Sonic LondonA London Festival of Architecture Cycle Ride

Sunday 20 June 2010

Instant hearing damage

Threshold of pain

Damage possible 3-4 minutes

Damage possible after 1 hr

Damage possible after 8 hrs

Annoying

Sleep disruption may begin

Very quiet

Average threshold of hearing

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Sound level (dBA)

Shotgun

Jet takeoff (100m away)

Rock bandMotorbike, car horn

Baby crying

Chainsaw

Thunder, lawnmower

Telephone dial tone

Vacuum cleaner

Inside car at 65 mphAlarm clock

Normal speech

Average office noise

Quiet library

Rice Krispies

Leaves rustlingWatch ticking

Quiet wilderness

Breathing

“Throw out an alarming alarm clock. If the ring is loud and strident, youʼre waking up to instant stress. You shouldnʼt be bullied out of bed, just reminded that itʼs time to start your day.” Sharon Gold

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A Frenchman riding a motorbike with no silencer straight through Paris at 3 oʼclock in the morning can wake 250,000 sleeping people. What power! With my machine I can control a quarter of a million people. Iʼm the boss. "" " " " " " " Henrik Karlsson

Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchosBlack cap Sylvia atricapillaBlackbird Turdus merulaWoodlark Lullula arboreaMistle thrush Turdus viscivorusSkylark Alauda arvensisRobin Erithacus rubeculaSong !rush Turdus philomelusWren Troglodytes troglodytesMarsh warbler Acrocephalus palustris

Garden warbler Sylvia borinHedge sparrow Prunella modularisTree pipit Anthus trivialisWillow warbler Phylloscopus trochilusRedstart Phoenicurus phoenicurusSedge warbler Acrocephalus schoenobaenusTawny Owl Strix alucoCurlew Numenius arquataChiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita Great tit Parus major

Wood warbler

Willow warbler

Chiffchaff

Twenty British Songbirds

Everyone wants to understand painting. Why is there no attempt to understand the song of the birds? " " " " " " " " " " " " Pablo Picasso

“A unique object that serves as a natural symbol of a communityʼs identity... Communities of any significance could not conceive of being without a ring of bells.” Alain Corbin

Sound MappingRecord the direction and distance of the sounds you hear

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“Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation...Tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego.” Jean Arp

73-Bus bell. Bagel shop, Brick Lane. Open 24 hours a day this is one of London's favourite night stops. Bank of England 1.00am. A city back alley, the 'chinks' are ropes blowing against a flagpole. 16th floor up, London roar from the top of a tower block, Holloway Road, on a damp evening (I like the sound of traffic). Big Ben. London's most famous sound is broadcast to the world daily from a microphone high in the tower. Blackbird dawn chorus, 4.00am in May. Blackbirds are London's commonest songbirds. So much so that on occasions it is virtually the only species singing. The sound reverberates up and down the street, which gives a particularly urban feel. Brick Lane. Heart of London's Bangladeshi community. Brixton station. Emerging from the underground station into the street. Butlers Wharf, Thames sounds.The River Thames is surprisingly quiet and one has to search for its sounds. The two here are slurps under the overhang of the wharf and squeaky barges rising and falling on the swell. Canal towpath stones. Along London's canal towpaths are areas of loose concrete slabs which rock musically when cycled over. Club queue, Hoxton. Coffee in Soho. Dalston Market. Depford Grid sub station. Deptford Market. Sounds of the market packing up around 4.30pm on a Saturday. Escalator, Kingʼs Cross underground station. Euston main line. Evening birds in Abbey Park Cemetery, early May. Among the species heard are Song Thrush, Blackbird, Robin and Wood Pidgeons. Fountain Victoria Park 1.00am. With honking Canada Geese. Great Court at the British Museum. People murmering and cafe clinks heard in the fabulous acoustic of the museums's new court. Classic stone, classic reverberation. Helicopter/East London Mosque.The Muslim call to prayer is a recent addition to London's soundscape. Situated in Whitechapel the East London mosque is very close to the city heliport. Key in the front door. London Bridge station. Railway termini, the tannoy annoucements, peoples feet, the trains moving. Nightingales singing against the hum of the electricity sub station at Fisher's Green. Onions frying in my flat. Regents Park to Oxford Circus. Underground journey on the Bakerloo Line. Slamming train doors Victoria Station, A sound fast disappearing from London's soundscape. Sound of rain when I'm in bed. Swifts over Stoke Newington, swifts wheeling around the rooftops are a definitive summer sound and mark out spaces upwards and outwards in a way that few others do. Taxis waiting at Euston Station, squeaky black taxi brakes. Tottenham Hotspurs football club, White Hart Lane. Through the turnstiles at Spurs Football Club. Transformer, Putney. Part of the underground's electricity supply; the hum varies in tone with the changing current drawn by passing trains. Under the flyover, Hackney Wick.

Submitted by Londoners - Curated by Peter Cusack www.favouritelondonsounds.org

Favourite London Sounds

We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. " " " " " " " " " " " Epictetus (AD 55-135)

“When your bike functions best, you don’t hear it - it’s silent, there’s no cracking, just shhhh - you’re gliding.” Ralf Hü!er, Kra"werk

If your bike makes a noise......once every time the wheels go around:

Rims damaged or buckled? Tyre rubbing? Brake rubbing? Loose spoke? Chain rubbing spoke protector? Freehub/!eewheel loose?

...once every time the pedals go around:

Loose pedals? Loose crank bolts? Loose stack bolts? Bo"om bracket cups loose? Bad pedal bearings? Bent chainwheel? Front derailer hi"ing crank? Saddle creaky? Handlebar/stem creaky?

...once every time the chain goes around (every 3-4 pedal revolutions):

Stiff chain link? Bent chain link?

...when you use the brakes:

Rim damaged? Loose brake caliper? Loose headset?

...when you pull on the handlebars:

Loose handlebar binder bolt? Steerer needs greasing? Cracks in handlebar or stem?

www.sheldonbrown.com/creaks

Listening to your bicycle

“Sheer volume aside, the human sound which most closely approximates that of the internal combustion engine is the fart.The analogies between the automobile and the anus are conspicuous.” " " " " " " " " " " " " R. Murray Schafer

Oh look - is it a Stockbroker? Is it a Quantity Surveyor? Is it a Church Warden? No! It's BICYCLE REPAIR MAN! " " " " " " " " Monty Pythonʼs Flying Circus

References and further reading

British Library “Listen to Nature”: www.bl.uk/listentonature

Defra Noise Mapping: www.defra.gov.uk/noisemapping

Favourite London Sounds: www.favoritelondonsounds.com

London Sound Survey: www.SoundSurvey.co.uk

R. Murray Shafer: "e Soundscape - Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World

Resonance FM: www.resonancefm.com

Sheldon Brown: www.sheldonbrown.com

Sounder City- the Mayor's Ambient Noise Strategy: www.tinyurl.com/soundercity

Soundscape - "e Journal of Acoustic Ecology

"e Bike Show: www.thebikeshow.net

"e Free Sound Project: www.freesound.org

Tommy "umb's Pre#y Song Book

The sound of a car door opening in front of you is similar to the sound of a gun being cocked. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Amy Webster

Notes

Different tyres, different roads, different sounds.

Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating. The sound of a truck at fifty miles per hour. Static between the stations. Rain. We want to capture and control these sounds, to use them not as sound effects, but as musical instruments. " " " " " " " " " " " " " John Cage