A Soundscape Speaks to Belonging

We can often recognize the soundscape of a place we belong to almost instantly, just as we can feel disoriented in an unfamiliar one. In this way, sound does not simply describe space, it produces a sense of belonging.

This interactive, immersive work-in-progress explores sound not as background, but as an active force in shaping our sense of place. Drawn from recordings at Church and Gould Street in downtown Toronto, the piece translates sound into a dynamic visual field: dots whose population, size, saturation, transparency, and lifespan are continuously modulated by the audio signal. The visual engages with duration, accumulation, and change, allowing the patterns to emerge and dissolve over time. Visitors’ voices are captured live within the space, directly influencing the behavior of these elements and introducing a shifting dialogue between human presence and the surrounding soundscape.

This work creates space for the soundscape to speak through duration and attentive listening. It foregrounds sound as an artistic medium, using visual forms to echo acoustic phenomena and to frame listening as a nonlinear, embodied experience. It resists the tendency to categorize certain sounds as meaningful signals and others as disposable noise, a distinction that often reflects and reinforces existing power structures. Instead, it attends to the richness, texture, and emotional depth embedded in everyday sonic environments.