Sonic environments are more and more perceived as annoyance, as noise, especially urban ones. As a consequence users of urban spaces isolate themselves on an auditory level. This may introduce an impoverishment of the perception of city spaces and the communication among its users. My research focuses on the exploration and introduction of creative actions to understand this phenomenon and to interact with it. These actions will not have their nature in a defensive approach – a more common approach in architecture and urbanism – but are looking to an acceptance of a sonic environment and the introduction of new sound stimuli. This approach – mixing, combining an existing or manipulated soundscape with a newly introduced sonic experience – wants to introduce a research by design of the construction of sound within existing soundscapes in order to generate knowledge for – and not about – the perception of sound in spaces. Or to put it in other words : ‘listening’ in all its dimensions.
