listen to a recording of the cicadas as opposed to being in the presence of the sound, and the sound itself becomes much clearer and loses the natural and peaceful aspect of the soundscape. Instead of looking for the cause of the sound, such as in casual listening; we entirely disregard the cause and associations that come with it, leaving nothing but the sound itself and its individual soundscape. Upon listening to the recording below, the noise emitted is more reminiscent of the static from a television rather than any insect. While the individual might hear many different varying sounds, there is a common unpleasantness to the constant high-pitched, monotone ringing. Despite being the epitome of natural sounds, the cicadas are anything but calm and soothing.

Aside from the fact that natural sounds can certainly be unpleasant, artificial sounds can indeed be pleasant like certain natural sounds. Between every class period, all of Davidson College hears the Chambers bell resonate throughout the campus. When the bell was built is unclear, but it’s fair to assume it was built at the same time as “new” Chambers itself in 1929. Upon casual listening, one would most likely associate this bell with the obnoxious reminder that they are late to class, and the loud ringing sound all too similar to an alarm clock waking up a student for a dreaded eight-in-the-morning lab. However, through Reduced Listening we can once again shed the misconceptions of soundscape as a result of cause or meaning and focus on nothing but the sound itself. What was once an omen of missing the attendance sheet and nothing more than loud metallic clanging has become an entirely different scene. The old and historic sound of the bell echoes throughout the lawn and seemingly disassembles into its natural components of wood and metal. As the sound flows through and resonates off the trees, grass, and buildings on campus it becomes harmonious in the natural soundscape rather than disruptive. The soundscape feels historic and elegant, perhaps as a result of the bell being an ancient tool. Nonetheless, this centerpiece of campus is quintessential in the minds of students, faculty, and alumni as the sound of Davidson. This loud, metallic, artificial sound is anything but “noise pollution”.

Lastly, not all sounds can be categorized into the oversimplified binary opposition of the “natural and artificial”. The reality is that there are gray areas within this topic, and there is no better example than the Spirit Waves Fountain on the Davidson campus. At the Davidson college campus there is a building known as the Sloan Music Center, and its main hall is the Tyler-Tallman Hall. Additionally, the rear/right side of the building is facing the Chambers lawn, the middle of the campus; a scene commonly filled with students laying down enjoying the spring weather. Between the two, next to the chairs and stairwell there is a red-brownish sculpture, titled Spirit Waves Fountain. Given to the college as a gift of Dr. Hugh A. McAllister, Jr. Who graduated class of 1961, this ornate fountain is made of Texas pink granite and Fredericksburg granite. The setting, including the hall and lawn not just the fountain, compose one of the most unique soundscapes on campus. Without a calendar you could tell it’s March just by the distinct call of the birds and the cool sixty-degree breeze that rolls by. Yet, the sound of subtle rushing water and the distant sound of leaf blowers/ lawn mowers would argue for June. Additionally, the sound of the Spirit Waves Fountain itself is a distinct, gentle rushing water sound, unique to just about all fountains that don’t have some form of splashing or an angel peeing. The sound of this gentle water is often associated with a pond or creek and is quintessentially “natural” in the minds of people, yet the fountain itself is certainly a manmade structure. When we consider the soundscape formed by the culmination of all the sounds around it as well, without letting the actual setting influence it, the soundscape produced mimics that of a stream hidden deep within the woods. Within this soundscape, all the sounds are natural but there is one that is distinguished from the rest. The sound of the rushing water is the keystone of the portrayed environment, there is something uniquely natural about it. Yet, the fountain is the only artificial sound in the soundscape. The Spirit Waves Fountain is the paragon of artificial creations with natural soundscapes. It is not the sound itself which is natural, but the association of peaceful noise.

As stated by Schafer, “The soundscape of the world is changing. Modern man is beginning to inhabit a world with an acoustic environment radically different from any he has hitherto known.” As illuminated by Schafer, the old soundscape of the world is rapidly changing as the abrupt and turbulent uproar of industrialization contaminate the acoustic world. However, many hold the misconception that the changing world can be split into two rigid categories of natural and artificial. Additionally, with this fallacy comes the grand oversimplification that these categories can be monolithically summarized as pleasant and tranquil, or deafening and disruptive respectively. The Davidson soundscape and these three locations with their own individual soundscapes argue that the line is not so clear. There is no true relationship between sounds that are deemed natural and what we consider to be pleasurable. After all, the soundscape itself is not natural. It is a culmination of all our subconscious associations with the noise we interact with, manifested into a figment of imagination that strives to encompass not just hearing, but all five senses into one singular setting. It is not the sound of the man-made world that pollutes the acoustic world, but the soundscape itself produced by it. The soundscape is louder than the sound.

WORKS CITED:

Chion, Michael. “Michael Chion 3 Modes of Listening.” Artcites.uscs.edu.

http://artsites.ucsc.edu/faculty/gustafson/FILM20P.W11/readings/chion.3modes.pdf

“Natural and Artificial Sources of Noise Pollution.” Pollution Control Board, 31 Jan. 2014, www.pollutioncontrolboard.org/essays/noise-pollution/natural-and-artificial-sources-of-noise-pollution/186.

