Title: Soundscape –Its Concept and Praxis
Time: 14:30-16:30 17 Oct. 2010 (Sunday)
Venue: multimedia classroom, Room 209 Number 27 Building
Speaker: Prof. Kozo Hiramatsu
Abstract: The concept of soundscape, the definition of which is presented in http://www.sfu.ca/sonic-studio/handbook/Soundscape.html, was created and the word ‘soundscape’ was coined by R. M. Schafer in the late 1960s. It is a sonic environment mostly based on its subjective aspects, although its physical aspect is not excluded from the concept. The concept has widely impacted on researches of various academic fields which had not dealt with sound or auditory aspects in their works and the praxis is broad from noise control to music composition. In the presentation the praxis of Soundscape Association of Japan since its establishment in 1992 is introduced.
Title： A Soniferous Garden of Rentaroh Taki
--- Exploring New Dimensions of Designing Gardens by the Concept of Soundscape
Time： 16:30-18:30 17 Oct. 2010 (Sunday)
Venue: multimedia classroom, Room 209 Number 27 Building
Speaker：Prof. Keiko Torigoe
Abstract：This presentation aims to clarify new framework of acoustic environment and new aspects of acoustic design which can be developed based on the concept of soundscape, reporting one of my projects, the Sound Design of Garden of Memorian House of Rentaroh Taki.
For this project, first I carried out soundscape researches to understand the acoustic environment of the garden. Then, selecting several items from the sounds suggested by these researches, I designed the acoustic environment of the garden so that visitors could re-experience Rentaroh's soundscape of the garden.
This project shows us that the concept of soundscape enlarges the framework of an acoustic environment including sounds of human activities, sounds of nature and sounds of memory as well as sounds of sound-producing devices. This concept also enables us not only to explore new dimensions of acoustic design but also to reclaim an integral appreciation of garden environment in general.
