Noise Pollution

There are many debates in regards to the affects of noise pollution. Noise pollution is stated to have a negative impact on a person’s health. For instance, it can cause sleep issues, anxiety, and hearing loss. The musician, R. Murray Schafer feels that the city’s soundscape is destroying the natural world. He associates natural sounds with nature. City life consists of traffic, airplane and construction sounds among other things. These sounds are said to have a negative affect on people as well as on nature’s soundscape.

However, what we deem as annoying may be determined by our cultural surroundings. Natural and artificial sounds are determined by individual perception. In most cases, our perception of sound may be influenced by pre-conceived notions. For example, the people of France embraced bell ringing because it would give them feelings of euphoria. The loss of such sound would have a polar affect by creating feelings of nostalgia. The frequent ringing of bells became a cultural tradition. In that sense, what may be celebrated in one part of the world, may not be the same in another location. The Eaton Centre banned the ringing of bells because people found the sound disturbing.

I for one live near an airport where planes fly by my apartment on a regular basis. Other people in the area describe the sound as annoying. My perception of the sound is different. I have become so accustomed to the sounds that they have become part of my everyday experience. Curiously, I wonder if there is a certain frequency or pitch that causes a person to feel physical discomfort.

Works Cited:

Botteldooren, D. “The Temporary Structure of Urban Soundscapes.” Journal of Sound and Vibration 292.1 (2006): 105-123.

Burns, William. Noise and Man. London: William Clowes, 1968.

Genaro, N. & A. Torija. “A Neural Network Based Model for Urban Noise Pollution.” The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
128:1 (2010): 1738-1746.

For assignment 2, we had to construct architecture for and with sound. So our group decided to experiment with sound in order to evoke a psychological, emotional and even physical response in a person. By taking the ideas of soundscape and R.Murray Schafer's thoughts on noise pollution into consideration, we created a soundtrack by layering so called natural and artificial sound over each other. This would allow us to question whether our perception of sound or "annoying sounds" are indeed cultural constructions.