Schafer, R. Murray. “The Soundscape,” in The Sound Studies Reader, edited by Jonathan Sterne, 95–103. New York: Routledge, 2012.

April 10, 2019 by jamyers

The Language Behind the Pain

Abstract:

In “The Davidson Soundscape”, I uncovered the language barriers experienced by non-athletes within Davidson’s Varsity weight room. As an athlete on Davidson’s campus, I have had the opportunity to experience first-hand the sounds within a weight room and the significance they carry. However, the non-athletes (“nonners”) will never fully comprehend the aural culture in the Doe Weight Room, especially that created by the Men’s Soccer team. I captured the soundscapes present in the warmup, intense lower-body lift, cycling portion, and post-lift of the Men’s Soccer team. Throughout this essay I will show the progressions of the lift through the recordings and contextualize them with terms conceived by R. Murray Schafer. I will then further develop the cultural implications of the weight room’s language barrier by using texts by Emily Thompson and Michael Bull. The purpose of this project is to observe the everyday noises produced in the weight room, created by the presence of the athletes, which develops a cultural language barrier that stands between athletes and nonners.

The Doe Weight Room, a prominent location for all student-athletes on Davidson’s campus, possess a soundscape unique only to the Davidson athletes and coaching staffs. As a student-athlete at Davidson, I have been able to analyze the soundscape within the weight room by participating in the lifts and have determined that there is a language developed through lifting. As one sits, closes their eyes, and listens to the sounds in the Doe Weight Room, the noises created will range from the laughter of teammates entering the space to the intense screams of their coaching staffs. These specific noises are unwanted sound, as the athlete is attempting to complete his or her lift and does not want any distractions. Between these keynotes comes uplifting and motivational music constantly being played which provides positive energy to the athletes. Keynotes are sounds that are typically overlooked within a space due to their common nature. The music genres will range from classical music to modern R&B; however, the blaring music minimizes the athlete’s language in the weight room. The athlete’s “language” is nonverbal, but a language composed by coded set of sounds. So, when one focusses on the entirety of the weight room and the sounds composed, they will catch noises primarily hidden. As R. Murray Schafer says, “noises are the sounds we have learned to ignore” (Schafer 95). The noises go unnoticed to a certain extent during the lift, but the language is present and misunderstood by nonners. While I can translate these sounds for you, I cannot translate the experience and cultural implications they possess.

The atmosphere developed in a weight room is crucial for the success of any athletic program. The soundscape can determine the motivation and work ethic demonstrated by a team. The Doe Weight Room possesses a soundscape like no other on Davidson’s campus. Emily Thompson explains that a soundscape is like an aural landscape, as “a soundscape is simultaneously a physical environment and a way of perceiving that environment; it is both a world and a culture constructed to make sense of that world” (Thompson 117). Through observation and experience, I determined that the culture in the Doe Weight Room is intense, significant, and a step on the way to a team’s unification. Along with the noises produced by the athletes, comes the initial overwhelming music being circulated throughout the entire gym. It is a leading factor for the success of an athlete within the gym as the music has “transported [us] from one cognitive and physical space to another through the dominant organizing potential of privatized sound” (Bull 198). Michael Bull highlights the power of music, as one can mentally tune out all the distractions in his or her life and focus solely on what’s important. Music has the ability to lift one’s spirits and get individuals through intense lifts with ease. Bull emphasizes the significance of music within one’s daily life, as music “creates a privatized sound world, which is in harmony with their mood, orientation and surroundings, enabling them to re-spatialise urban experience through a process of solipsistic aestheticization” (Bull 199). The privatized world is similar to the language generated by athletes, as it is both exclusive and meaningful to the athlete. The atmosphere of the Doe Weight Room is unique in itself, but the language created by the athletes and their movements develops a language based off of noise.

On one Thursday mid-afternoon in the Doe Weight Room, the gym was occupied by the Men’s Soccer team. From my seat, I could hear rap music flooding into the space, specifically songs from Meek Mill’s album, Dreams and Nightmares.

Rap Music

To begin the lift, the soccer team stretches and individuals roll out. This preparation allows one’s body to be prepared for an intense lift. One can hear the buzzing of a Theragun, a form of message therapy used prior to any lift.

Theragun

These vibrations create one aspect of the language at hand, as the prominent hum symbolizes fatigue and soreness. The hum is a keynote for the weight room, as athletes typically use the machine before lifting. A keynote, coined by Schafer in his essay “The Soundscape”, is a term used to associate with a sound that is typically overlooked. When one uses the Theragun, everyone else is made aware of your weakened physical state. The mental preparation follows the physical, as breathing techniques prove to be effective when attempting to achieve new maxes. In between the verses, the deep inhales and exhales are produced by an athlete who is mentally preparing himself for a heavy lift, the mental and physical preparation experienced through breathing is very common within all sports as it relaxes the body for competition. Following this preparation, comes even deeper inhales and exhales as the respected athlete goes into a squat (inhale) and then aggressively pushes the weight upward to complete the rep (exhale).

