[Re]Mixing Space: Charting Sonic Accessibility and Social Equity in Creative Urban Contexts

Abstract

Sonic inclusion – the ways in which sound includes people in space – has received little attention in the design of the built environment. It is proposed that the design and management of contemporary urban space is grounded in an “auraltypical” perspective where the primary focus is those with “otologically normal” hearing. This position is driven by an idealized model of hearing that frames design through the binary positioning of “good/bad” ears and leads to spaces that are socially exclusive. In contrast, the emerging paradigm of “auraldiversity” acknowledges the diversity of human hearing and the multitude of elements that place the hearing modality within a state of constant flux. This article presents a case study of Remixing the Globe, a participatory sound mapping workshop and exhibition held at Shakespeare’s Globe, London in 2017. The workshop brought together a cohort of disabled adults, each with self-identified lived experience of sonic exclusion. The group utilized digital technologies, such as binaural microphones, pressure sensors and smartphone-activated sound stickers, to map sonic objects, environments and experiences throughout the building. Specific focus was given to mapping the elements of the environment that were understood as pertinent to the inclusion or exclusion of d/Deaf and disabled people. Findings emphasize the important role that sonic cartography can play in examining accessibility in urban space. The article calls for a new politics of sound mapping in which d/Deaf and disability embodiment is foregrounded and through which a critical examination of sound and social inclusion in urban spaces can begin to emerge.

Keywords:

• sound
• inclusion
• urban design
• auraldiversity

Notes

Notes

1 Chiara Certomà, Nicola Clewer, and Doug Elsey, eds., The Politics of Space and Place (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012).

2 William Renel, “Auraldiversity: Defining a Hearing-Centred Approach to Socially Equitable Design of the Built Environment,” Built Environment 44 (2018).

3 Ann Heylighen, Monika Rychtáriková, and Gerrit Vermeir, “Designing for Every Listener,” Universal Access in the Information Society 9 (2009); Ann Heylighen, Monika Rychtáriková, and Gerrit Vermeir, “The Sound of Inclusion: A Case Study on Acoustic Comfort for All,” in Designing Inclusive Futures, ed. P. Langdon, J. Clarkson, and P. Robinson (New York: Springer, 2010); and Monika Rychtáriková, Jasmien Herssens, and Ann Heylighen, Towards More Inclusive Approaches in Soundscape Research: The Soundscape of Blind People (New York: Inter-Noise, 2012).

4 Howard Fletcher, The Principles of Inclusive Design (London: Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, 2006), 1.

5 Rama Gheerawo, “Socially Inclusive Design: A People-Centred Perspective,” in The Routledge Companion to Design Studies, ed. P. Sparke and F. Fisher (London: Routledge, 2016).

6 Roger Coleman, et al., Design for Inclusivity: A Practical Guide to Accessible, Innovative and User-Centred Design (London: Routledge, 2016); and Jordana L Maisel, et al., Inclusive Design: Implementation and Evaluation (London: Routledge, 2018).

7 Ron Mace, “Universal Design: Barrier-Free Environments for Everyone,” Designers West 33 (1985).

8 Elizabeth Guffey, Designing Disability: Symbols, Space, and Society (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018).

9 Jos Boys, Disability, Space, Architecture: A Reader (London: Routledge, 2017).

10 Mairian Corker, “Sensing Disability,” Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy 16 (2001); Aimi Hamraie, “Designing Collective Access: A Feminist Disability Theory of Universal Design,” Disability Studies Quarterly 33 (2013); and Aimi Hamraie, Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2017).

11 Aimi Hamraie, “Universal Design and the Problem of ‘Post-Disability’ Ideology,” Design and Culture 8 (2016).

12 Alison Kafer, Feminist Queer Crip (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2013).

13 BS8300-2, “Design of an Accessible and Inclusive Built Environment – Part 2” (London: British Standards Institute, 2018).

14 BS ISO 12913-1, “Acoustics – Soundscape – Part 1: Definition and Conceptual Framework of Soundscape” (Geneva: International Organization for Standardization, 2014).

15 Jordon Lacey, Sonic Rapture: A Practice-led Approach to Urban Soundscape Design (New York: Bloomsbury, 2016); and Jan Kang and Brigette Schulte-Fortkamp, Soundscape and the Built Environment (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2016).

16 John Levack Drever, “The Case for Auraldiversity in Acoustic Regulations and Practice: The Hand Dryer Noise Story” (paper presented at the 24th International Congress on Sound and Vibration, London, UK, July 23–27, 2017).

17 Renel, “Auraldiversity.”

18 “Touretteshero,” www.touretteshero.com (accessed September 1, 2018).

19 “Shakespeare’s Globe,” www.shakespearesglobe.com (accessed November 1, 2018).

