Sonic Rupture: A Practice-led Approach to Urban Soundscape Design

Description

Sonic Rupture applies a practitioner-led approach to urban soundscape design, which foregrounds the importance of creative encounters in global cities. This presents an alternative to those urban soundscape design approaches concerned with managing the negative health impacts of noise. Instead, urban noise is considered to be a creative material and cultural expression that can be reshaped with citywide networks of sonic installations. By applying affect theory the urban is imagined as an unfolding of the Affective Earth, and noise as its homogenous (and homogenizing) voice. It is argued that noise is an expressive material with which sonic practitioners can interface, to increase the creative possibilities of urban life. At the heart of this argument is the question of relationships: how do we augment and diversify those interconnections that weave together the imaginative life and the expressions of the land? The book details seven sound installations completed by the author as part of a creative practice research process, in which the sonic rupture model was discovered. The sonic rupture model, which aims to diversify human experiences and urban environments, encapsulates five soundscape design approaches and ten practitioner intentions. Multiple works of international practitioners are explored in relation to the discussed approaches. Sonic Rupture provides the domains of sound art, music, creative practice, urban design, architecture and environmental philosophy with a unique perspective for understanding those affective forces, which shape urban life. The book also provides a range of practical and conceptual tools for urban soundscape design that can be applied by the sonic practitioner.

Jordan Lacey is a sound artist and urban design researcher based in Melbourne, Australia.

An honest and refreshing take on the urban side of the acoustic ecology equation ... The book's overall project is one that is grounded in an artistic inquiry, and much of its research content and knowledge is informed by the intuitive act of making by an urban dweller. It is an excellent example of research-creation, and a welcome addition to the growing body of work in sound studies. * Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology * Sonic Rupture doubles as a sort of manual on acoustic design of public spaces. In describing his projects and approaches, Lacey spares no technical or organisational detail, providing easily applicable strategies ... Offering valuable insights and innovative approaches to soundscape studies and design, the book certainly deserves to be read with an open mind. * SoundEffects * I warmly recommend this book to anyone drawn to learn more about the role sound art can play in analyzing, reflecting on, and improving urban soundscapes ... [It offers] interesting openings ... for engaging with and perhaps improving our everyday urban sonic environments. * Journal of Sonic Studies * [Sonic Rupture has] opened a new possible view on the development of music (as a limited field of sound). * International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music * Guiding us expertly through aesthetic and intellectual reflections and the practice of his own work, Jordan Lacey literally ruptures the biophilic dream of traditional acoustic ecology and persuasively collapses its idealisation of nature. In its stead he develops the fundamentals for an Urban Soundscape Design that engages the complexity of place and placement. Providing a timely regeneration of soundscape studies, Sonic Rupture breaks with the complacency of a dialectical hearing, and creates a sonic access to land as an affective earth where we hear noise not as a nuisance but as a sign of limitless potential; and where sound artists and listeners have a mandate for political activism through their joyful participation in the diversification of the urban crust. * Salome Voegelin, Reader in Sound Arts, University of the Arts London, UK and author of Listening to Noise and Silence (2010) and Sonic Possible Worlds (2014) * Sonic Rupture is a timely and provocative intervention in the field of soundscape studies that will be of great interest to theorists and practitioners alike. Combining the insights offered by affect theory with urban sound design practices, Jordan Lacey innovatively counters acoustic ecology's moralistic characterisations of both the noise of the city and quietude of nature, providing an alternative framework through which to address the politics and potentialities of sound. * Marie Thompson, Lecturer, Lincoln School of Film and Media, University of Lincoln, UK * While many have abandoned Acoustic Ecology in favor of newer, less encumbered terms, Jordan Lacey argues for its enduring relevance while also offering some much-needed updates. His arguments compel us to embrace its legacy by demonstrating a possible way forward for the field. In addition to being a passionate and compelling account of artistic praxis, Sonic Rupture offers some of the most vital thinking about Acoustic Ecology to be articulated in a generation. * Stephan Moore, Lecturer, Department of Radio/Television/Film, Northwestern University, USA and President of the American Society for Acoustic Ecology *