Sonic environmental aesthetics and landscape research. (2nd January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Prior, Jonathan
• Is Part Of: Landscape research. Volume 42:Number 1(2017)
• Page Start: 6
• Page End: 17
• Publication Date: 2017-01-02
• Subjects: Landscape aesthetics -- soundscapes -- environmental values -- field recording -- sonic aesthetics; Landscape -- Periodicals; Land use -- Planning -- Periodicals; 719.05
• DOI: 10.1080/01426397.2016.1243235
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0142-6397

Abstract

Abstract: The environmental aesthetics literature has primarily focused on the aesthetic qualities and values of landscapes. Within this scholarship, there has been a modest but steady advancement towards explicitly attending to the aesthetic experience of landscape sounds. In this paper, I review the theoretical and applied sonic aesthetics literature pertinent to landscape research, and identify some existing weaknesses. In particular, I demonstrate that there is an ongoing tendency to limit discussions to what is sonically pleasing or displeasing within a given landscape, which, I argue, provides a limited point of entry through which to consider the full scope of landscape sounds. I then turn to offer some ways to address these weaknesses—notably through what I term the development of a 'sensitive ear', and through field recording strategies—in the hope that this will allow scholars to better enfold sonic environmental aesthetics within future theoretical and applied landscape research.