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| World Soundscape Project | |
|---|---|
| Name | World Soundscape Project |
| Formation | 1969 |
| Founder | R. Murray Schafer |
| Type | Research project |
| Headquarters | Simon Fraser University |
| Location | Vancouver, British Columbia |
| Fields | Acoustic ecology, Soundscape studies, Environmental studies |
World Soundscape Project
The World Soundscape Project was an influential research initiative founded in 1969 at Simon Fraser University by composer and educator R. Murray Schafer that established the field of acoustic ecology and pioneered systematic study of urban and rural sound environments. Building on work in composition, ethnomusicology, and environmental design, the project connected practitioners across Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, India, Kenya, South Africa, Russia, China, France, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Turkey, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Israel, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Bahamas, Jamaica and many institutions including BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, National Film Board of Canada, International Council and numerous universities. The project influenced policy, art, and scholarship across disciplines including composition, urban planning, and environmental activism.
The initiative originated at Simon Fraser University in the late 1960s under R. Murray Schafer, who had studied composition with Olivier Messiaen and engaged with thinkers from John Cage to Marshall McLuhan; collaborators included musicians and researchers affiliated with University of British Columbia, University of Toronto, McGill University, University of Victoria, York University, Queen's University and international centers such as University College London, The Juilliard School, Royal College of Music, Stockholm University, University of Oslo, University of Amsterdam, Humboldt University of Berlin and Kyoto University. Early staff and associates encompassed composers, sound recordists and theorists who later worked with organizations like Canadian Opera Company, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), NFB (National Film Board of Canada), and cultural projects linked to events such as the Expo 67 legacy. The project developed a taxonomy of sound influenced by predecessors in field recording such as Alan Lomax, Franz Boas and contemporaries like Bruno Nettl, Béla Bartók, Zaha Hadid (in urban commissions), and policy actors in municipal governments and heritage agencies.
The World Soundscape Project sought to document, analyze and influence sound environments through practices combining field recording, spectrographic analysis, psychoacoustic testing and community engagement involving institutions like Canadian Heritage, UNESCO, World Health Organization, International Union for Conservation of Nature, European Commission, City of Vancouver, Municipality of Oslo and planning bodies. Methods drew on technologies and practices emerging from labs such as Bell Labs, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Studer, Nagra, Bruel & Kjaer, Institute of Acoustics (London), Acoustical Society of America, Audio Engineering Society and institutions that shaped measurement standards like IEC and ISO. The team used soundwalks, cassette and reel-to-reel recordings, sonographic analysis, interviews with residents, and collaborations with architects from firms linked to Le Corbusier inspired discourse, landscape architects influenced by Ian McHarg, and planners associated with Jane Jacobs-era debates.
Significant undertakings included the landmark field studies of Vancouver and other cities, comparative surveys across landscapes in Canada, Scandinavia, Japan, Brazil and the United Kingdom, curated anthologies of environmental recordings, and contributions to broadcast and gallery exhibitions alongside collaborators at BBC Radio 3, CBC Radio, Tate Modern, Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian Institution, Royal Ontario Museum, Centre Pompidou, Victoria and Albert Museum, British Museum, Berliner Festspiele, Edinburgh Festival, Venice Biennale and festivals such as World Soundscape Festival (inspired events). Fieldwork engaged with communities from Indigenous nations including those represented by organizations like Assembly of First Nations, and with ethnomusicologists linked to Society for Ethnomusicology, International Council for Traditional Music and researchers associated with Alan Lomax archives and collectors like Christopher Tinker.
Core outputs included the influential books, anthologies and sound albums spearheaded by project members and published by presses and labels such as McClelland & Stewart, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Routledge, University of California Press, Faber and Faber, ECM Records, Nonesuch Records, Gruenrekorder, Smithsonian Folkways, Living Music, Redshift Records and academic journals including Leonardo (journal), Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Popular Music, Ethnomusicology, Environmental History, Sound Studies Journal and Organised Sound. Notable titles associated with the project's methodologies and authors include works by R. Murray Schafer, colleagues who later published with university presses and cultural institutions such as MIT Press, Princeton University Press, Yale University Press and contributed chapters to edited volumes alongside scholars from Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Chicago, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan, University of Toronto, McGill University.
The project's legacy shaped disciplines and initiatives across acoustic ecology, sound art, urban design and policy, influencing figures and entities like Brian Eno, David Toop, Hildegard Westerkamp, Michael Bull, Steven Feld, Jonathan Sterne, George Owen Braden (institutions), International Soundscape Community, Acoustic Ecology Institute, Soundscape Studies Network, municipal noise ordinances in cities such as Vancouver, London, Stockholm, Oslo, Tokyo and New York City, and educational programs at Simon Fraser University, York University, Goldsmiths, University of London, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts and Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Artistic and policy legacies also connect to environmental movements, cultural heritage programs at UNESCO, urban research at Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and interdisciplinary curricula influenced by pedagogues from Juilliard, Royal Academy of Music (London), Curtis Institute of Music and media theorists from McLuhan-influenced circles.
Critiques addressed methodological choices, colonial entanglements in fieldwork, intellectual property around recordings, and the project's relationships with institutions including broadcasters such as BBC and CBC, governmental bodies in Canada and international agencies like UNESCO and WHO. Scholars in fields represented by Tim Ingold, Anna Tsing, Bruno Latour, Donna Haraway, Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Walter Mignolo and critics from decolonial studies questioned archiving practices and representational ethics; legal disputes invoked frameworks from Berne Convention and national copyright regimes. Debates also unfolded in journals such as Cultural Studies, Ethnomusicology Forum, Popular Music Studies and at conferences hosted by International Association for the Study of Popular Music, Society for Ethnomusicology and major universities including Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge and Princeton.
Category:Acoustic ecology Category:Sound studies Category:Organizations established in 1969