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South County Soundscapes

by Isobel McCullough

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1.
Narragansett Town Beach 05:59
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2.
East Matunuck State Beach 05:39
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3.
Salty Brine State Beach 05:59
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4.
East Beach 06:58
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5.
Misquamicut State Beach 07:19
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6.
Kelly Beach 05:42
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7.
Rose Nulman Park 11:17
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about

As a native of South County from birth, I almost never considered the sonic environment that has made up my aesthetic life for the past twenty-two years. Even through years of musical training, and eventually in sound studies and musicology in college, I was more interested in the “out of the ordinary” sonic occurrences than the constant sonic backdrop of life on the coast, whose constant presence lent it a comforting familiarity, but also something approaching the mundane.



However, in the extended study of acoustic ecology that I undertook for this project, what I’ve come to realize is that the coastal soundscapes of our daily lives here are distinctive and worth preserving. While it may otherwise be difficult to quantify aesthetic worth or merit, in this case the act of listening and recording is an urgent matter of preservation. According to the Coastal Resources Management Council, Rhode Island’s coastline is losing approximately two feet per year - which means that these sonic environments stand on the brink of inevitable erosion and eventual disappearance.



In acoustic ecology, we describe a soundscape as the sonic makeup of a place, including all noises either human-made or naturally occurring. One of the elements that makes up a soundscape is called a “soundmark,” a term coined by acoustic ecologist R. Murray Schafer and which “refers to a community sound which is unique or possesses qualities which make it specially regarded… by the people in the community… it deserves to be protected, for soundmarks make the acoustic life of the community unique.” (Schafer 10)



In terms of our coastal sonic life, these soundmarks are numerous and all equally endangered. Consequently, this project centers largely around capturing these soundmarks across different areas of South County, while also creating soundscapes that encapsulate the unique acoustic environment of each location.

credits

released May 4, 2022

All recording, editing, mixing, and mastering completed 2022 by Isobel McCullough at the University of Rhode Island's Harrington School of Communication & Media, Kingston RI.

Special thanks to Ian Reyes for supervising this project, as well as to my team of spotters: Cheryl Foster, Caroline McCullough, Reed Reed, and Eli Valentine.

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Isobel McCullough Rhode Island

ambient soundscapes, field recordings, & similar.

putting my musicology degree to use!

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