Researching sonic environments: exploring audio methodologies

In a recent interview, environmental sound recordist Chris Watson suggested that sound "engages with people in a unique way in that it strikes directly into your heart and your imagination, it's very stimulating...you walk past a grate in the street or you walk over a bridge that creaks in a special way, or you hear a door, or a refrigerator hum or a bird song...Once you connect with the sound of a place, then you start to understand it better in all sorts of ways." There is growing interest amongst artists in using audio media to explore these connections between sound and the environment. For example, the 2010 Turner Prize was awarded to Susan Phillipsz for 'Lowlands Away', a work in which recordings of a traditional Scottish lament were played beneath bridges along the River Clyde. With the increasing availability of portable digital devices and online platforms, it is now common to find artists producing site-specific audio installations, sonic performances, audio walks and online audio maps.

This fellowship will explore the potential of such 'audio methods' for researching sonic environments. It is based on the conviction that audio methods may offer significant advantages over traditional text-based research methods. The oft-quoted saying "writing about music is like dancing about architecture" could apply equally to sound. Audio methods allow for a much richer, more dynamic engagement with sound than text-based studies. In a world where online multimedia continue to multiply, audio methods may also help to make research more accessible to a wider range of audiences.

However, the use of audio methods for research raises a number of questions and issues. How can techniques developed for artistic purposes function as modes of research enquiry? What kinds of knowledge are produced by digital audio, and how does this compare with knowledge produced using other kinds of media such as images and text? What are the legal and ethical implications of the digitalization of audio? With technologies such as podcasting, surround sound and mapping audio using GPS, what technical and practical challenges arise and how can these be overcome? And how can audio fit with, and complement, other sensory methods and media?

These questions will be explored using participant observation with experts working on the boundary between sound art and research. Over ten sessions (eight UK, two overseas), I will take part in, observe and document a variety of approaches to the use of audio methods. The sessions will be designed to fit around the experts' ongoing projects and the challenges that they are facing in using audio methods. Digital audio will be used to record and analyse the sessions, supplemented by photos and field notes. The aim is to produce a rich, detailed, multimedia portrait of audio methods 'in action'.

The results of the research will be shared through the production of three journal papers, a series of 'work in progress' podcasts, a case study for a website that supports researchers to use digital media (www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk) and a radio programme. I will also give conference and seminar presentations. This mixture of outputs will target two main audiences:

i. People for whom the use of audio to explore sonic environments is a core interest and developed skill, particularly sound art researchers. The research will help them to critically reflect on, refine and further develop their working practices.

ii. A wider group of researchers with an interest in using audio media, but limited specialist knowledge and skills. This will include musicologists, human geographers, anthropologists, historians, architects, sociologists, and those working with video and other sensory methods. The research will provide them with theoretical, ethical, practical and technical guidance that will enable them to begin experimenting with audio methods in their own work.

The primary beneficiaries of this research will be academics, as outlined in the Case for Support.

The research also has potential impacts beyond academia:

- Cultural benefits to the public, through accessible creative dissemination, including work in progress podcasts and a radio programme that will be created from audio recorded during the project. This will raise awareness of the sonic arts and their potential for fostering engagement with environments. Timescale: during the fellowship and immediately thereafter.

- Benefits to artists, specifically sound artists and musicians, through critical reflection on their practices prompted by the research. Timescale: during the fellowship and for two years thereafter.

- Benefits to cultural organisations dealing with sound and the environment, such as sound art galleries (SoundFjord, London; Diapason, New York) and libraries (e.g. the British Library sound archive). They would benefit through increased knowledge and understanding of the relationship between sonic arts and research knowledge, and through critical reflection on the uses of audio media for exploring sonic environemnts. Timescale: during the fellowship and for two years thereafter.

- Wider indirect benefits to the public, through increased use of audio media by academics, to which the fellowship will make a significant contribution. This will ultimately make arts, humanities and social science research more publicly accessible, thereby raising public awareness of research e.g. through installations, sound walks, radio shows or performances. Such impacts will, however, be difficult (if not impossible) to track and attribute to the fellowship. Timescale: five to ten years following the end of the fellowship.