Working Reps (Completion of Rep)

This breathing exercise serves as a keynote. It is a fundamental to the weight room although not consciously listened to. As an athlete, this is an example of our language. A nonner would not be able to determine the differentiation of the inhales and exhales, creating a language barrier. For the teammates on injury reserve, they show up later and immediately go to the stationary bikes. The noises produced by a stationary bike serves as another aspect to our language, as it is associated with injury or recovery.

Stationary Bike (Winds)

The subtle winds that are being produced by the stationary bikes exemplify the recovery process, as the winds start slow and finish strong. The winds being produced is yet another keynote, as it is always there and not often paid much attention to. Following yet another hour lift comes a time of celebration. As the team gathers to break it down, by saying “Cats on three…one…two…three…CATS”.

Break

This chant proves to be soundmark in the Davidson athletic community. A soundmark is a sound unique to a community, making that specific community special and different. As the lift has ceased and the team members begin their trek to the locker room, each individual player thanks the coaching staff. The appreciation serves as another soundmark, due to the appreciative and unique culture we have on Davidson’s campus. The soundscapes presented within the warmup, intense lower-body lift, cycling portion, and post-lift results in a language unique to the athletes and coaching staffs on Davidson’s campus, while also establishing a purposeful brotherhood.

As you sit and observe between sets, you hear weights being thrown to the ground following a deadlift, the metal pounding of the bar being dropped on the rack, the heavy breathing of athletes preparing their bodies for hell, the bikes pushing wind throughout the room, motivation from teammates and strength coaches to finish the lift, and ambient music. However, one who is unfamiliar with the language of the weight room will not understand the significance of the soundmarks and keynotes within it. The Doe Weight Room consequentially establishes a language only significant to the athletes, causing a culture of student-athletes to grow in a soundscape that “consists of events heard not objects seen” (Schafer 99). By saying this, Schafer expresses the development of the athlete’s language, which is understood through listening. The weight room contains meaning and significance to every athlete on Davidson’s campus, thus establishing a professional environment where athletes strive for greatness in.

Works Cited

Bull, Michael. The Audio-Visual iPod, Sound Studies Reader. Edited by Jonathan Sterne, Taylor and Francis, 2012.

Schafer, R. Murray. The Soundscape, Sound Studies Reader. Edited by Jonathan Sterne, Taylor and Francis, 2012.

Thompson, Emily. Sound, Modernity, and History, Sound Studies Reader. Edited by Jonathan Sterne, Taylor and Francis, 2012.

“Davidson College.” Davidson College Athletics, davidsonwildcats.com/facilities/?id=31.

April 8, 2019 by elgilleland

Building a Space for Sound

Abstract: Spaces are often designed with the purpose of amplifying or diminishing sound. Is there evidence of this kind of architecture in our campus study spaces? Aside from Union, most study spaces place an emphasis on remaining quiet to allow for maximum productivity. It would be useful for the campus to invest in architecture to help achieve these goals. I don’t believe that people who open themselves to auditory distractions are being as productive as they possibly could. In this project I study three popular campus study spaces to discern how their architecture plays in to their effectiveness and popularity.

In his book, The Soundscape: Tuning of the World, Raymond Murray Schafer toys heavily with the term “noise pollution”. He believes that rather than seeking to just minimize noise pollution, we should study it and learn from it—eventually with the goal of more effectively eradicating it. As college students we often lack the time to study our soundscapes and instead need to minimize noise pollution so we can learn what we need to for classes. Innovative sound experimentalist and member of the Talking Heads, David Byrne, has a TED talk where he explains to viewers how historically people have made music to fit the spaces they’re in. Likewise, spaces are often constructed for certain types of music or with sonic goals in mind. By studying the architecture of a space, one can gain insight into the levels of sound meant to exist there. I wanted to use the ideas generated by Schafer and Byrne to try to identify the best study spaces on campus and to tell if Davidson College designed its buildings with enough attention to magnify student productivity. While making these decisions I’m operating under the assumption that the best study spaces are the least distracting ones. I believe this so strongly that I rarely study without noise canceling headphones. Therefore, the goal should be quietness. I’ll be observing three such spaces: the second floor of the library, the top floor of the student union, and the base Belk study lounge. I’m keeping the list narrowed to only three and leaving out other popular study spaces like Chambers and Wall so that I can dedicate in-depth analysis to the places I’ve chosen. I plan to explore the three spaces in terms of their general conducive-ness to productivity and in terms of the college’s motivation in planning them.

