In order to perceive different soundscapes I choose two different indoor-locations. The first one was the HPH food-market at lunchtime.

The most noticeable sounds were of course the voices. There were a lot of them in many different tones. The intelligibility varied widely with the distance reaching from understanding every word to perceiving many bubbling voices. The next thing you notice after the voices are all the cutlery noises. Metal hitting metal or porcelain making distinct and short high-pitch sounds that are clearly audible in the mix. After that you have to listen rather carefully in order to notice any other sounds. Some that do emerge are jackets being taken of and chairs sliding on the ground.

You can generally say, that although there is a lot of sound in the room, you don’t hear much. One is rather immersed in the soundscape wich makes you feel a bit lost when sitting there alone, the same way a cold, big church makes you feel small. It is on the other hand a good place, to let your mind wander in this feel of anonymity.

The Second location I chose to listen to was the lounge in the back of the HIT.

The first sound to notice here was the ventilation system. Although rather quiet you can clearly hear it. In general there are more sounds to hear here, wich are also more distinct and distinguishable. Voices can be clearly understood from across the building, people walking and doors closing are frequently observable. Other sounds include an alarm sound, ice being shuffled, a cart being rolled, squeeching sounds, bottles rattling, eating noises from people nearby, noises of sheet metal being handled.

In general noises are much harder to overhear in this scenario, since the overall noise volume is much lower. Once a sound is close enough you have no choice but to hear it. This leads to a feeling similar to a library, making you very aware as well as awake. It also generates a calming feeling, wich also emerged in the HPH but was reasoned differently there.