| 1. |
- Aletta, Francesco, et al.
(författare)
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Characterization of the soundscape in Valley Gardens, Brighton, by a soundwalk prior to an urban design intervention
- 2015
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Ingår i: Proceedings of Euronoise 2015. - : Nederlands Akoestisch Genootschap and ABAV - Belgian Acoustical Society. ; , s. 1547-1552
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of the present study was to characterize the soundscape of the Valley Gardens in Brighton before the area is converted into a downtown park. Valley Gardens is located in the busy city centre. It extends from the Brighton Pier at the seafront and approximately 1.5 km to the north. It includes Old Stein, Victoria Gardens, St Peter’s Church, and The Level. In 2015 work will commence on redeveloping Victoria Gardens and St Peter’s Church. In order to characterize the soundscape of the Valley Gardens prior to this urban design intervention a soundwalk was conducted. In October 2014, a group of 21 persons -experts in acoustics and officers of the City Council- were guided through the area together, and assessed the soundscape at eight sites: five within the Valley Gardens and three reference sites. The assessments covered the soundscape quality, how appropriate the soundscape is to the place, the dominance of perceived sound sources, and the affective quality of the soundscape. In addition, binaural recordings and sound-level measurements were conducted at each of the eight sites during the soundwalk. Preliminary results indicate that the Valley Gardens was dominated by the sound of road traffic, and that the soundscape was perceived as inappropriate to the place. Consequently, the planned design intervention should reduce the dominance of road-traffic sound and introduce more positive sounds, like the sound of people and nature. This would be done through careful planning of the landscape and human activities within the area. The plan is to follow-up these results with a post-intervention soundwalk.
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| 2. |
- Aletta, Francesco, et al.
(författare)
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Dimensions Underlying the Perceived Similarity of Acoustic Environments
- 2017
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Psychology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-1078. ; 8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Scientific research on how people perceive or experience and/or understand the acoustic environment as a whole (i.e., soundscape) is still in development. In order to predict how people would perceive an acoustic environment, it is central to identify its underlying acoustic properties. This was the purpose of the present study. Three successive experiments were conducted. With the aid of 30 university students, the first experiment mapped the underlying dimensions of perceived similarity among 50 acoustic environments, using a visual sorting task of their spectrograms. Three dimensions were identified: (1) Distinguishable-Indistinguishable sound sources, (2) Background-Foreground sounds, and (3) Intrusive-Smooth sound sources. The second experiment was aimed to validate the results from Experiment 1 by a listening experiment. However, a majority of the 10 expert listeners involved in Experiment 2 used a qualitatively different approach than the 30 university students in Experiment 1. A third experiment was conducted in which 10 more expert listeners performed the same task as per Experiment 2, with spliced audio signals. Nevertheless, Experiment 3 provided a statistically significantly worse result than Experiment 2. These results suggest that information about the meaning of the recorded sounds could be retrieved in the spectrograms, and that the meaning of the sounds may be captured with the aid of holistic features of the acoustic environment, but such features are still unexplored and further in-depth research is needed in this field.
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| 3. |
- Aletta, Francesco, et al.
(författare)
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Soundscape descriptors and a conceptual framework for developing predictive soundscape models
- 2016
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Ingår i: Landscape and Urban Planning. - : Elsevier BV. - 0169-2046 .- 1872-6062. ; 149, s. 65-74
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Soundscape exists through human perception of the acoustic environment. This paper investigates how soundscape currently is assessed and measured. It reviews and analyzes the main soundscape descriptors in the soundscape literature, and provides a conceptual framework for developing predictive models in soundscape studies. A predictive soundscape model provides a means of predicting the value of a soundscape descriptor, and the blueprint for how to design soundscape. It is the key for implementing the soundscape approach in urban planning and design. The challenge is to select the appropriate soundscape descriptor and to identify its predictors. The majority of available soundscape descriptors are converging towards a 2-dimensional soundscape model of perceived affective quality (e.g., Pleasantness–Eventfulness, or Calmness–Vibrancy). A third potential dimension is the appropriateness of a soundscape to a place. This dimensions provides complementary information beyond the perceived affective quality. However, it depends largely on context, and because a soundscape may be appropriate to a place although it is poor, this descriptor must probably not be used on its own. With regards to predictors, or soundscape indicators, perceived properties of the acoustic environment (e.g., perceived sound sources) are winning over established acoustic and psychoacoustic metrics. To move this area forward it is necessary that the international soundscape community comes together and agrees on relevant soundscape descriptors. This includes to agree on numerical scales and assessment procedures, as well as to standardize them.
