Cutting Through the Noise
The Greatest Public Health Hazard You’ve Never Heard Of
In the past year, the climate crisis has captivated the world. The campaigning group Extinction Rebellion grew from a call to action signed by a group of academics, to a full-fledged national and international movement. Young people around the world have taken part in school strikes demanding action to prevent climate change.
The growth and mainstreaming of these global climate activism movements reflect a persistent sense of ecoanxiety grounded in an increased awareness of the environmental impacts of human activity. Notably though, these movements have tended to focus on the effects of air pollution and climate change, and there has been relatively little attention given to the human contributions to noise pollution and our acoustic environment. Meanwhile, noise pollution has grown rapidly in recent years, leading to dire consequences for public health.
So what exactly is noise pollution? What are its key risks? How can we reduce and mitigate its effects? And what can we learn about the kind of sound world we want to live in following the radical changes in our acoustic environments due to lockdown measures as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic?
This four-part series aims to provide a primer on noise pollution issues through both words and sounds. We couldn’t very well publish a series about the sound world without also engaging your ears, so each blog post is accompanied by an original sound composition that illuminates key ideas from the text, as well as a composers’ note explaining how the recording was created and what to listen out for.
We recommend that you listen to each recording after reading its corresponding blog post and composers’ note to ground your awareness of noise pollution issues in a real aural understanding. As you experience the writing and recording in harmony with each other, we hope that this series will open your ears to the soundscape around you.
About the Authors
Melissa Wong is a researcher, evaluator, and consultant based in London. She currently works as Impact Manager at Nesta Arts and Culture Finance.
Erin Scheffer is a researcher and educator living in Toronto, Canada. Her research interests include music for national public broadcasting during WW2 and in the post-war era, music in Canada and nationalist affect, and music for contemporary wildlife documentaries.
About the Composers
Nicolette Chin is a freelance audio producer, director, musician, and voice actor. Based in London, she is currently in the midst of directing her first full-cast audio drama, recorded entirely remotely, with Wireless Theatre Company for Audible UK.
Jack Beard is a musician, music producer, and writer based in London, with a background in higher education. He currently works at Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance.
Acknowledgements
This project was funded and supported by Nesta’s Explorations Initiative. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Nesta.
