Statement

Urban Sound Ecology is a research initiative dedicated to exploring, examining, and understanding the sonic spaces of Canadian cities. At once an archive, database, and creative remapping of the city, Urban Sound Ecology is free to join and free to use. We invite interested participants to construct lines of inquiry into the aural landscape of Canadian cities by producing sequences of geo-referenced ‘soundwalks.’ These non-narrated walks, captured on field-recording devices in wav. or .mp3 format, can describe any element of the city – squirrels, trains, sewers, street festivals – worth hearing about. We are especially interested in less documented sounds, places that hold secret potential for new understandings for the life of the city. We are not interested in gossip, or espionage, or personal anecdote. We understand the author of a walk not as an authority of that walk, but as one in a proliferation of moments that describe a time-sequence in space.

By recombining the vectors of walks onto an (un)mastered city map, we hope to depart from the grey noise that dominates most experiences of the city and penetrate deeper into its living fabric. The interactive sound-map is yours to use – engage it as the basis of an ambient-noise project, or use it to research the effects of snow vs. rain on the volume of streetcars. As new users join and contribute, the archive deepens and the map grows in complexity. Once you have started using this resource, we hope you come back, and share this space with others. If you have any questions, please contact us.