Coastal Tools: Walking the Soundscape of Pleasure Bay

Abstract

As waters rise and sediments shift, individuals and communities must connect with their coasts as stewards of cherished yet changing landscapes. In a moment when tools for monitoring and measuring frequently distance designers from the environments in which we live and work, “Coastal Tools” deploys existing and imagined tools to foster landscape engagement. This thesis focuses on sound as a means of engaging with the elemental through close listening and meaningful interactions with soundscapes of the harbor in South Boston. How do the tools landscape architects carry, physical and cognitive, affect our perception of sound in the landscape? The design, deployment, and performance of environmental instruments animate fieldwork and introduce aids in navigating constantly moving human-environment relations. Soundwalks serve as both a descriptive and prescriptive process, where design proposals draw on sensorial phenomena to craft new tools and landscape interventions to engage the shifting sounds of the shore.