Appendix E

Profile of participant: Matthew
Sex: M Age group: 25-35 Profession: MA Student (Soundscape)
Knowledge of Commercial Drive: Good knowledge. Lived near the Drive for one year.

Preliminary hypothesis
Strong emphasis on interaction (voices, intonations, continuity). Immersion and emergences. Creation of a dynamic background (voices, music, sounds from kitchen).

Condensed transcription
I hear sounds of what’s probably a café, I hear background music, people talking, registers, a bit of just general commotion and ambiance from people in activity. It sounds a bit muffled, it gives me an impression of a dark ambiance, it reminds me of Vancouver’s weather and how the clouds give this sort of muffled perspective. It actually sounds like it’s on the edge, though I don’t hear any outside sounds. I’d say it’s local café versus a downtown café (...) But just because it actually encapsulates sort of my outer perception of the city, on a macro-level, so it seems in acoustic term to define the Greater Vancouver. It’s interesting though that it’s not what I would perceive a café to sound like in my memories… Because if I think about it I would foreground the kitchen and the espresso machine and the change of money, while those are more background (...) And also my reference to, a lot of the other cafés throughout the city are commercial, so they’re not run by local people, owned by local people, so it just changes the whole character of the people who frequent, the kind of soundmaking that they produce.
“when one doesn’t understand the language, you’re not drawn to be focused on foregrounding voices”

Unusual expressions and quotes
“it reminds me of Vancouver’s weather and how the clouds give this sort of muffled perspective”
“I would have thought there would be even more reverberant because there’s so much marble and tiles in that place.”
“(the sound environment) may act as a catalyst for being able to go into the mode of distracted listening and be more focused and directed in whatever activity I’m involved in”

Attitude of the participant
Very analytical, involved in a thorough description of the sequence and an active attempt to try to locate the original location of the recording. Made strong connections between the recording and his lifestyle, as a frequent coffee shops visitor.

Interpretation
The sequence is being interpreted as an icon of Vancouver’s weather – bringing people inside in enclosed, saturated spaces. Sense of “culturalness” of the sequence (music and voices). Situates himself as an active participant. Describe the environment, and then relate it to his experience (from an objective understanding to a situated reassessment)

Actualisation of hypothesis
Emphasis on the flow of voices and music as a basic sonic material used to infuse a state of distracted listening (in relation to the temporal continuity and the fact that the voices are hardly understandable). The cultural aspect of the sequence is heard through the musical style, and is associated to the multiculturalism of the drive and the presence of various exotic cafés and restaurants

INTERVIEW 3 - SEQUENCE #2 (GRANDVIEW PARK)

Profile of participant: Lindsay
Sex: F Age group: 36-45 Profession: Sound Artist, part-time professor
Knowledge of Commercial Drive: Basic. Has recently moved to Vancouver after living in England.

Preliminary hypothesis
Very alive, sense of variety, strong human and natural components, feeling of quietness. Openness (feeling of large space).

Condensed transcription
Very spacious, no sense of being enclosed by big buildings or anything. There was a lot of human activity going on, of a relaxed kind, buskers, it can’t be that small an area because there was at least two buskers simultaneously at one point. Very unbritish, thinking of my own experience of parks. a lot of (kids) seemed to be running around so maybe a playground or at least an area that was unthreatening, where they could be just looked after. It was fairly quiet, overall level, of course that indicates that the sound is dissipating… And people called out a couple of times, people called out to a child for them to come nearer or something like that, so you could tell from what they were saying that there was enough space for someone to be running out of control, and having to call to get them back again. But it seems somehow a little more relax than my experience of city parks… Personally again I’d be annoyed by the buskers. I liked the birds songs, I like that you can still hear bird songs in a urban park or space. You could hear that people were able to communicate, and there were quiet conversations and children were able to play and you can hear birds, I think it was just doing its job well.

Unusual expressions and quotes
“there was a few conversations, the sort you’d have with someone standing in a park or whatever.”
“I personally have an aversion to strophic songs with guitar accompaniment, so for me, it’s something I wouldn’t have stayed with, but for many people probably it would be very enjoyable.”

Attitude of the participant
A thorough environmental description with various personal comments on buskers, kids yelling and the difference between this park and British parks.

Interpretation
The largeness of the space is clearly heard through the loudness of the various sounds (indicating their position), the absence of reverberation, the softer rumble of traffic… Soundmaking (both music and kids yelling) provides a local character to the sequence and encourage personal judgments.

Actualisation of hypothesis
The presence of natural sounds, various human soundmaking and the relative overall level are all indicators of the use of the space to relax and encourage conversation. Buskers, in particular provide an important clue of the “publicness” of the space.

INTERVIEW 5 - SEQUENCE #3

Profile of participant: Thomas
Sex: M Age group: 46-55 Profession: Writer, Professor
Knowledge of Commercial Drive: Knows the Drive, leaves nearby, frequent many establishments

Preliminary hypothesis
Focus on vocal interactions and the busyness of the location. Traffic predominant, but actively backgrounded (of contextual sonic clues are heard and understood). De-localisation, immersion, niche and wave effects.

Condensed transcription
Yes, I have a sense, I can quite locate exactly where it is. Because the SkyTrain just came by. I’m not sure if I’m inside or outside, sounds like I’m on of these smoking areas in a restaurant, where you sit outside… I noticed the traffic more here than in the other recordings, there were cars wheezing by all the time… it had a bit of a “markety” ambiance to it, I could certainly sense that. But of the three recordings it was the less recording, comfortable. That could be in a whole number of places, it’s not typical of this area. Now there are certain things that are, there’s probably more voices there, and there’s probably a bit more indoor / outdoor feel here than there is in other shopping situations, because of the street stalls and the market atmosphere. I couldn’t really locate it so it doesn’t have enough distinctive qualities to enable me to locate myself. And I think that’s a pretty important thing if somebody spends a fair enough time of the Drive, and I can’t by the recording know where I am, suggests to me that it’s not a very distinctive acoustic environment, or otherwise I would recognise it… So it’s more generic.

Unusual expressions and quotes
“I was put into a position in which I was guessing a lot of times “where am I?” so I listened in a different way, trying to situate where I was rather than “now I know, I’m going to listen to…” So I’d have actually less memory of the detail sounds, because I was trying to locate myself”

Attitude of the participant
Confused at first, trying to identify the location. Discussed the anonymousness of the recording, the lack of a dominant feature. Only briefly commented the sequence.

Interpretation
The sequence is heard as an average urban environment, with predominant traffic noise and a strong vocal component. Inside and outside are still blurry (because of acoustics and the closeness of voices); that partly helps identifying the location.

Actualisation of hypothesis
Keynotes are too generic to be automatically heard; the market does not become an icon in this case, since it can be easily misinterpreted. Voices remain central in the mapping of the space and the evocation of a local, social space. Strong evocation of opening (confusion between inside/outside).