Thoughts towards a Fourth Phase of Soundscape Research: (re)merging quantitative and artistic practice.

Three significant phases and two distinct research trajectories are discernible in the past forty years of urban soundscape research. The three phases are the World Soundscape Project (1970s), The Positive Soundscape Project (2000s) and The Soundscape Approach (2010s). The two research trajectories that can be traced throughout these three stages can be recognised as data-driven (engineering/planning) and practice-led (humanities/artistic) research. In this brief paper I want to propose that a third phase of artistic research that concentrates on urban sound is running in parallel with an emergent soundscape approach pursued by engineers and planners. These two research trajectories can provide each other with much needed insights into how an urban soundscape can be made to feel more eventful and vibrant. This paper proposes that it is the remerging of these two trajectories of soundscape research that reveals the possibilities of a fourth phase of interdisciplinary soundscape research.