Symposium: Listen Here Now! A Participatory Soundscape Approach to Biodiversity and Well-Being in the City

The Listen Here Now!

Soundscapes interfaculty research team is pleased to invite you to our first symposium on the theme of Participatory Soundscapes, Biodiversity and Well-being in Groningen.

Keynote lecture by Dr. Antonella Radicchi from Birmingham University, entitled Beyond the Noise: Open Source Soundscapes.

We provide short workshops and presentations on our research, a soundwalk in Groningen and short lectures on birdsong in the city.

We’ll also learn about the nature of Groningen’s soundscapes through spectogram analysis with experts from Sound Appraisal. Finally, with students and guest composers/producers, we will provide short artistic musical performances and presentations in relation to our collected recordings to date.

Made possible by the Agricola School for Sustainable Development and 'Strategy, Education and Research Interfaculty Grants'.

Impact sound on humans and non-humans

This project proposes to study soundscapes in Groningen in an interdisciplinary context to assess how transformations of the urban environment impact both humans and non-humans through special attention to the sonic.

Given the challenges presented by urbanization, our study proposes to develop the first interdisciplinary framework to measure soundscapes in relation to three inter-related criteria: biodiversity, place attachment, and environmental well-being.

Schedule of Events

• 13:00 - Workshop on hearing urban soundscapes (Kristin McGee/members of team)
• 13:15 - Soundwalk led by Students and team leaders
• 14:00 - Presentation by Mirjam Borger & Xia Zhan on birdsong and urban noise
• 14:30 - Description on project methods so far (Kristin McGee/Jan Komdeur/Bettina van Hoven)
• 15:00 - Coffee
• 15:15 - Presentation by Merel Ursem of Sound Appraisal on urban soundscapes and analysis of recordings
• 15:45 –Keynote lecture Dr. Antonella Radicchi: Beyond the Noise: Open Source Soundscapes
• 16:30 - Performances and recordings by Andert Tijsma, Kristin McGee and students (interacting performing & works made from/with recordings)
• 17:00 - Drinks

Dr Antonella Radicchi holds a BA and MA in Architecture with honours and a PhD in Urban Design and Territorial Planning (University of Firenze, Italy) with doctoral studies conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) as a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar. She is a Licensed Architect (Board of Architects, Firenze, Italy).

In 2022, she joined Birmingham City University. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning and Sustainability in the Department for the Built Environment, where she leads the MA Planning Built Environments Course and several Modules (Placemaking, Individual Master’s Project, Digital Cities).

From 2016 to 2022, she worked at the Technical University of Berlin (Germany)

More about the project

This project proposes to study soundscapes in Groningen in an interdisciplinary context to assess how transformations of the urban environment impact both humans and non-humans through special attention to the sonic.

Given the challenges presented by urbanization, our study proposes to develop the first interdisciplinary framework to measure soundscapes in relation to three inter-related criteria: biodiversity, place attachment, and environmental well-being.

To make these connections, this project focuses on measuring and comparing soundscapes from different local area types (e.g. residential/industrial…) to assess how contrasting sound environments differently impact biodiversity, place attachment, and well-being in these areas. These comparisons will later serve as the basis for discussions with urban and spatial planners aiming to enhance the city’s soundscape for optimal health and liveability.

This one-year project is further designed to explore new interdisciplinary methods in a participatory process with students from our various faculties and with local citizens through citizen science approaches. Our backgrounds in the fields of acoustics, spatial planning, cultural geography, urban heritage, ecology, cultural studies and music performance enables us to combine different approaches for the common objective of raising ecological awareness of biodiversity, increasing attachment to place, and working to develop urban policy to stimulate sonically healthy, biodiverse cities.

In particular, this project records and maps the soundscapes of several locations throughout the year. Our first goal is to develop new methods to measure in what ways the soundscape of Groningen’s different areas reflect the relative biodiversity, health, and liveability through both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Our second aim is to engage both students and local citizens in this research by inviting them to record, discuss, assess, and interact creatively with their own soundscapes within the context of a participatory data gathering and sonic/spatial planning process.

Funding

The project is funded jointly and generously by the Sustainable Society (Agricola School for Sustainable Development) and Strategy, Education and Research Interfaculty Grants for which we are very grateful.