20 Anna Kanngieser, “A Sonic Geography of Voice: Towards an Affective Politics,” Progress in Human Geography 36 (2012).

21 Jacqueline Waldock, “Soundmapping: Critiques and Reflections on this New Publicly Engaging Medium,” Journal of Sonic Studies 1 (2011). Available online: http://journal.sonicstudies.org/vol01/nr01/a08

22 Steve Goodman, Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010).

23 John Clarkson, et al., Inclusive Design: Design for the Whole Population (London: Springer, 2003); and R. Coleman et al., Design for Inclusivity.

24 Oliver Marlow and Dermot Egan, Codesigning Space – A Primer (London: Artifice Books, 2013).

25 “Faber Acoustical,” www.faberacoustical.com (accessed November 1, 2018).

26 “Mayfly,” www.mayflysound.com (accessed September 01, 2018).

27 Walter S. Gershon, “Sonic Cartography: Mapping Space, Place, Race and Identity in An Urban Middle School,” Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education 13 (2013).

28 Barry Blesser and Linda Salter, Spaces Speak: Are You Listening? Experiencing Aural Architecture (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009); Michael Bull, Sounding Out the City: Personal Stereos and the Management of Everyday Life (Oxford: Berg, 2000); and Andrew J. Eisenberg, “Space,” in Keywords in Sound, ed. D. Novak and M. Sakakeeny (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015).

29 Brandon LaBelle. 2018. Sonic Agency – Sound and Emergent Forms of Resistance (London: Goldsmiths Press, 2018).

30 Ibid., 4.

31 Sue Wilkinson, “Focus Group Research,” in Qualitative Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, ed. D. Silverman (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2004).

32 Richard A. Krueger and Mary Anne Casey, Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research, 3rd ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2000).

33 Russell Richardson and Bridget M. Shield, “Acoustic Measurement of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London,” The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 105 (1999).

34 Jan Kang, et al., COST Action TD0804 – Soundscape of European Cities and Landscapes (Oxford: Soundscape-COST, 2013); and Kang and Schulte-Fortkamp, Soundscape.

35 Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel. Making Things Public: Atmospheres of Democracy (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005).

36 Kevin Paterson, “It’s About Time! Understanding the Experience of Speech Impairment,” in Routledge Handbook of Disability Studies, ed. N. Watson, A. Roulstone, and C. Thomas (London: Routledge, 2016).

37 Colin Barnes and Geof Mercer, Disability: Key Concepts (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2003); Colin Barnes and Geof Mercer, Implementing the Social Model of Disability: Theory and Research (Leeds: The Disability Press, 2004); and Tom Shakespeare and Nick Watson, “Defending the Social Model,” Disability and Society 12, no. 2 (1997).

38 Steven La Grow, “The Use of the Sonic Pathfinder as a Secondary Mobility Aid for Travel in Business Environments: A Single-Subject Design,” Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development 36, (1999); and David A. Ross and Bruce B. Blasch, “Wearable Interfaces for Orientation and Wayfinding,” in Proceedings of The Fourth International ACM Conference On Assistive Technologies , Arlington, Virginia, USA, November 13–15, 2000.

39 Anke Brock, et al., “Interactivity Improves Usability of Geographic Maps for Visually Impaired People,” Human–Computer Interaction 30 (2015); Florence Gaunet and Xavier Briffault, “Exploring the Functional Specifications of a Localized Wayfinding Verbal Aid for Blind Pedestrians: Simple and Structured Urban Areas,” Human–Computer Interaction 20 (2005); and Florian Grond and Piet Devos, “Sonic Boundary Objects: Negotiating Disability, Technology and Simulation,” Digital Creativity 27 (2016).

40 BS8300-2, “Design.”

41 R. M. Schafer, The Tuning of the World (New York: Knopf). Reprinted as Our Sonic Environment and the Soundscape: The Tuning of the World (Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1994). Schafer defines “keynote sounds” as those which are heard by a particular society continuously or frequently enough to form a background against which other sounds are perceived (ibid., 272).

42 “Shakespeare’s Globe.”

43 Clarkson, et al, Inclusive Design; and S. Keates and J. Clarkson, Countering Design Exclusion: An Introduction to Inclusive Design (London: Springer, 2004).

44 Kanngieser, “A Sonic Geography of Voice.”

45 Waldock, “Soundmapping.”

46 Jon M. Wargo, “#SoundingOutMySilence: Reading a LGBTQ Youth's Sonic Cartography as Multimodal (Counter) Storytelling,” Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 62 (2018).

47 BS8300-2, “Design,” 154.

48 Kang et al., COST Action TD0804; and Kang and Schulte-Fortkamp, Soundscape.

49 BS ISO 12913-1, “Acoustics.”

50 Drever, “Case for Auraldiversity.”

51 Renel, Auraldiversity; and Drever, “Case for Auraldiversity.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

William Renel

Dr William Renel’s practice as an inclusive design researcher emerges at the junctions between sound, interaction and social inclusion research. Renel is a postdoctoral innovation fellow at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, a company director of community interest company Touretteshero and a member of the Heart n Soul at the Hub research team at Wellcome Collection, London.