CITY SOUND MAP
CITY SOUND MAP MA GRAPHIC BRANDING AND IDENTITY 2011 LONDON COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION SILVIA GIULIANINI
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Contents 06 / Introduction 08 / Notation system 10 / Searching for maps 12 / Choosing a city 14 / Choosing an area 16 / Sound Maps 18 / Geographical location 20 / Users’ comments 22 / Search criteria: Emotion finder 26 / Search criteria: Sound finder 30 / Search criteria: Browse by Hour 34 / Designing your own sound map 40 / Adding emotions and comments
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City Sound Map Introduction
The purpose of the project ‘City Sound Map’ is to collect
The application has a double function: the first is to allow
and map data about how people perceive sound and
users to browse through the city maps, thus being able
noise in cities. Without being scientific, the brand aims
to compare different cities and areas. Also, according
to give information about the areas that are perceived as
to the search criteria selected by the user (sound, hour
the noisiest and the quietest, and to offer an alternative
of the day, location and emotion), the map will display
way to navigate space.
different visual results on the same geographical location. In this way users are able to see how the urban
By organizing sonic data about cities, and by locating
soundscape changes according to the time of day. Also
them geographically, the project tries to correlate items
they can select a particular sound that they wish to hear,
of information and picture the patterns they create.
and the areas will be shown where that specific sound
Putting data on a map in fact can open new spaces for
has been mapped mostly.
intervention, as the often unseen shapes and patterns in the city become visible.
The second function of the application is to allow users to design their own map and to contribute to the creation
This interactive map will be composed of multiple freely
of the sound map of their city, voicing their point of view
available, community-generated data sources: the
about the sonic environment.
database will mash up the data submitted by volunteers and will create the entire sound map of each city.
The design of the application’s homepage offers a preview of the abstract visual language of the brand.
This application for iPad works together with a map
Passing the mouse over the shapes will activate sounds:
provider (like Google Map or Open Street Map), that
for example, passing over the green circle will activate
allows users to bring up the exact geographical position,
the sound of a river or of birds singing, while passing
that they wish to map.
over the red circle will activate the noise of cars or sirens.
City Sound Map
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Notation System
I have created a notation system to allow volunteers to represent sound visually. The variables adopted are shape, colour and size: I choose four different circular shapes, which visually suggest different types of sound: one for impulsive sounds, one for periodically repeated sounds, one for continuous and one for travelling sound objects, such as aircrafts or cars. To highlight the difference between the typologies of sound (human, natural, leisure, warning, machinery and silence), I relied on the use of distinctive colours with similar saturation. I have associated stronger colours, like red and orange, to the typologies of mechanical and warning, as they can be considered the more disturbing sound sources. Softer colours like green, light blue and pink correspond to the typologies of natural sounds, leisure and human sounds. I used size to differentiate the level of volume, and I created a range of five different levels of loudness: faint, moderate, loud, very loud and painful, in reference to the threshold of hearing, measured in decibels (0-160 db).
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Sound
Volume Periodically Repeated Impulsive Travelling sound sources Continuous
Typologies Nature Leisure Human Machinery Warning Silence
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Searching for maps Location
The grey bar located at the bottom of the screen is the main menu bar, which reacts when users hover on it. It allows users to navigate through the application and provide them with some sense of orientation. It contains the two main functions of the software: the one to search for maps and the one to design maps. The option of searching for sound maps, involves the selection of a location first: there are five levels of zoom, starting from the entire world map, until the details of a city neighbourhood.
Search
City Sound Map | Search for maps
Choosing a city
By moving the mouse around the world map, the names of the cities that have been mapped will appear in their geographical position. At this stage, the user can choose the city that he wishes to explore.
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London
London
Search
City Sound Map | Search for maps
Choosing an area
Once the city has been selected, the application will show the map of the city divided into areas. The user can choose the neighbourhood that he wishes to explore and can zoom to view it in detail.
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London Camden
Hour
Sound
Emotion
City Sound Map | Search for maps
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Sound maps
The following page shows an example of how the sound map of the neighbourhood of a city could look like. Users can zoom further, to view it more in detail. This map would be the result of the mash-up of the data submitted by several users that ‘sound mapped’ that area.
London Camden | NW8 7JT
Hour
Sound
Emotion
City Sound Map | Search for maps
Geographical Location
The image shows the neighbourhood at zoom level 4. By clicking on one of the coloured shapes shown on the map, the application will display information (on the top bar) about the corresponding geographical position. At the same time at the bottom of the screen, it will appear a window containing the description or the comment, left by the last user that mapped that specific area.
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London
Hour
Sound
Emotion
31 University Street | WC1E 6JL | Camden
“Loud annoying music, coming from the pub next door” - 2 hours ago -
City Sound Map | Search for maps
Users’ comments
Clicking on the comment submitted by the last user will open a new window containing a list of all the comments, left by previous users, that have mapped that specific area, displayed in chronological order.
