skip to main content
10.1145/1357054.1357277acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PageschiConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

Sonic interventions: understanding and extending the domestic soundscape

Published: 06 April 2008 Publication History

Abstract

This paper presents a new study of the role, importance and meaning of sound in the home. Drawing on interview data and sound recordings gathered from seven households, this study offers fresh insight into the ways in which the domestic soundscape is managed and understood. The data revealed that household members engaged in a wide variety of sound management practices to monitor and control the real-time flow of sonic information throughout the home. They also showed that families were sometimes surprised and delighted by the ability to record fragments of the soundscape for later use. These findings suggest a number of roles for technology in enhancing the domestic soundscape and its associated behaviors, which we present here in the form of example sonic interventions created in a design workshop at the end of the project.

References

[1]
Augoyard, J.F. and Torgue, H., "Sonic experience: A guide to everyday sounds". 2005, Queen's University Press.
[2]
Blesser, B. and Salter, L.C., MA: MIT Press., "Spaces Speak, Are You Listening? Experiencing Aural Architecture". 2006, MIT Press.
[3]
Brown, B. and Sellen, A., "Sharing and listening to music", in Consuming Music Together: Social and Collaborative Aspects of Music Consumption Technologies, O'Hara, K. and Brown, B. (Editors), 2006, Springer. p. 37--56.
[4]
Bull, M., "Sounding Out the City: Personal Stereos and the Management of Everyday Life". 2000, Berg.
[5]
Butz, A. and Jung, R., Seamless User Notification in Ambient Soundscapes, in Proc. IUI 2005, p. 320--322.
[6]
Clark, H.H., "Using language". 1996, Cambridge University Press.
[7]
Coleman, G.W., Macaulay, C., and Newell, A.F., "Listen to this - using ethnography to inform the design of auditory interfaces". LNCS 4129 (Haptic and Audio Interaction Design), 2006, p. 133--144.
[8]
Frohlich, D.M., "Audiophotography: Bringing photos to life with sounds." 2004, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
[9]
Frohlich, D.M., Chilton, K., and Drew, P., Remote homeplace communication : What is it like and how might we support it?, in Proc. HCI '97 1997, p. 133--153.
[10]
Frohlich, D.M., Dray, S., and A., S., "Breaking up is hard to do: Family perspectives on the future of the home PC. " International Journal of Human Computer Studies, 54, 2001, p. 701--724.
[11]
Gaver, W.W., "The SonicFinder: An interface that uses auditory icons". Human-Computer Interaction, 4(1), 1989, p. 67--94.
[12]
Hindus, D., et al., Casablanca: Designing Social Communication Devices for the Home, in Proc. CHI 2001, ACM Press, p. 325--332.
[13]
Järviluoma, H. and Wagstaff, G., eds. "Soundscape Studies and Methods". 2002, Finnish Society for Ethnomusicology.
[14]
Macaulay, C. and Crerar, A., Observing the workplace soundscape: ethnography and auditory interface design, in Proc. ICAD 1998, p. 1--11.
[15]
Miles, M. and Hurberman, M., "Qualitative Data Analysis: an expanded sourcebook". 1994, Sage.
[16]
Mynatt, E.D., Back, M., and Want, R., Designing Audio Aura, in Proc. CHI 1998, p. 566--573.
[17]
Nagel, K., et al., The family intercom: developing a context-aware audio communication system, in Proc. Ubicomp 2001, Springer-Verlag, p. 176--183.
[18]
Oleksik, G., "Music in the age of the internet: an investigation into the relationship between music, music use and technology." PhD, 2007, University of Surrey
[19]
Patton, M., "Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods". 2002, Sage publications.
[20]
Rodden, T. and Benford, S., The evolution of buildings and implications for the design of ubiquitous domestic environments., in Proc. CHI 2003, ACM Press, p. 9--16.
[21]
Schafer, R.M., "The Tuning of the World". 1977.
[22]
Singer, A., Hindus, D., and Stifelman, L., Tangible progress: Less is more in Somewire audio spaces., in Proc. CHI 1999, ACM Press, p. 104--11.
[23]
Spinellis, D.D., "The information furnace." Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 7(1), 2003, p. 53--69.
[24]
Tacchi, J., "Radio Texture: Between Self and Other." in The Anthropology of Media: A Reader, Askew, K. and Wilk, R. (Editors), 2002, Blackwell.
[25]
Truax, B., "Acoustic Communication". 2000, Ablex.
[26]
Vikman, N., "Looking for a 'Right Method'", in Soundscape Studies and Methods, Järviluoma, H. and Wagstaff, G. (Editors), 2002, Finnish Society for Ethnomusicology.
[27]
Wrightson, K., "An Introduction to Acoustic Ecology". Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology, 1, 2000, p. 10--13.
[28]
Zwicker, E. and Fastl, H., "Psychoacoustics: facts and models". 1999, Springer.

Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Tuning Shared Living Spaces: Acoustic Comfort through Domestic Sound ZonesProceedings of the 19th International Audio Mostly Conference: Explorations in Sonic Cultures10.1145/3678299.3678300(1-10)Online publication date: 18-Sep-2024
  • (2024)All Is Heard: Reimagining The Sounds of Home With CareProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3660686(2708-2718)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
  • (2024)Towards a Personal Audio Space in Homes: Investigating Future Sound Management with Personal Audio TechnologiesProceedings of the 2024 ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences10.1145/3639701.3656313(276-293)Online publication date: 7-Jun-2024
  • Show More Cited By

Index Terms

  1. Sonic interventions: understanding and extending the domestic soundscape

    Recommendations

    Comments

    Information & Contributors

    Information

    Published In

    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI '08: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    April 2008
    1870 pages
    ISBN:9781605580111
    DOI:10.1145/1357054
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

    Sponsors

    Publisher

    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 06 April 2008

    Permissions

    Request permissions for this article.

    Check for updates

    Author Tags

    1. audio
    2. ethnography
    3. sound tour
    4. soundscape

    Qualifiers

    • Research-article

    Conference

    CHI '08
    Sponsor:

    Acceptance Rates

    CHI '08 Paper Acceptance Rate 157 of 714 submissions, 22%;
    Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

    Upcoming Conference

    CHI 2025
    ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    April 26 - May 1, 2025
    Yokohama , Japan

    Contributors

    Other Metrics

    Bibliometrics & Citations

    Bibliometrics

    Article Metrics

    • Downloads (Last 12 months)54
    • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)1
    Reflects downloads up to 01 Mar 2025

    Other Metrics

    Citations

    Cited By

    View all
    • (2024)Tuning Shared Living Spaces: Acoustic Comfort through Domestic Sound ZonesProceedings of the 19th International Audio Mostly Conference: Explorations in Sonic Cultures10.1145/3678299.3678300(1-10)Online publication date: 18-Sep-2024
    • (2024)All Is Heard: Reimagining The Sounds of Home With CareProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3660686(2708-2718)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
    • (2024)Towards a Personal Audio Space in Homes: Investigating Future Sound Management with Personal Audio TechnologiesProceedings of the 2024 ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences10.1145/3639701.3656313(276-293)Online publication date: 7-Jun-2024
    • (2024)Remote Scoping of an Audio-Reminiscence Tool for Care Home Residents2024 IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC)10.1109/ISCC61673.2024.10733572(1-7)Online publication date: 26-Jun-2024
    • (2023)Barriers for Domestic Sound Zone Systems: Insights from a Four-Week Field StudyProceedings of the 18th International Audio Mostly Conference10.1145/3616195.3616224(185-192)Online publication date: 30-Aug-2023
    • (2023)The Sound of the Future Home Workshop: Ideating Sonic Prototypes for Sustainable Energy ConsumptionProceedings of the 18th International Audio Mostly Conference10.1145/3616195.3616213(101-108)Online publication date: 30-Aug-2023
    • (2023)Audible Imagery: Creative Contemplations on the Sounds of HomeProceedings of the 15th Conference on Creativity and Cognition10.1145/3591196.3593366(150-161)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2023
    • (2023)Living with Sound Zones: A Long-term Field Study of Dynamic Sound Zones in a Domestic ContextProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581535(1-14)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
    • (2022)Characterising Soundscape Research in Human-Computer InteractionProceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3532106.3533458(1394-1417)Online publication date: 13-Jun-2022
    • (2022)Movement interaction with a loudspeaker: an index of possibilitiesProceedings of the 14th Conference on Creativity and Cognition10.1145/3527927.3533026(247-261)Online publication date: 20-Jun-2022
    • Show More Cited By

    View Options

    Login options

    View options

    PDF

    View or Download as a PDF file.

    PDF

    eReader

    View online with eReader.

    eReader

    Figures

    Tables

    Media

    Share

    Share

    Share this Publication link

    Share on social media