When I close my eyes, the first thing that comes to mind is the sound of my mother’s wind chimes fluttering in the breeze. Their soft clinking in the wind is accompanied by the lull of my parents’ voices — their conversations about work, tea and dinner adding to the beginnings of a comforting tune. Then comes the clatter heard from the kitchen, caused by my sister rifling through all of our cabinets in search of the perfect snack. These sounds come together to create a gentle symphony that resides inside my head, its melody playing over and over again, reminding me of warm memories.
In the middle of the day, when my parents are at work and my sister is playing tennis and I am in my room, reading a book or doing my physics homework, I am struck over and over again by the fact that my house feels empty — and not just because there is no one there besides myself. It is because the symphony I am accustomed to ceases to exist in the absence of my family. The sounds that I’ve grown used to over the course of my life are incredibly important to my idea of home. Home is not home without those sounds, something I didn’t realize until silence would wash over me like a stifling blanket.
The song that comes from all the sounds associated with my home can be dubbed as its soundscape. The term soundscape refers to the acoustic environment perceived by humans — a combination of all sounds in an environment, both natural and artificial. When you’re at a red light waiting to turn left, your acoustic environment is not only the music playing through your speakers, but also the incessant clicking of your indicator, the chirping of birds outside your window and perhaps the honking of a horn behind you if you wait a little too long to move. The idea of a soundscape, a collection of otherwise unrelated sounds that come together to form their own melody, comforts my racing mind. It makes me believe that there is something meaningful in the mundane because even the most random of noises can make its way into a memory. I love the fact that there is a soundscape of my home and a soundscape that accompanies nearly every moment of my life. Sounds and their associations have the unique ability to transport someone back in time, allowing them to visit events from the past that might have slipped from their consciousness. Clanging pots take me to my grandmother’s kitchen in India and the ticking of my watch takes me back to the day I took the SAT.
For those who are able-hearing, sound plays an integral role in the way we perceive our surroundings. We rely on auditory stimuli to construct memories and opinions about our environments — the sound of a place can be just as important as the visual aesthetic of it. These sounds make their way into our hippocampus as our memories begin to form, leaving their permanent impression on the way we discern a certain place or event. Noise pollution, which is any disturbing sound that affects the health of humans and other organisms, is a significant nuisance in big cities. It can impair physical well-being, causing sleep problems, hearing impairment and poor mental health. In the past decade, Shanghai has made efforts to tackle their noise pollution problem, investigating the sources of discordant sounds and implementing a plan to reduce them. Similarly, Singapore has set a series of noise emission standards on certain activities for which regulating noise levels are necessary. These activities include construction, industrial operations and the use of vehicles. Many major cities have recognized the effect sound can have on the lives of people and have committed themselves to improving their soundscapes so that their residents and those visiting can be spared from the cacophony of harsh noises.
Noise pollution doesn’t just occur outdoors, but also appears in hospitals, residing in the continuous movement of people in and out, the squeakiness of wheelchairs and the incessant beeping of detested alarms. Alarm fatigue can be described as a sensory overload when healthcare workers are exposed to a myriad of alarms, causing desensitization to said alarms. This affects patients, as their alarms may go unnoticed to providers as they tune out the never-ending dings. Noise is one of the main factors that disrupts a patient’s stay at the hospital, as it can be a bothersome stressor for those attempting to heal. To combat these issues, many hospitals have attempted to fix their soundscapes, altering the auditory environment that patients are exposed to in an effort to better their health. Studies have found that nature sounds have profound positive effects on recovery, allowing patients to relax and even recover faster.
Auditory stimuli can play an important role in the formation of memories, feelings and even recovery. Soundscapes are present at every turn, becoming one of the pieces in the perception of someone’s environment. They help us take in our surroundings and calibrate all factors when deciding how we feel about something. There are soundscapes all around us, affecting us in different ways, whether it be contributing to memory making or impairing health.
I think it’s very interesting how sounds that can be considered nothing out of the ordinary can have a big impact on us. They can slither into our minds without notice and root themselves in our brain, forming a type of auditory memory that stays with us forever. There is a soundscape for everything we do, everything we experience. It is up to us to figure out what that means for us, whether those sounds come together to form a soothing symphony or whether they cause a cacophony of chaotic noise inside of us. There is a type of beauty that comes from paying attention to the soundscapes in your life and the effect they have on you. Let yourself get lost in your soundscapes if you are able to, and see what happens.
The soundscape of my college dorm consisted of voices outside my room, the shuffling of my roommate in her attempts to not stir me from my sleep and the commotion of people outside as they walked to one of the frat houses outside my window. Those sounds will always take me back to my first year of college as I began to make a place for myself at the University of Michigan. But they will never make me feel warm and serene. When I was feeling homesick and yearned for the comfort of my family, all I had to do was close my eyes and let my mother’s wind chimes guide me to moments I hold so dear. Now, after spending my first year away from home, coming back to the familiar sounds of my life here awakens something inside of me. It makes me reminisce about my childhood and memories growing up. I am reminded of dinners outside with my parents, late night swim sessions with my sister and the feeling of complete and utter belonging. My home is not home without its soundscape, something I am reminded so acutely of after being away for the longest time in my life. As the sounds of wind chimes outside and the voices of my family downstairs envelope me in a comforting embrace, I feel at home.
Statement Columnist Ananya Gera can be reached at agera@umich.edu