Östen Axelsson

Individual differences in preferences to photographs

Individual differences in preferences to photographs were explored based on an alternative framework. This framework predicts that the primary difference between individuals in this respect is thei ...

Effects of Sounds from Water on Perception of Acoustic Environments Dominated by Road-Traffic Noise

As a complement to conventional noise mitigation, addition of wanted sounds, in particular sounds from water structures, has been suggested as a method for improving noise-polluted acoustic environ ...

A soundwalk study on the relationship between soundscape and overall quality of urban outdoor places

In a field study, we explored the relationship between the soundscape and the overall quality (good - bad) of outdoor open places. Thirty three residents in down town Stockholm participated in soundwalks near their homes. Along the soundwalk route, the participants assessed six places with respect to the soundscape, the visual environment and the overall quality of the place using a questionnaire. The six locations were preselected to vary in acoustic and visual quality. A regression model with pleasantness of the auditory and visual environment as predictors explained a substantial part of the variance in assessments of the six places overall quality. To disentangle the specific effects of auditory and visual aspects, the present study will be complemented with laboratory experiments in which visual and auditory aspects are independently manipulated.

The ISO 12913 series on soundscape: An update, May 2012

In February 2009 the working group ISO/TC 43/SC 1/WG 54 “Perceptual assessment of soundscape quality”, of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), begun preparing the first International Standard on soundscape “ISO 12913-1 Acoustics — Soundscape — Part 1: Definition and conceptual framework”. This paper presents the latest version of the definition of “soundscape” and its conceptual framework. At its current state of development the framework highlights seven general concepts and their relationships: (1) sound sources, (2) acoustic environment, (3) auditory sensations, (4) interpretation of auditory sensations, (5) responses, (6) context, and (7) outcomes. By providing a standard reference, the working group aims at international consensus in order to avoid ambiguity, and to enable conceptual progress in soundscape research. ISO 12913-1 is expected to be published as an International Standard in 2015. Subsequent parts of the ISO 12913 series will deal with minimum reporting requirements i...

Towards acoustic indicators for soundscape design

Scientific research on how people perceive, experience or understand the acoustic environment as a whole (i.e., soundscape) is still in development, both with regards to acoustic properties, as wel ...

Dimensions Underlying the Perceived Similarity of Acoustic Environments

Scientific research on how people perceive or experience and/or understand the acoustic environment as a whole (i.e., soundscape) is still in development. In order to predict how people would perceive an acoustic environment, it is central to identify its underlying acoustic properties. This was the purpose of the present study. Three successive experiments were conducted. With the aid of 30 university students, the first experiment mapped the underlying dimensions of perceived similarity among 50 acoustic environments, using a visual sorting task of their spectrograms. Three dimensions were identified: (1) Distinguishable–Indistinguishable sound sources, (2) Background–Foreground sounds, and (3) Intrusive–Smooth sound sources. The second experiment was aimed to validate the results from Experiment 1 by a listening experiment. However, a majority of the 10 expert listeners involved in Experiment 2 used a qualitatively different approach than the 30 university students in Experiment 1. A third experiment was conducted in which 10 more expert listeners performed the same task as per Experiment 2, with spliced audio signals. Nevertheless, Experiment 3 provided a statistically significantly worse result than Experiment 2. These results suggest that information about the meaning of the recorded sounds could be retrieved in the spectrograms, and that the meaning of the sounds may be captured with the aid of holistic features of the acoustic environment, but such features are still unexplored and further in-depth research is needed in this field.

Attributes of Aesthetic Quality Used by Textile Conservators in Evaluating Conservation Interventions on Museum Costumes

Aesthetic quality is central to textile conservators when evaluating a conservation method. However, the literature on textile conservation chiefly focuses on physical properties, and little is known about what factors determine aesthetic quality according to textile conservators. The latter was explored through two experiments. Experiment 1 explored the underlying attributes of aesthetic quality of textile conservation interventions. Experiment 2 explored the relationships between these attributes and how well they predicted aesthetic quality. Rank-order correlation analyses revealed two latent factors called Coherence and Completeness. Ordinal regression analysis revealed that Coherence was the most important predictor of aesthetic quality. This means that a successful conservation intervention is visually well-integrated with the textile item in terms of the material and method.

Validation of the Swedish soundscape quality protocol

The Swedish Soundscape-Quality Protocol was developed to help non-experts (e.g., officials working for municipalities rather than soundscaperesearchers) to make informed, accurate measurements of soundscape quality. The Protocol has hitherto been used in England, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and The Netherlands; a Korean version is being developed. Based on field studies – soundwalks in urban residential areas, recreational areas, and parks – the present paper reports on the psychometric properties of the scales of the Protocol. Participants were residents, or visitors to the areas and their results support the reliability and validity of the scales in the Protocol. Because high acoustic quality has a greater effect in visually attractive than in visually poor areas, the Swedish Soundscape-Quality Protocol includes scales for cross-sensory tabulation. These are sound source identification – sounds from humans, nature and technology – attribute scales (e.g., eventful, exciting, pleasant, and calm), overall soundscape quality, and concomitant visual impressions. In brief, the Swedish Soundscape-Quality Protocol is an easy to use and practical tool for measuringsoundscape quality. It has the potential to help operationalize how soundscapes can be measured in “quiet areas” to meet a future guideline value of the World Health Organization.

Progress in soundscape research requires a common agenda

It is commonly believed that progress and success in any field requires competition. This is probably true, but this belief implies that all competitors have a common view on the objectives. There would not be much competition if all parties ran off in opposite directions, striving to achieve different goals. Nor would it lead to much progress. The present session calls for networking and international collaboration in soundscape research. For such collaboration to be successful, it is critical to agree on a common agenda; a mission; an objective. Recent development in soundscape research makes evident that the objective must be practical and applicable. Our minds must be set to implementing soundscape research in practice to avoid exhausting academic debates, which tend to be ends in themselves and do not contribute to progress. Two excellent, recent examples of international collaboration in soundscape research, contributing to progress, are ISO/TC 43/SC 1/WG 54 and the European COST Action TD0804 “Soundscape of European Cities and Landscapes.” Both illustrate the need for international and interdisciplinary collaboration among acousticians, architects, and urban planners to accelerate progress in soundscape research. The present paper presents possible topics for a common agenda in soundscape research.

Soundscape mapping in the urban context : A case study in Sheffield

According to the recently published ISO 12913-1, soundscape differs from the acoustic environment, since the first refers to a perceptual construct, whilst the latter to a physical phenomenon. Nois ...