The library is the first place that comes to mind for most people thinking about studying. Ours is interesting in that there are different expectations of noise levels for each floor. The basement is completely silent, but also is dark and smells so it’s not very popular. Actual studying rarely happens on the first floor, it’s a more social place than anything else. For that reason, I’ve chosen the second floor to analyze for this project. The second floor’s policy is polite, non-distracting whispering. If the first floor of the library’s open floor plan encourages talking, the tall bookcases that take up the majority of space on the second floor do the opposite. Still sound drifts up from the floor below and is louder the closer you sit to windowed wall of the library. The voices discernable in the recording attached come entirely from the floor below. However, you’ll notice that they are the only thing heard in the recording. The further back one sits from the balcony, the quieter they get until they can’t be heard at all. The bookcases and carrel walls serve to minimize disruption on the floor. I asked my friend Mary Kaufmann why it is that she prefers to study here. She said, “It’s quiet, but if I make a noise I’m not going to get a dirty look.” So, as well as being relatively silent, the atmosphere on the floor makes her comfortable. To use Schafer terms, I would argue that the second floor of the library has no signals, or sounds that are listened to consciously and contain messages. The keynote, or sound that almost unnoticeably establishes the character of the soundscape could be the hum of the AC or sound of papers rustling and computers typing. The biggest soundmark, or sound that calls attention to itself, from my perspective is the voices from the first floor. For that reason, I find them distracting and usually need noise canceling headphones to be really productive at the library. I think it’s clear to most that the library was designed with studying in mind. That being said, it was built a long time ago and the renovations made between last semester and this semester prove that even the college admits that it probably isn’t the most conducive to concentration that it could be.

I’ll be candid and admit that as a study space, the top floor of Union doesn’t impress me. Nevertheless, it seems fairly popular. I sat on the top floor to take notes on it for this essay. It has an open floor plan that surrounds a large hole which one can look down into and see everything on the floors below. This means that you’ll see people you know as well as hear them clearly. The top floor has lots of seating and the students there are mostly quiet, but it makes no difference among that roar that drifts up from the lower floors. In Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter’s essay “Ancient Acoustic Spaces” they return multiple times to the similarities between large churches and underground caverns. Both have high walls and irregular geometry that reflects sound into every orifice of the area. Union gives me the same feeling for how shockingly easy it is to hear each individual voices on the two floors below. As I sat, I couldn’t even stay concentrated enough to continually take notes on the space. I meant to make a 30 second recording of the sounds, but on my first trip there I was so distracted that I forgot to do it. Still Union is popular. This is likely because of the proximity to the Union grille food. It’s a good space for the social butterfly, but truthfully not conducive for efficient work. When I asked student Grace Olson why she sometimes used the Union to study she said, “I used to do it between my 8:15am and lunch”. So, the proximity to food drew her in more than anything else. Union is great as a hangout and eating space. It’s vital for campus life, just not to campus academic learning. The college likely designed it with these in mind, not studying. So, there is no reason to blame the college for its inefficacy as a study space. The keynote sound is the constant roar of voices making it far from peaceful. Generally, any place that is defined by a sound so loud wouldn’t make for good concentration.

Base Belk study lounge, which opened this semester, is Davidson’s newest study space. The small-ish room has desks with blinders, four connected small study rooms, and is lined on one half by cloth covered cubicles. The low ceiling, carpeted floor, and cloth materials all work to dampen the sound made in the room. The signs pasted on the walls proclaim it to be a “quiet study space”. This leaves no doubt about the college’s intentions for it. It’s overwhelmingly popular. If you visit on any school night, it will be completely packed. This is in part due to the convenience of having a study lounge in one of the largest dorms on campus, but also clearly stems from more as proven by the frequent presence of upperclassmen. My roommate Lizzie Kane told me, “I go to study in base Belk lounge because it is mostly silent, and I need silent spaces to do work effectively.” This sentiment is popular among students at Davidson, with even seniors making their way to the study space. This new study space is quiet, popular, and effective. It ideally has no soundmarks or signals. The keynotes are what is heard in the recording: the barely-there hum of the AC and the clacking of typing on laptops. Base Belk lounge is evidence that the college is learning how to accommodate student’s needs and promote the competitive learning environment we’re known for.

Designing a campus is inarguably a tremendous amount of work, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask that spaces be provided that make it so students can effectively learn. Clearly Davidson College doesn’t either. Even if it wasn’t perfectly designed in the first place, our college is constantly renovating and building. This year in the basement of Belk hall alone steps have been taken to add a highly appreciated study lounge, the Lavender Lounge for queer students and allies, and the Resident Life Offices are being moved out to a new renovated building to make space for more dorms. These are all great steps; I would just caution the college to keep in mind how the design of spaces can affect its acoustics and in turn affect its usefulness. This quick project undertaken by one student easily revealed that it is possible to be more mindful about the architecture of our campus and the noise level/types of sound it invites.

Citations:

Blesser, Barry, and Linda-Ruth Salter. “Auditory Awareness as an Extension of Religion.” In Spaces Speak, Are You Listening? Experiencing Aural Architecture. Cambridge: MIT Press. 2007.

