Experiencing the soundscape with mobile mixing tools and participatory methods

Abstract

“Neighbourhood as a living room” is a subproject of a large creative Europe project “The People’s Smart Sculpture”. The project aimed to raise the interest and participation of especially young people towards their sonic surroundings. This paper examines the issues of creating and experiencing soundscapes in mobile soundscape workshop. The soundscape platform and the workshop method was created to experiment mobile and participatory methods with sound and sonic experiences. The perception of the workshops indicated that the pedagogical approach and the orientation part of the workshop has an effect on the level of participation and individual sonic experience. This paper concludes that the soundscape platform and the workshop methods implemented in the project enhanced participation and engagement to the topic among the participants. The soundscape workshop and the tools created for it offered the young people a possibility to participate in the conversation about the urban sonic environment, changes in it and the future of it.