Investigating the Urban Soundscape of Athens through Soundwalks and Acoustic Measurements

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Βίκτωρ Μαστέλα, Αρετή Ανδρεοπούλου

The soundscape of Athens has its own unique tonality. Within this sonic palette, sounds from marches, protests, anthropogenic factors, city noises, as well as scattered natural ecosystems (parks, green areas) converge, creating a rather intriguing urban soundscape that varies under specific conditions. This occurs, for example, on days when the city empties due to holidays or during days of major protests. The opportunity presented by the decongestion of the city's auditory "scene" leads to a transformation of the soundscape, highlighted by the decrease in noise levels, delicately revealing hidden sonic elements of the city. The City can speak for itself (Western, 2021) and it is important to take the opportunity to listen to the sound, because the sound circulates through the infrastructures (spaces) which are constantly changing (Harvey, 2021). The sound of the city is connected to the urban structure and society leading to the creation of a separate environment with which the person himself is connected (Saher, 2016; Barclay, 2018). An exploration of such elements is carried out through soundwalks, which serve as a means to study the sonic environment. The very process of soundwalking shapes and reshapes personal perceptions of the urban acoustic "environment" experienced daily. Through a specific route and an auto-ethnographic approach to the surrounding space, the uniqueness of a "quiet" capital is explored. Additionally, during the exploration process, a measurement of sound levels (dB) is conducted at specific walking points with the aim of comparing sound level on different days, focusing on the contrast between a rather “empty” and a full city of Athens. The goal of this work is twofold. First to study this variation in sound levels, in order to detect and understand the noise pollution of Athens and second, to unveil these interesting auditory nuances that can be perceived through more active listening. Part of the research will be examined based on the existing bibliography. However, a large part of the study will be based on walks (soundwalks) and field observations. Specifically, the main goal is to complete at least four soundwalks in order to capture sound levels and record the soundscape of the capital with a zoom VR recorder. The on-site observation of the urban environment will be of utmost importance, because in this way the explorer-researcher approaches and understands better their surroundings. One understands sound by extracting information from the sound experiences (events) presented to them and also from the relationship between the listener and the environment that is produced by sound (Thompson, 2022).