Kane, L. (2019, April 4). Personal Interview.

Kauffman, M. (2019, April 4). Personal Interview.

Olson, G. (2019, April 5). Personal Interview.

Schafer, R. Murray. The Soundscape. A.R.C. Publ., 1978.

“TEDTalks: David Byrne–How Architecture Helped Music Evolve.” Performance by David Byrne, TEDTalks: How Architecture Helped Music Evolve, TEDTalks, 2010.

April 8, 2019 by makay

Listening to Lib

Abstract

The E.H. Little library at Davidson College is almost always filled with the chatter of students, whether it be a group of rowdy friends “working” on a Sunday evening or a pair of pre-meds preparing for their most recent biology test. I attempted to capture the Sunday night culture of the Davidson Library through three different soundscape recordings. The first recording demonstrates a low stress environment of the Sunday afternoon library crowd. The second file reveals the library as a “no stress” environment later that evening. The third and final recording exhibits a high-stress atmosphere of the space in the early hours of the next morning. This project reveals the deeper cultural and social dynamics of Davidson College specifically through an analysis of sound.

Listening to Lib

A library is one of the few spaces in which a person typically notices the level of sound that surrounds them. Often when encompassed by a group of people, the presence of any sound simply fades into the background, becoming a consistent and unnoticeable noise: “noises are the sounds we have learned to ignore” (Schafer 95). In a library on the other hand, when an individual is overly boisterous or louder than the current constant background noise, this becomes especially apparent. With the common social system in place in libraries, implicit noises are expected: the rustling of pages, typing of keyboards, and hushed whisperings of collaborative students. In this generally quiet soundscape, there is also an explicit context that becomes noticeable, as sounds that do not include these implicit noises become much more apparent. When one is mindful and takes time to analyze and decipher these sounds, a great deal can be uncovered about the space.

Lib at 2:30pm on Sunday

At 2:30 PM on a Sunday afternoon in Libs, not much activity can be heard. As I was seated on the southern side of the first floor, in between the staircase and the men’s restroom, the undecipherable noise of busy students was perceptible. While it sounded as if there were only a dozen or so people in the library, there were upwards of 40 students. As Schafer mentions, it is “less easy to formulate an exact impression of a soundscape than of a landscape…the microphone samples details…it gives the close-up but nothing corresponding to the aerial photography” (Schafer 7). Sometimes noise can be deceptive in that it sounds like one thing, but in reality it is another. Low, pervasive chatter was evident, though most Davidson students were focused on their work. Individuals are typically in the library at this time because they have enough of a workload that they need to arrive early in the afternoon, but not so stressed because they still have several hours before their midnight deadlines.

Around 0:07 seconds into the recording, the crinkling bag of a mid-afternoon snack can be heard from afar. After a late night out at F on a Saturday, most students partake in bruch at Commons from around 11:00 AM-12:00 PM—so by the early afternoon, it is time for another bite. Were it later in the evening, the crinkling sound of this bag might not have been noticeable; however, due to the social system evident at Davidson, not many students are eager to study this early in the afternoon, so the library was practically empty. If the weather is sunny and temperate, most people are away, working/playing outdoors on the lawn or socializing with friends in the student union. Later in the recording at 0:23, the faint laughter of a girl can be heard in the distance, most likely taking a break from her studies to joke with friends. This may seem as if the girl has very little work to complete, however, due to the rigorous classes at Davidson, one familiar with the culture of the campus could reasonably assume that she has a great deal of academic tasks at hand—but simply took a quick study break. Finally, at 0:35 a double-cough sequence can be observed; it is flu season here in Davidson, and due to the strenuous academics and lack of sleep for most college students, getting sick is no rare occurrence.

Lib at 8:15pm on Sunday

The next recording of the Davidson Library took place at 8:15 PM. During this hour, a plethora of sounds can be detected, but most are drowned out by overpowering chatter. At this time of night, the Lib turns into more of a social space, rather than a study space. By 8:00 PM, all athletes are out of practice and AT sessions have ended. This fact ensures that large groups of students (mainly athletes) gather at tables and tend to be more boisterous and rowdy. Immediately when the recording starts, fits of laughter can be heard over the loud and steady discussions. I know this was an athlete, because this particular laugh I recognize as belonging to Caroline Mohler, a Davidson volleyball player. At 0:09 the rapid turn of a page can be heard, but only because the owner of the book was sitting at my very table. At such a busy time in the library, this implicit sound would usually be drowned out by the louder surroundings. Since the book was located so close to the recording device however, its pages could be deciphered easily.

At 0:12 the clank of a bottle dropping into the delivery hatch of the new vending machine can be heard, along with the constant buzzing that ensues with most machines. It is located between the main staircase and the men’s restroom. This new vending machine is well-used because it’s stocked with a healthy variety of drinks and was purchased in the new library remodel. A bit later, at 0:18 the opening and closing of the library door is audible. So many students are coming and going at this hour that the squeaky door hinges become a keynote sound. Shafer defines a keynote sound as “the anchor or fundamental tone and although the material may modulate around it, often obscuring its importance, it is in reference to this point that everything else takes on its special meaning” (Schafer 9). It can be difficult to study sometimes because whenever this sound is made, most people look up to see if it is their own friend walking in.

