Representing ambiance: Practices of sound mapping as potential models

Conor McCafferty

Keywords: participation, representation, sound mapping, web mapping

This paper explores collaborative, co-created urban sound maps from three cities: Belfast, Northern Ireland (the Belfast Sound Map), Montréal, Canada (the Montréal Sound Map) and Stockholm, Sweden (the Oljud Sthlm sound map). The paper explores a method of analysing sound maps in terms of the spatial attributes and typologies they represent. Suggestions are made as to how the participatory model of sound maps might be useful in the context of representing ambiance.