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London
Hour
Sound
Emotion
31 University Street | WC1E 6JL | Camden
Camden WC1E 6JL “Annoying live music until late every night” - 4 hours ago “Excessively loud sirens coming from the street” - 2 days ago “Noisy kids screaming under my window” - 12/09/2011 “Noisy group of people in front of the pub at site” - 24/08/2011 “Great band playing live music” - 05/07/2011 -
City Sound Map
Search Criteria Emotion finder
On the top bar there are three parameters that allow the user to filter the sound map. Users in fact can browse by hour of the day, by sound they wish to research and by emotion. According to the search criteria selected, the map will display different visual patterns: for example the pattern showing the sounds heard in a city late at night, will be different from the pattern representing the sounds heard in the middle of the day. Also, users according to their mood, can select a specific emotion, and the application will show as a result, only the areas of the city that previous users have associated with that specific emotion. Thus the relaxing sound map of London will look different from the annoying sound map of London.
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London
Hour
18 Lodge Road, London NW8 7JT | Camden
Scary Stressful Pleasant Relaxing Nostalgic Annoying Exciting Familiar
Sound
Emotion
City Sound Map
Search Criteria Emotion finder
The emotion finder can be a useful tool, in case users want to escape from the loudness of cities noise, looking for relaxing locations. Also, through the emotion finder, users can visualise the locations perceived as stressing and annoying, and avoid them. The map displayed in the page beside, shows an example of the result obtained after selecting a specific emotion. In this case, the map will bring up the areas perceived as the most annoying: probably the areas characterized by constant loud traffic and sirens, or very crowded areas, with loud music. The image displayed here is an overview of London, but users can zoom in, to explore in details areas they are interested in.
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London
Hour
Sound
Emotion
City Sound Map
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Search Criteria Sound finder
Users can also browse according to the sound that they would like to listen. By clicking on the voice ‘Sound’ at the top bar menu, the library of sounds will appear. Sounds are classified into typologies and coded with a colour. Each typology contains a list of urban sounds. For example, if the user selects the voice ‘rivers’ from the category ‘Natural’, the map will show the locations where the sound of rivers can be heard. The library contains recordings of all the sounds listed, so that when the user selects a specific sound, he will also hear the corresponding recording.
London
Hour
Sound
Emotion
Natural
Warning
Leisure
Machinery
Silence
Human
London
Hour
Sound
Emotion
Rivers
Natural
Warning
OCEANS RIVERS
Machinery
RAIN FOUNTAINS WIND BIRDS
Human
London Rivers
Hour
Sound
Emotion
City Sound Map
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Search Criteria Browse by Hour
Another search criteria is to browse by hour: the soundscape of a city in fact can differ vastly according to the time of the day. Thus users have the choice to view how urban sounds change by selecting an hour range: 10pm-6am, 6am-2pm, 2pm-10pm. The sound pattern heard in a city late at night will look different from the pattern representing sounds heard in the middle of the day.
London
Hour
Sound
10 PM–6 AM | 6 AM–2 PM | 2 PM–10 PM
Emotion
London
Hour
Sound
10 PM–6 AM | 6 AM–2 PM | 2 PM–10 PM
Emotion
London
Hour
Sound
| 10 AM– 6 AM |
Design your sound map
Emotion
City Sound Map
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Designing your own Sound Map
This section shows how users can design their
pattern. On the high part of the menu there are
own sound map and then submitt it, thus
four geometric shapes, that correspond to
contributing to the design of the entire sound
different types of sound (impulsive, continuous
map of their city. The user, hovering with the
sounds, periodically repeated, and travelling
mouse on the grey bar at the bottom of the
sound sources). Below the shapes, there are
screen, can find the function ‘Design your map’.
colours, corresponding to the sound typologies contained into the library (Natural, Machinery,
Clicking on it, will lead the user to choose the
Human, Warning, Leisure and Silence).
location he would like to map. The application in fact works together with a map provider
The button located under the colours, is the tool
(like Google Map), that can bring up the exact
used to represent the volume of sounds, which is
geographical position chosen by the user.
visually translated with the variation of the shape
After selecting the location and the specific
size, in a scale going from level 1 up to level 5.
area, the user will be able to map the sonic data. The application is provided with a menu on the right side that displays all the tools necessary to design the maps, keeping also visible the geographic location underneath, as a reference. The geographic map can be switched off, thus allowing only the visualisation of the final visual
My sound map
London
London
London
Hour
Camden
Camden Camden
Sound
Emotion
London NW8 7JT | Camden
Loud
VOLUME
London NW8 7JT | Camden
Natural Sounds
City Sound Map
Adding emotions and comments
The user can add to the map designed, the emotion that he associates with his sonic experience: by clicking the smile button, a list of emotions will appear next to it. Finally the user can leave a comment or describe in words the sound experience that he wants to map. As previously mentioned, before submitting the sound map, the geographic map can be switched off, leaving visible only the visual pattern created.
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London NW8 7JT | Camden | Exciting
Add your emotion Scary Stressing Pleasant Exciting Annoying Familiar Relaxing
Design your map London
NW8 7JT | Camden | Exciting
Add a description Constant noise caused by road works and traffic.
London NW8 7JT | Camden | Exciting
Map Off
Submit