At 0:26, an exasperated sigh can be heard, most likely the result of a stressed student trying to complete their work, however the loud surroundings make it challenging for he/she to focus on their work. During 0:33, a female can be heard saying the word “Saturday” and discussing her weekend plans with her friends. Even on Sunday evenings, Davidson students are eager to blast through their busy week and get back to having fun on the weekend. At 0:42 a sneeze can be detected, again demonstrating the flu season and never-ending cycle of illnesses that plague the Davidson student body. At 0:48 a girl can be heard asking, “Is the baseball team out of town?” because at this college, it is a tradition for athletes to support one another. In this particular instance, it was a volleyball player asking about the baseball team because she wanted to encourage her friends as they competed.

Lib at 11:40pm on Sunday

The noise level in Lib is noticeably quieter on Sunday nights by about 11:40 PM. There are much fewer people, and those who are actually present are usually so focused on their work that there is not much discussion going on. In this particular recording, muffled voices of only three people can be heard; however, there were about seven individuals I observed dispersed throughout the library at this time. At 0:12, the noise of a man’s sniffle is apparent—perhaps an indication of pollen allergies due the recent seasonal bloom of the North Carolina blossoms. The spring in Davidson, NC can be a period that is filled with sniffles and sneezes for students with allergies, especially for those coming from different areas with less dramatic seasons. Later at 0:19, a student jokes about his essay being “so good” as his colleagues respond with a quiet snicker. What cannot be heard, however, is how he quietly stated how he had started the seven page essay just an hour prior, and that it was “absolutely terrible.”

I found it interesting how, at this time, the front door was not a keynote sound because people were less keen on arriving at the library at such a late hour. There was also much less talking, not only because there were fewer people at this time, but because students were feeling more stress and in need of focusing on their work. One thing that was more apparent at this hour, were the sniffles and sneezes. Due to the fact that the overall noise level of the library was lower, these explicit noises stood out more. As Schafer points out, “Only a total appreciation of the acoustic environment can give us the resources for improving the orchestration of the world soundscape” (Schafer 4). In the instances when it seems as if there is no sound at all, or no meaning behind this sound, one must focus hard because there is always some clue behind the noise.

The soundscape of a library—a space that I always thought to simply be a quiet place to study—has so much more information hidden behind the soft, yet constant din. By walking into the library and simply listening closely, one can actually determine the time of day, the season, and even the general health of the campus. I chose first floor Lib because of the stark contrast of the space depending on the time of day. I believe that the architects of the Davidson College Library realized this because the Lib was strategically planned accordingly: there are very few books located on the first floor, all spaces for studying are tables that can account for up to four students, and there are loud copy machines and printers in the space. The designers had foresight that this would be the best place to work on group activities with others. This is not the ideal space to seek peace and quiet to work on an individual essay or test. However, first floor Lib is the perfect place to collaborate with others in an area where one is free to talk at a normal volume. This project has helped me better understand how Davidson College intended the E.H. Little Library to be used—and it actually is in alignment with how I, and other students, actually do utilize the space.

Works Cited

Schafer, R. Murray. The Soundscape, Sound Studies Reader. Edited by Jonathan Sterne, Taylor and Francis, 2012.

April 8, 2019 by aljennings

Daily Sounds of Commons

Abstract

For this Davidson Soundscape Project, I have chosen to study the sounds of the main dining hall on campus, Vail Commons. I spent thirty minutes listening to the surrounding noises for each meal of the day on a Wednesday since it falls in the middle of the week. For each meal I sat in the exact same seat, in the back row of tables because it presented the most amount of exposure to different sounds. Throughout this essay I will interpret the different sounds I heard at each meal and analyse how they reveal certain differences at each point in the day. Furthermore, you will find that breakfast allowed me to highlight the social differences between the employees and the students that I have never noticed before. Additionally, lunch has touched upon the various social interactions both between students and other students, and students and faculty. While, dinner emphasized these social interactions even further. Overall, the entire project represents the important of soundscapes and how they can reveal various ideas about the surrounding environment.

Main Side of Commons, with salad bar in top right corner (google)

Vail Commons is the main dining hall at Davidson College and is accessible to all students and even faculty and people of the community. It runs as a buffet-style and splits the seating into two sections. One side, which is not always open to sit, is filled with mostly circular tables seating at least eight people and is sometimes referred to as ‘the dark side’ because it is typical for students doing homework or eating alone to sit on this side. The other side, the main side, holds multiple rows of long tables seating from eight up to sixteen people at each one. The food is set up in the front half of the main side while the station for beverages divides it from the dining tables. Many students have sat in both sides of the cafeteria but I decided to sit in the last row of tables on the main side for my soundscape listening. Here, I had audio access the most amount of food stations at one time including the salad bar, the grill, the sandwich bar, the dessert bar, and the cereal bar. For all three meals of my Wednesday, I sat in the same spot and explored the soundscape around me. Wednesday fit best to ensure there was no influential factors to the overall population from a long week or weekend.

