SOMECO - Sonic Mediations and Ecocritical Listening

The project aims to investigate how the sonic environment in six European villages is changing and how this is experienced. The villages are Skruv in Sweden, Bissingen in Germany, Cembra in Italy, Lesconil in France, Dollar in Scotland and Nauvo in Finland. The project will provide information about the interaction between place, sound and listening and how this interaction is changing. The project draws on ethnomusicology and anthropology of sound and will focus on material, economic, technological, legal and cultural factors. It will pay particular attention to global changes in the context of the Anthropocene, digitalisation and the impact of different types of mediated content and their manifestation in everyday life in villages. Fieldwork will be carried out in six European villages using qualitative and quantitative methods such as participatory observation, sound level measurements and interviews with villagers, supported by archival research, to improve contemporary analysis of acoustic environments and inform policy makers about acoustic design and its impact on wellbeing.