Sound profoundly affects the human brain - child development, and creative thinking; it has therapeutic potential or causes stress. Sounds in our urban environment are waiting for us. They are everywhere. They are vulnerable, just like us. At the French Cresson Institute, based at the Grenoble School of Architecture, one of the places they are researching is sound in public space. Dr Nicolas Remy, an acoustician, says that architects, engineers, sociologists and philosophers are involved in the studies. All these fields are relevant in the context of sonority. So, how do we ensure spaces of positive acoustic experience? There is no clear answer, but it is important to raise awareness of the importance of sound and develop sensitivity to it. Raising awareness should start in childhood. When we talk about the positive effects of sound, we mostly think of music, but otherwise, noise and noise pollution are common themes.
But this, Remy adds, is a vague and unambiguous definition. In a society of visually oriented information, it is essential to talk about sound, record it, describe it, and plan it. On the one hand, sound is an objective fact, measurable with devices, and on the other hand, it is a felt, subjectively experienced, contextualised phenomenon.
We are used to exploring foreign places on the web with photographs, videos, articles and travelogues, looking at maps. Sound offers us more subtle, perhaps at first sight, less distinct features of a place, but at the same time, it can say a great deal and requires us to pay attention to it almost meditatively. The Cartophonies online project takes us to different places around the world. These are sound maps with recordings from more or less urban parts of the world, recorded by researchers, accompanied by time and place information and descriptions. The Cartophonies project, therefore, has this particular feature that sets it apart from other sound databases. The researcher accompanies the sound with their observations of the acoustic characteristics, atmosphere, and impression, explaining Cresson Lab researchers Sylvie Laroche and Jul McOisans.
Cresson organises an annual international seminar and workshops on sound - Winter School. They work with the participants - students and professionals - to develop sound projects that later are integrated into the urban environment. The B-AIR project, which explores the role of sound in human development, is also linked to the seminar.
General description of Ars Humana: the show presents topics in the humanities, from philosophy and literature to linguistics and history. The programme is mainly based on interviews with renowned experts in a particular field, mostly top professors, philosophers or scientists. The programme aims twofold: to reflect in-depth on and promote topics in the humanities.