At 8:30am, I sat in this specific spot for thirty minutes and simply listened to the sounds of breakfast. Here is a small ten second clip from breakfast.

During this time I took notes on the various sounds I heard and finished with the following:

Deep, loud scratching on floor: pulling chairs out
Distance sounding/televised voices: from someone’s phone playing a video
Sound of two solid materials clinking, probably metal: utensils
Scraping of two solid materials; repetitive for a few times then stops: people scraping food off their plates to compile the waste
Heard two text tones or phone notifications
Fast and immediate, then slowly fading sizzle; from the grill, eggs? Peppers?
Repetitive quick/short bursts of thin metal clinking with a hard surface: grill scrambling the cooked eggs with a spatula
Sudden collapse on the metal tray at the bottom of the toaster
Repetitive short bursts, but longer lasting and slower speed bursts than above, of two different solid materials scratching; people cutting their food on their plates
“Creaks” and small, random “utility noises”; toaster turning or refrigerator functioning
Crashing sound of ice cubes landing in hard plastic cups
Conversations: only hear about three conversations (1) the people a few tables away/next to me, (2) employees speaking another language to each other in salad bar (3) loud people in the middle
Physically hear an emptiness to the area, maybe just because most people imagine commons as loud so my expectations perceive it that way

Overall I noticed during breakfast some people seemed to try and be quiet since it fit with the sounds they heard. They were not necessarily quiet with the things they were doing that seemed small and unnoticeable but they seemed to try and quiet the sounds of the actions in which they were aware of the loudness and resulting sound. Many of the sounds which took over the soundscape during this meal were the various materials such as trays, carts, and utensils, proving the focus seemed to be the way the food got from one place to the next ending at the mouth of the students. This sparked the significance of the soundscape in revealing the interactions between workers and students, as the sounds highlighted the workers tasks to prepare food to serve students.

Then, at 12:30pm I sat in the same exact spot for another thirty minutes and listened to the sounds of lunch. The following is the short audio clip and notes I recorded from this meal:

Cereal rustling in the plastic containers when the employees refill them at the end of the breakfast wave
Slam of the fridge/storage being opened and closed; to bring out new dishes
Sounds “busy”
More conversations, slightly more laughter
Employees yelling names for food on grill that was piling up when they were getting busy
Same silverware and plate sounds but more often (chairs, cups, scraping plate)
Hear a cart rolling around when they’re switching from lunch to breakfast bc they switch all the trays and put the old ones on the tray and wheel it back
Individual conversations are louder

Finally, at 6:50pm I sat in the exact same spot for thirty minutes and listened to the sounds of dinner. The following is another short recording and the notes I recorded from this meal:

(10 second clips are to prevent any personal conversations from being exposed)

Individual conversations are much louder (much bigger groups of dining tho – athletic teams)
Deep, resonant laughter from students
Thin metal scratching and scraping against a different surface; silverware scraping on people’s plates rather than people grabbing them
Slam of the fridge/storage being opened and closed; to bring out new dishes
chairs rubbing and sliding/screeching across floor, sound is more vicious
Decently occasional singular, flat ‘bang’ or ‘slam’; trays being dropped on tables
Sometimes you just simply hear chatter but you can not actually make out any specific conversations or voices it is literally just sound waves (only when there is so much noise that it all blends together)

Essentially, while approaching this project I attempted to incorporate Michel Chion’s and Schafer’s listening and sound concepts. Schafer’s features of the soundscape introduces the terms: keynote sounds, signals, and soundmarks. Although the terms’ have a unified definition, there are no sounds that are specifically defined to fit with any of these terms. Thus revealing that listening is a completely interpretive and unique experience for each person. Still, during my listening process of this soundscape I incorporated the sounds to each of these terms.

