Soundfields and soundscapes reifying auditory communities.

This paper reports progress towards mapping workplace soundscapes. In order to design auditory interfaces that integrate effectively with workplace environments, we need a detailed understanding of the way in which end users inhabit these environments, and in particular, how they interact with the existing auditory environment. Our work concentrates first on mapping the physical soundfield, then overlaying this with a representation of the soundscape as experienced by its active participants. The ultimate aim of this work is to develop an interactive soundscape-mapping tool, analogous to the modeling tools available to architects. Such a tool would be of use to designers of physical, augmented and virtual environments and usable without professional musical or acoustical expertise.