Inner City in the Listener's Auditory Bubble: Altering the Listener's Perception of the Inner City through the Intervention of Composed Soundscapes

Abstract

This paper describes the effect on the listeners' experience of headphone listening to a music composition including inner-city sound while being in an inner-city environment, using a research through design approach. The study focuses on the listeners' described experiences through the lens of Berleant's aesthetic sensibility and Bull's phenomenon of the auditory bubble. We produce a composition which participants listen to in an urban context and discuss the two main themes found, soundtrack and awareness, together with the indications of the possibility to direct listeners' attention and level of immersion by including inner-city ambience and sound in music when listening with headphones in an urban environment.