Chion’s three modes of listening seemed to fall into their own place after I heard each sound. To further illustrate, Chion explores the three listening modes: casual, semantic, and reduced. He defines casual listening as, “listening to a sound in order to gather information about its cause” (Chion 48). Identifying the ‘distance sounding/televised voices’ as voices from a video on someone’s phone is casual listening. Additionally, Chion explains different levels of casual listening say that we can identify the general nature of a sound and even identify the pitch or pressure and speed changes in the sound without even knowing what it is coming from. I know the grill scrapping is coming from the grill and some metal thing but I did not identify exactly what. I also know that the sizzling is coming from the heat of the grill and the food and I noticed the tempo of the sound – “fast and immediate, then slowly fading” – but I have no idea which specific ingredients make the sizzling louder or faster, or if the cook is doing something unique to create that sound. On the other hand, he states reduced listening, “focuses on the traits of the sound itself, independent of its cause and its meaning” (Chion 50). I found that while listening to the noises this way it was not only very difficult to describe but also after I did it still lead to the source of the sound. The “sound of two solid materials clinking, probably metal” was initially listened to in a way to understand the traits of the sound but it eventually lead to labeling the source of it as metal utensils. Lastly, he introduces the term semantic listening, which, “refers to a code or a language to interpret a message” (Chion 50). Similar to identifying a source to specific sounds, I interpreted the sounds in ways that could have revealed a specific message to some. For example employees called names can signify to that one person that their food is ready, the phone ring signals a notification, and the sudden collapse on the metal tray at the bottom of the toaster signals someone’s toast is ready. In a way, listening to the soundscape in a way that incorporates all listening modes allowed me to put together the different aspects and considerations with each sound and overall helped me compare each meal’s soundscape with the others. Together the soundscapes reveal information about the differences between students and employees. The semantic sounds of breakfast versus the semantic sounds at dinner emphasize the changes in which sounds as identified as significant and represent meaning. In the same way, the sounds that evolve from being heard through reduced listening to semantic listening displays the change in how sounds are given a meaning at different times and in this case different meals of the day.

On the other hand, when comparing each soundscape using Schaffer’s sound terms I found that the changes in each term also reveal the social interactions and differences between the groups of people in Commons. Schaffer’s keynote sound is “the anchor or fundamental tone and although the material may modulate around it, often obscuring its importance, it is in reference to this point that everything else takes on its special meaning. Keynote sounds do not have to be listened to consciously; they are overheard but cannot be overlooked, for keynote sounds become listening habits in spite of themselves” (Schaffer 100). Keynote sounds are the main sounds in which represent the natural soundscape despite whether we recognize them or not. During breakfast and lunch, sounds of silverware and employees clashing metal trays are signals of resupplying the food or soundmarks which uniquely define the dining aspect of Commons. Yet during dinner these same sounds are interpreted as keynotes because they are much less obvious and overheard because they are hidden by other stronger sounds. However they are still just as present and represent a significant part of the soundscape. The separation between the employees and the students that are eating is splitting further as the day reaches to dinner and the sounds are further separated. Schaffer claims, “even though keynote sounds may not always be heard consciously, the fact that they are there suggests the possibility of a deep and pervasive influence on our behavior and moods” (Schaffer 101). Here easily explains the difference in volume during the different meals as more and more people are in Commons creating more sounds not only does that add to the volume but also the sounds add up together to influence people’s behaviors and moods potentially increasing the excitement and enthusiasm during busy hours such as lunch and dinner, which further increases the volume and amount of sounds. Similar to Chion’s semantic listening mode, Schaffer says, “signals are foreground sounds and they are listened to consciously… Sound signals may often be organized into quite elaborate codes permitting messages of considerable complexity to be transmitted to those who can interpret them” (Schaffer 101). Meanwhile, soundmark, “refers to a community sound which is unique or possesses qualities which make it specially regarded or noticed by people in that community…for soundmarks make the acoustic life of the community unique” (Schaffer 101). Sounds unique to Commons include the stacking clash of solid ice falling into the plastic cups because of the fact that all people who frequently eat there know that is the only dining hall with those cups and everyone is so aware of the sound. It is close to the keynote sounds however these sounds are more unique and, in a way, sentimental to the people involved in the environment.

To further illustrate and explore the social differences of commons, I noticed that the transition between sounds of breakfast and sounds of dinner were emphasized during the lunch wave. For example, the sounds of the silverware was very obvious as there were more and more people grabbing silverware but because those sounds required more of a reduced listening and were soundmarks they were covered by the many conversations going on and the tasks people were doing such as switching metal food dishes and clashing plates onto their trays. During breakfast and dinner these sounds came from opposite ends essentially meeting in the middle during lunch. Clinking and clashing of hard metal utensils during lunch represents the rush of people to quickly get the food they want and the rush of workers to supply and resupply the food, utensils, and condiments in order to satisfy the students. At dinnertime, the conversations and other sounds controlled directly by the students were overpowering the sounds of employees hard work, emphasizing the social differences and unique interactions between the people involved in the soundscape of Commons. On the complete other side of it, breakfast reveals the sounds are almost all coming from aspects controlled by the employees due to the quietness and calmness of the soundscape as a whole. It draws more attention to the employees and their individual task.

Overall, I have found that while dinner at commons does tend to appear louder and includes an increase in the frequency of sounds, these same sounds are still happening at each meal. However, this process revealed many important aspects through the soundscapes. In other words, through Chion’s different modes of listening and Schaffer’s terms to describe the features of a soundscape one can see how the interpretation and significance of these recurring sounds reveal truths of the entire community and environment. As I sat and listened in periods of thirty minutes the compared and analyzed each time frame I noticed the change in each sound and how it signifies specific interactions between students and employees at Commons. Whether the interactions are good or bad is not the argument but rather that the soundscape teaches listeners the hidden aspects and provides a different perspective that one may have never interpreted.