Our Sonic Playground: A Model for Active Engagement in Urban Soundscapes

‘Our Sonic Playground’ is the name of a free public event organized by the author for the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago one evening in 2013. Its aim was to actively engage museum visitors in listening, particularly as it is grounded in the concepts and methods of Acoustic Ecology and soundscape awareness, an often-neglected aspect of life in urban and other environments. This event suggested a model for future engagements by providing a ‘recipe’ or set of practical suggestions for educators and ‘critical citizens’ as it relates to broader concerns with environmental change, urbanism, and awareness of place and public space.

Leonardson’s pedagogy of direct aural-tactile engagement with listening and sound making—inspired by the foundational work of the World Soundscape Project and molded by the Chicago's own experimental sound, performance, and diverse music cultures— finds its purpose and meaning through play-based learning, improvisation, the DIY hacking aesthetic of live electronic performance, phonography, soundwalking, and instrument construction. This range of emphasizes the importance of community in the importance of individual agency within.

Partnerships with local arts institutions, community organizations, led by faculty and students at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the city’s large creative community show how art and technology can reach out of the academy and into daily lives of people by effecting the acoustic identities of cities in positive and socially meaningful ways.