This project investigates the sonic characteristics of a specific rural environment. It compares these objective characteristics with subjective perceptions of the sonic environment, the latter collected through interviews with local people. A selection of recordings taken in the case study area are presented as spectrograms, illustrating each recorded sound’s temporal patterns, overall intensity and distribution of frequencies. Data gathered through recordings and interviews is cross-referenced and analysed using multiple frameworks, developed by Raymond Murray Schafer, Bernie Krause, and Pierre Schaeffer. Discrepancies between recordings and interview accounts are explored, and possible reasons for these are discussed in this project. Most interview participants reported similar responses to several types of sound, including traffic, agricultural noise and wildlife. However, the various sounds received negatively by multiple participants had dissimilar sonic characteristics, so did not indicate any single characteristic as the sole cause of these responses. The loud and constant noise produced during harvest was identified as particularly disruptive. In contrast, participants reported noticing traffic sounds because they are infrequent in this environment, with each passing car being heard individually. These characteristics are explored using spectrogram analysis. Participant accounts also reveal their keen awareness of daily sound patterns and habitual monitoring of the sonic environment to identify abnormal events. Participants notice specific sounds more at times of day when they are usually less common and report feelings of unease when this occurs, such as when they hear a car passing through the area at night. While this does happen occasionally, participants monitor the sound to determine whether the car will stop; at night, this is a very rare event, which participants strongly associate with antisocial behaviour. The impact of any sound in an environment is ultimately affected by the environment itself; this project provides a detailed assessment of sounds observed in a rural environment and explores the ways in which people engage with them.
| Date of Award | 11 Feb 2025 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Geoff Cox (Main Supervisor) |
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