Soundscape: A Sense of Sound It Takes a Rookery Marco Polo New Takes on Old Tales Activity Index

<< The Sounds of New Orleans, Louisiana. Photographs courtesy of Melanie Rieger

Your mission is to "collect" sounds that define your zip code's sense of place!

Learn About It
When you are asked to describe where you live, what do you say? Do you describe the homes, shops, and businesses? Do you describe the people? Maybe you describe landscape. All of these things help to define your sense of place, or what makes a certain place have its own distinctive character.

One distinctive characteristic which helps to create a sense of place is sound. Sound is often forgotten, but without sound, places might not have the same "sense of place." Close your eyes for a moment and think about the sounds that are surrounding you right now. It's likely that you don't usually even notice many of them. It might be the hum of your computer, birds outside of your window, or younger brothers and sisters laughing. All of these sounds build a "soundscape" (much like a landscape), which helps to create a sense of place in your home.

Walk around your home for a few minutes. Are there any other "forgotten" sounds? How differently would your home feel if those sounds were no longer part of the soundscape? Would it still feel like home if you couldn't hear traffic outside of your window? Would it seem like a different place if you couldn't hear crickets in the summer evening?

Think about another place you are familiar with, such as an airport, a beach, or a neighborhood park. What are some of the distinctive sounds in those places? Would the airport sound like an airport without the distant roar of jet engines and the clicking roll of luggage on tile floors? Would a beach sound like a beach without the sound of crashing waves mixing with the sound of seagulls calling? Would the park sound like a park without the sound of children playing?

Think About It
Every place has sounds that you might not notice, but those sounds help to create a sense of place. Check out "The Sense of Place" thematic layer in the National Geographic MapMachine Student Edition. You can also navigate there from the home page of the Student Edition of MapMachine by selecting "The Sense of Place" under North America in the "Choose a Theme" pull-down menu. This map has been developed to capture sounds from zip codes around the country that help to create a sense of place and to preserve these sounds for posterity. Because sounds within a particular zip code change as its community does, sounds representative of a community are being collected and preserved to serve as an archive of acoustic histories for that place. These audio time capsules will be preserved in the Library of Congress for future generations to experience.

In each zip code on this map, you'll find three types of sounds:

• Most Distinctive: This is the sound that best represents a place. For example, at the beach this might be the sound of waves crashing.
• Humans and Environment Interacting: These sounds show how people who live in that place interact with it. In our beach example, this might be the sound of kids shouting as the waves lap at their feet, or the sound of a motorboat zipping through the water.
• Symbolic of Change: These sounds give clues about how a place is changing. In the beach example, the sound of heavy construction behind the dunes might demonstrate change.

Think about the sounds you heard from those zip codes. Did the sound represent what you previously thought about the community? Did any sounds surprise you? Did any sounds give you a clue about the community's history or cultural heritage? Were any of the sounds familiar to you? Were any unfamiliar? Do you hear any of those sounds in your own community?

Reflect on your own zip code for a moment. Think about what the most indicative sound might be. Then, consider how humans and the environment interact in your community. Is there a sound that captures that? Finally, think about how your community is changing and which sound best demonstrates that change.

Take a walk through your community, concentrating on all of the sounds that you hear. Ask yourself if any of the sounds represent any of the sound types listed above. Take a notebook and write them down. If possible, bring a small recorder to capture these sounds. When you get home, think about how these sounds can help other people develop a sense of place about your community. Then...

Do Something About It

Younger Xpeditioners: Write a poem in the form of a haiku, limerick, or free verse which describes only the sounds in your home, neighborhood, school, or community. See if you can capture the sense of place by describing only the sounds. Then, turn your poem into a percussive musical piece by identifying the rhythm of the poem and recreating that rhythm on a drum, desk, wind chime, or anything else that sounds cool when you bang it!

Make a sounds scrapbook. Cut out pictures of interesting sounds in your community and write descriptions of what makes them special or important.

Older Xpeditioners: Work with other kids in your school or neighborhood to create a "Soundscape." Discuss with your friends all of the sounds that you think make your zip code unique. Make your own sound categories. Collect these sounds with a tape-recorder. Discuss with your friends the implications of the sounds. Do any of the sounds, particularly those symbolic of change, show negative trends in your community? What can be done to reverse those trends? Are any of the sounds you collected "endangered"? How might you preserve them for posterity, as the Sense of Place map has done? Present your findings to your friends, family, and classmates.

Parents: Go "sound hunting" with your children. This can be done with a small tape-recorder and a trip to the woods, park, mall, or grocery store. Then join the Geography Action! Community in the National Geographic EdNet to post the sounds you have collected and share them with other parents and educators from around the country, and even the world.

To help you get started on your sound hunt, here are a few ideas to expose your children to a variety of new sounds that capture a sense of place:

• Drive with your windows open and the radio or music off. Talk to your children about new or distinctive sounds.
• Try to be aware of sounds that are normally forgotten and point them out to your children. Encourage your children to do the same.
• Encourage your children to distinguish between natural and human-made sounds. Point out ways in which people and their environment interact, and have your children describe the sounds that interaction produces.
• Point out ways in which sounds create rhythm. The repetitive sound of a jackhammer or a chorus of horns at a busy intersection can create an unnoticed symphony!