“VIBRANT” is a word often used in guide books to describe a particular quarter of a city: Soho, in London, for example. But what does that actually mean? To Daniele Quercia of Bell Labs in Cambridge, England, and his colleagues, the term has a literal truth to it. Soho is a place of good vibrations through the air—good sounds, in other words. It shares this with the Gothic quarter of Barcelona, for example, but not with much of Mayfair and Belgravia, upmarket London districts near Soho that Dr Quercia brands sonically “chaotic”.
He and his colleagues, who report their results in Royal Society Open Science this week, have been making sound maps of the two cities. In so far as city planners incorporate matters sonic into their thinking, Dr Quercia notes, they take most notice of noise. This form of sound, being by definition annoying, has political resonance, and planners do their best to minimise it. But sound can also be soothing, exhilarating, saddening,...Continue reading
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