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This study explores the practice of "soundtalking," a novel method of participant-led sound practice, within the environment and soundscape of the Dee Estuary in the UK. Over the course of twelve months, the Our Dee Estuary Project facilitated monthly meetings where participants engaged in in-depth discussions and sound-making activities, fostering a deeper connection with both their local and auditory environments.
The practice of soundwalking and recording has been implemented as a method in artistic composition pedagogy, soundscape awareness interventions, in addition to social science, psychology and acoustics research. This paper explores the author’s phenomenological practice of recording sonic dérives, psychogeographic sound wanderings through urban and rural environments; exploring both consciously and unconsciously environments and paths of sonic interest, leading to the creation and mapping of sonic ‘desire’ paths.
Soundscape research has often struggled to deal with the multidimensional experience of the phenomenological perception of the sound environment. Whilst there have been a number of important large multidisciplinary projects formed from a wide range of stakeholder disciplines, results have often been epistemologically split between interpreting the complex multidimensional, multi-epistemological, phenomenological experience of a soundscape for some disciplines, versus the positivist, objectivist quantitative approach of other disciplines.
Soundsitting as an alternative to soundwalking offers a number of additional benefits to the traditional soundwalk, including inclusivity for visually impaired and those unable to walk. Soundsitting is a way of obtaining deep immersive listening in a single soundscape context, rather than transitioning through differing contexts on a walk. Both methods are complimentary.
