Soundscape refers to all of the aural features of a locale. This includes musical, natural, and man-made phenomena such as speech, machinery, automobiles, birds, flowing water, etc. The Vancouver Sound Walk Collective describes itself as “a community of listeners that explores acoustic locales in and around Vancouver.”
People often tend to ignore the sounds constantly around them or actively shut them out through listening to portable music players. However, listening to one’s environment is rewarding in many ways. It enables the listener to hear how any environment is a combination of the natural and mechanical worlds. It is a way to contemplate the relationships between people, animals, landscape, and technology.
On 12/12/2012, listeners from around the world, including myself, made twelve-minute recordings of their local soundscapes as part of a musical and documentary project. Here is a link to those recordings: http://www.vancouversoundwalk.com/12-12-12/