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| 4. |
- Aletta, Francesco, et al.
(författare)
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Towards acoustic indicators for soundscape design
- 2014
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Scientific research on how people perceive, experience or understand the acoustic environment as a whole (i.e., soundscape) is still in development, both with regards to acoustic properties, as well as personality and individual differences. In order to predict how people would perceive an acoustic environment, it is central to identify the underlying acoustic properties of soundscapes. In this study these properties were approached by investigating the visual similarity of colour prints of 50 audio spectrograms (time vs. frequency), representing audio recordings of a variety of acoustic environments. In total, 15 female and 15 male students from the University of Sheffield were recruited to assess the 50 spectrograms by sorting them into groups based on how similar they were perceived to be. A distance matrix, derived from the sorting data, was subjected to a Multidimensional Scaling analysis to map the underlying dimensions of similarity among the spectrograms, which are proposed to represent the underlying acoustic properties of the corresponding acoustic environments. Three dimensions were identified. The first dimension relates to Distinguishable–Indistinguishable sound sources, the second dimension to Background–Foreground sounds, and the third dimension to Intrusive–Smooth sound sources. The results also show that established acoustic parameters are inappropriate as indicators of acoustic environments and that further research is needed in this field.
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| 5. |
- Axelsson, Östen, et al.
(författare)
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A field experiment on the impact of sounds from a jet-and-basin fountain on soundscape quality in an urban park
- 2014
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Ingår i: Landscape and Urban Planning. - : Elsevier BV. - 0169-2046 .- 1872-6062. ; 123, s. 49-60
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A field experiment was conducted to explore whether water sounds from a fountain had a positive impact on soundscape quality in a downtown park. In total, 405 visitors were recruited to answer a questionnaire on how they perceived the park, including its acoustic environment. Meanwhile the fountain was turned on or off, at irregular hours. Water sounds from the fountain were not directly associated with ratings of soundscape quality. Rather, the predictors of soundscape quality were the variables Road-traffic noise and Other natural sounds. The former had a negative and the latter a positive impact. However, water sounds may have had an indirect impact on soundscape quality by affecting the audibility of road-traffic and natural sounds. The present results, obtained in situ, agree with previous results in soundscape research that the sounds perceived particularly roadtraffic and natural sounds explain soundscape quality. They also agree with the results from laboratory studies that water sounds may mask roadtraffic sounds, but that this is not simple and straight forward. Thus sound should be brought into the design scheme when introducing water features in urban open spaces, and their environmental impact must be thoroughly assessed empirically.
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| 6. |
- Axelsson, Östen, et al.
(författare)
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A principal components model of soundscape perception
- 2010
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Ingår i: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. - : Acoustical Society of America (ASA). - 0001-4966 .- 1520-8524. ; 128:5, s. 2836-2846
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is a need for a model that identifies underlying dimensions of soundscape perception, and which may guide measurement and improvement of soundscape quality. With the purpose to develop such a model, a listening experiment was conducted. One hundred listeners measured 50 excerpts of binaural recordings of urban outdoor soundscapes on 116 attribute scales. The average attribute scale values were subjected to principal components analysis, resulting in three components: Pleasantness, eventfulness, and familiarity, explaining 50, 18 and 6% of the total variance, respectively. The principal-component scores were correlated with physical soundscape properties, including categories of dominant sounds and acoustic variables. Soundscape excerpts dominated by technological sounds were found to be unpleasant, whereas soundscape excerpts dominated by natural sounds were pleasant, and soundscape excerpts dominated by human sounds were eventful. These relationships remained after controlling for the overall soundscape loudness (Zwicker’s N10), which shows that ‘informational’ properties are substantial contributors to the perception of soundscape. The proposed principal components model provides a framework for future soundscape research and practice. In particular, it suggests which basic dimensions are necessary to measure, how to measure them by a defined set of attribute scales, and how to promote high-quality soundscapes.
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| 7. |
- Axelsson, Östen, et al.
