Speaking from Inside the Soundscape
Type
Publication
Authors
Category
Article
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Publication Year
1998
URL
[ private ]
Abstract
presented at Hör Upp! Stockholm Hey Listen! Conference on Acoustic Ecology, June 8-13, 1998
Also published in:
1. The Book of Music & Nature, eds. David Rothenberg & Marta Ulvaeus, A Terra Nova Book, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, USA, 2001
2. in English and Spanish, ZEHAR-67-2010 including CD Blindscapes with Silent Night and Cool Drool (excerpt), ed. Maider Zilbeti Perez, publ. Gipuzkoako Foru Aldundia - Arteleku, Gipuzkoa, Spain, 2010.
"I was sitting in the train to Stockholm. I had a Eurailpass, so I could travel first class. Within ten minutes after the train's departure the businessmen around me (I was the only woman) started to make calls on their cell phones. Since I wanted to do some work I got very irritated. I got up and said to the two gentlemen closest to me, "Excuse me, but is this an office or a train?" One of them answered, "If you don't want to listen to our phone calls there is a room you can go to," and he pointed to the back of the car. I answered, "I don't feel I should have to move, as this is my reserved seat. Perhaps those who make phone calls should go to that room." We were both agitated. He then said that if two people were having a conversation near me they would talk just as loudly, and I said, "No, in my experience people who are on the phone speak much more loudly." He said that that was not his experience and besides he had not really wanted to talk to me this morning.
This is not an experience typical for the Swedish soundscape. It is an experience typical for much first class travel anywhere in the world. That is why I felt confident to speak up. I was not treading on local Swedish toes, just on those global toes of the businessmen who were completely unconscious of how their voices dominated the soundscape.
The phone calls did not exactly subside. So I put on my earplugs and continued with my work. Later I noticed that many of the non-phoning men were wearing headphones. Meanwhile the sealed-off train was speeding smoothly through the sunny landscape. Each one of us travellers existed in our own private sound bubble, within the moving sound bubble of the train..."
Also published in:
1. The Book of Music & Nature, eds. David Rothenberg & Marta Ulvaeus, A Terra Nova Book, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, USA, 2001
2. in English and Spanish, ZEHAR-67-2010 including CD Blindscapes with Silent Night and Cool Drool (excerpt), ed. Maider Zilbeti Perez, publ. Gipuzkoako Foru Aldundia - Arteleku, Gipuzkoa, Spain, 2010.
"I was sitting in the train to Stockholm. I had a Eurailpass, so I could travel first class. Within ten minutes after the train's departure the businessmen around me (I was the only woman) started to make calls on their cell phones. Since I wanted to do some work I got very irritated. I got up and said to the two gentlemen closest to me, "Excuse me, but is this an office or a train?" One of them answered, "If you don't want to listen to our phone calls there is a room you can go to," and he pointed to the back of the car. I answered, "I don't feel I should have to move, as this is my reserved seat. Perhaps those who make phone calls should go to that room." We were both agitated. He then said that if two people were having a conversation near me they would talk just as loudly, and I said, "No, in my experience people who are on the phone speak much more loudly." He said that that was not his experience and besides he had not really wanted to talk to me this morning.
This is not an experience typical for the Swedish soundscape. It is an experience typical for much first class travel anywhere in the world. That is why I felt confident to speak up. I was not treading on local Swedish toes, just on those global toes of the businessmen who were completely unconscious of how their voices dominated the soundscape.
The phone calls did not exactly subside. So I put on my earplugs and continued with my work. Later I noticed that many of the non-phoning men were wearing headphones. Meanwhile the sealed-off train was speeding smoothly through the sunny landscape. Each one of us travellers existed in our own private sound bubble, within the moving sound bubble of the train..."
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https://www.hildegardwesterkamp.ca/writings/writingsby/?post_id=10&title=speaking-from-inside-the-soundscape
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