Conference_programme: 29: Community noise

Lecture: Hearing change: investigating the sonic challenges to community life in areas of regeneration .

Author(s): Waldock Jacqueline

Summary:
This paper will evidence how regeneration transforms the acoustic domain and highlights how the change, that regeneration dictates, transforms the sonic space and creates acoustic conflicts. The paper uses a fieldwork from an area of Liverpool as a case study to highlight how conflicting sound and sound cultures are compounded by the regeneration process. \n\nThe study took an ethnographic approach to understanding sound in areas of urban regeneration, the work applied a trinitarian methodology, (Waldock 2015,) that engaged local residents in recording (Pink 2007, Baker 2001), editing and critiquing their sound spaces at a time of change. This practice of partnering with local residents to record and analyse their sound worlds, enabled us to understand: 1) How the manipulation of the sound environment through building work, the emptying of houses, and the disruption of the community in that area, echoes aspects of sonic terrorism and control. 2) How the significance of some sound phenomenons in the community (neighbour noise, quietness) were transformed in such a way that they sat in conflict with the wider cultural understanding of those sounds. \n\nBaker, Sarah. 2001. “Rock on Baby.” Journal of Media and Cultural Studies 15 (3): 359–371. \nPink, Sarah. 2007. “Walking with Video.” Visual Studies 22 (3): 240– 252. \nWaldock, Jacqueline. 2015 “Hearing Urban Change” in Black L.and Bull, M.(eds.) Auditory Cultural Reader, 2nd revised edition, Bloomsbury 151-161.

Corresponding author

Name: Dr Jacqueline Waldock

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Country: United Kingdom