Page 28 RAIN Oct./Nov. 1982 Rain and Snow ...................... Flics Water and Ice jaMtutiummim Bird-song Grasshoppers Frog-song Bees - Wolves Mosquitoes Elk From: TIte Tuning of the World We need to learn how to consciously orchestrate our daily work and play so that we can truly harmonize. The cycles of the natural soundscape of the west coast of British Columbia showing the relative volume of sounds. CARETAKERS OF THE SOUNDSCAPE Noise Abatement Regulations We are up against a sonic wall. It has been suggested that in order to fcep up with the increasing noise levels in the urban environment, our basic community alert signals — for fire, police and other emergency vehicles — may have to be amplified to levels that border on, or even surpass, the pain threshhold just to gain attention. Even though they represent mere Band-Aid solutions, noise abatement regulations are essential if we are to hold together basic community life. Health and Economics It is important to call attention to the economic and individual health consequences of our sound environment. The World Health Organization has reported that noise pollution in the U.S. accounts for industrial absenteeism, inefficiency and indemnity payments that add up to around four billion dollars annually. We need to develop an economic analysis that demonstrates what it really costs to mismanage our soundscape. Private Acoustic Space Instead of settling for sound "envelopes" (TV, Muzak, white noise) that isolate us from one another, we may need to redefine private space needs to include the rights and responsibilities of taking care of the soundscape. Design of our Tools We need to request regulations regarding the production of industrial and recreational tools that add to the racket of modem life. Beyond that we need to learn how to consciously orchestrate our daily work and play so that we can truly harmonize. This will demand the development of a new language about acoustic design akin to musical notation so that we can create what may amount to community symphonies. Acoustic Ecology In The Tuning of the World, Murray Schafer elaborates on what he calls acoustic ecology, a way of comprehending the entire field of sound, including music: The best way to comprehend what I mean by acoustic design is to regard the soundscape of the world as a huge musical composition, unfolding around us ceaselessly. We are simultaneously its audience, its performers, and its composers. Which sounds do we want to preserve, encourage, multiply? When we know this, the boring or destructive sounds will become conspicuous enough and we will know why we must eliminate them. Soundscaping In the concept of permaculture — a blending of organic or biological farming, landscape design and basic environmental caretaking — is the genesis for a more comprehensive understanding of our stewardship role on earth. We need to consider in the same breath the design of our soundscape, and in making community planning decisions ask such questions as: What existing natural sounds might be endangered? What community fcynote sounds might be destroyed? Can the new development create keynote sounds of its own to help build community spirit? Acoustic Studies Murray Schafer and his associates at the Sonic Research Center at Simon Frazer University have gone a long way in developing a means to classify sounds as well as survey methods for determining individual perception of the sound environment and techniques for educating people about sounds. There should be more support for such studies and the public education system should develop curriculums that expand musical studies to include the entire sound environment. Figures of Regulation in the Soundscape In The Republic, Plato defines the ideal community as containing 5,040 people — the number that could be easily addressed by a single orator. We have created a soundscape today where even a community much smaller is acoustically too large because each person's internal-combustion and electronic slaves can drown out even a chorus of orators. In planning new communities or revitalizing old ones we can take into account the positive, community-building qualities of a purposefully managed sound environment where elements of the soundscape are used to add levels of knowledge about the interrelationships between human and natural activities. The soundscape can serve to remind individuals of their compacts with each other. Fear of Silence Silence reminds us of the smallness of an individual life in the context of a larger process that hums, as an old Beatle's song says, "within you and without you." Until we are more willing to face the essential loneliness that is learned through silence we may not be capable of creating appropriate soundscapes that reflect the joy of "returning" to our social selves, as members of a community, lost as one instrument in the orchestra, but belonging to the harmonic whole. □□
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