Author Archives: Dietmar

Beyond decibels

By Dietmar | Published: August 6, 2010
Trevor Cox in the New Scientist: “One problem with decibel measurement is that it does not differentiate between “negative” and “positive” sounds. Take the sounds made by a fountain in a town square, happy children in a playground or the cheerful toot of the Manchester tram – any one of which might exceed permitted sound [...]
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Spatial Processing of Urban Acoustic Wave Fields

By Dietmar | Published: July 7, 2010
The military is currently developing models for calculating scattering in urban sound propagation: “Future US Army ground sensors in urban terrain will process acoustic signals to detect, classify, and locate sources of interest. Optimal processing will require understanding of the effects of the urban infrastructure on sound propagation. These include multi-path phenomena that will complicate [...]
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sensory notation – Michael Southsworth

By Dietmar | Published: June 12, 2010
A student of Kevin Lynch and Professor of Urban Studies at UC Berkeley, Michael Southsworth created experience maps of 1960 Boston’s sonic environment. Unlike Schafer, Southworth did not try to describe characteristic sounds for an urban place, but was mainly interested in the strength of the relationship between soundscape and place. This links back to [...]
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