4 Soundscapes

Because a focus was placed on the interplay of the senses and, therefore, on subjective qualities of perception, public space also became part of the discussion. Reflections on the importance of the auditory in Western culture played a critical role in these discussions. In the late 1960s, R. Murray Schafer bemoaned the derelict state of the urban acoustic environment and traced this perceived situation back to the rationalistic primacy of seeing. Many artists responded to his call for a sound design of everyday life and a new sensitization of the ear. In Maryanne Amacher’s transmission of everyday urban sounds to a concentrated listening site (City Links, 1967), the perception of soundscapes becomes the core element of the work. In Bill and Mary Buchen’s Wind Bow (1981), the gigantic, wind-propelled Aeolian harps blend into the natural and cultural environment and thereby aestheticize the relationship of auditory and visual everyday experience.