What can you hear, right now, wherever where you are? You may think you are in a silent room, but listen closely and hear the tiny sounds around you. After a while, you might notice that you are involved in a hundred different sounds, both man-made and natural. You may also notice your own presence has a strong affect on the sounds around you.

Studies into sound have shown that humans make and interpret sounds very differently in different cultures and at different ages. A horrible sound to one person can be a relaxing sound to another. Sounds can be having a subtle affect, either positive or negative on the body of the listener, and can trigger memories or change the way you experience a space. Researchers at the CRESSON institute in Paris, for instance, have identified over 150 different sonic effects that occur when sounds are played in spaces with people. