Greensounds
Dr Alice Goodenough & Dr Philip Reeder
University of Gloucestershire
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The 'Greensounds' project explores how relationships with and preferences for ‘natural’ or green acoustics in urban and rural environments can be discovered and captured through soundscape participative arts-based research. Methodologies from the project have now been taken forward as part of the UKRI funded SAGE project.
Highlights
Highlights
Spring–Summer 2022 – Creative listening workshops across four locations with 28 participants, shaping the project’s sound and themes.
Autumn 2022 – Immersive 7-speaker installation at the Hardwick Gallery, University of Gloucestershire, launched with a Q&A chaired by Professor Andrew Bick.
2023 – GreenSounds album released in Dolby Atmos on Apple Music.
June 2023 – Exhibited at the Festival of Nature in Bristol (part of a larger public festival).
May 2024 – Working with Director/Editor Liberty Smith, we won the Aesthetica Listening Pitch (in partnership with Audible) and received £20,000 to make a film version of the project.
November 2024 – GreenSounds film premiered at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival, a BAFTA-qualifying film festival in York. Alice Goodenough and Philip Reeder co-produced, and Philip was responsible for the sound recording and audio post-production.
2025 - Liberty Smith’s feature on the GreenSounds film appeared in the premiere issue of Folding Rock, alongside bespoke soundscapes we created in response to the publication.
2026 - The film received an Honourable Mention at the LA Experimental Film Forum.
Highly Participative
Highly Participative
Greensounds makes an immersive soundscape recording approach accessible as participatory research method. Participants created recordings using highly directional microphones to explore and focus on sounds, whilst removing others. This deepens the reflective relationship to sound that participants typically encounter in soundscape projects.
Experimental Approach
Experimental Approach
Through recording/listening experiments in urban and rural treed landscapes, participants (including young people, adults spending time in nature to manage their health and wellbeing, and adults with dementia and their carers), investigated, captured, and narrated their understanding and experiences of green sounds.
Sounds for Reflection
Sounds for Reflection
Philip and Alice worked with participants to reflect on their soundscape listening/recording and observed their accompanying interactions with environment to examine how and when sound might contribute to green space’s restorative and connective influence and the impact of its presence and absence in people’s lives.
Sharing Outcomes Widely
Sharing Outcomes Widely
Participant’s reflections are part of the Greensounds Composition being shared online and at galleries, alongside the sounds recorded by people taking part. Together they highlight and capture evidence of the significance and benefits of ‘green’ acoustics to humans and our understanding of ourselves as a ‘listener’ to the natural world.
Questions?
Questions?
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