(författare)
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A Swedish instrument for measuring soundscape quality
- 2009
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Ingår i: Euronoise 2009. - Edinburgh : Institute of Acoustics.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In 2008 the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) decided to put together a new expert working group ISO/TC 43/SC 1/WG 54 named “Perceptual assessment of soundscape quality”. The purpose of this expert group is to propose the first ever, international standard on how to measure the perceived quality of soundscapes, by means of questionnaire techniques. This work is chiefly motivated by a need to harmonise methods in soundscape research internationally in order to improve the comparability of research results across countries and over time. Within the Swedish research program Soundscape Support to Health, the present authors developed such a technique based on field work and laboratory studies. In the present paper we present research in which we validated our initial findings and finalised our questionnaire protocol. We propose that the measurement of perceived soundscape quality must include: (1) identification of perceived sounds sources, such as, technological sounds, human sounds, and natural sounds, (2) classification of soundscape quality on a good–bad scale, and (3) qualitative measurement of a set of eight perceived-soundscape attributes defined in a two-dimensional Pleasantness–Eventfulness measurement model.
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| 8. |
- Axelsson, Östen, 1971-
(författare)
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Aesthetic Appreciation Explicated
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The present doctoral thesis outlines a new model in psychological aesthetics, named the Information-Load Model. This model asserts that aesthetic appreciation is grounded in the relationship between the amount of information of stimuli and people’s capacity to process this information. This relationship results in information load, which in turn creates emotional responses to stimuli. Aesthetic appreciation corresponds to an optimal degree of information load. Initially, the optimal degree is relatively low. As an individual learns to master information in a domain (e.g., photography), the degree of information load, which corresponds to aesthetic appreciation, increases. The present doctoral thesis is based on three empirical papers that explored what factors determine aesthetic appreciation of photographs and soundscapes. Experiment 1 of Paper I involved 34 psychology undergraduates and 564 photographs of various motifs. It resulted in a set of 189 adjectives related to the degree of aesthetic appreciation of photographs. The subsequent experiments employed attribute scales that were derived from this set of adjectives. In Experiment 2 of Paper I, 100 university students scaled 50 photographs on 141 attribute scales. Similarly, in Paper II, 100 university students scaled 50 soundscapes on 116 attribute scales. In Paper III, 10 psychology undergraduates and 5 photo professionals scaled 32 photographs on 27 attribute scales. To explore the underlying structure of the data sets, they were subjected to Multidimensional Scaling and Principal Components Analyses. Four general components, related to aesthetic appreciation, were found: Familiarity, Hedonic Tone, Expressiveness, and Uncertainty. These components result from the higher-order latent factor Information Load that underlies aesthetic appreciation.
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| 9. |
- Axelsson, Östen
(författare)
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Designing Soundscape for Sustainable Urban Development
- 2011
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Rapport (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- The term 'soundscape' — the acoustic equivalent to 'landscape' — is relatively new to many. The present report summarises the results of the conference Designing Soundscape for Sustainable Urban Development, which was organised in order to introduce the soundscape approach to architects and urban planners who have little or no previous experience in this field. Like the conference, the present report seeks to inspire and provoke new thoughts in order to challenge the visual dominance in architecture. In order to reach this objective I invited among the finest soundscape experts in the world to present their thoughts and case studies for others to follow. By the present report they provide their contributions in written form for those who could not participate in the conference. I am convinced that these thoughts will change the way you perceive the built environment, as well as the way you think about and listen to sounds. The report makes evident that the soundscape is an essential environmental resource.
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| 10. |
- Axelsson, Östen
(författare)
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Effects of a low-height sound absorbent street furniture and a fountain on the soundscape in a Stockholm pocket park
- 2016
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the Inter-Noise 2016. - 9783939296119 ; , s. 5203-5211
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study investigated the effects of a mock-up version of a low-height sound absorbent street furniture and a fountain on the local soundscape in a pocket park in Stockholm. Binaural recordings were conducted at two distances from the main road (on the sidewalk and in the park). The recordings were conducted with or without the mock-up, and with the local fountain either turned on or off. Thirty-two students (16 women, Mage = 26.6 yrs., SDage = 5.7) participated in a listening experiment, and assessed eight experimental sounds, in context of 12 fill sounds, on how pleasant or eventful they were. ANOVA showed that the mock-up had a stronger effect on pleasantness on the sidewalk than in the park, and the fountain contributed to pleasantness only in the absence of the mock-up. Moreover, the fountain reduced the eventfulness in the park but not on the sidewalk. The results are in line with previous case studies. Taken together, they suggest that it is better to build low-height sound absorbent street furniture han fountains, to improve the urban soundscape.
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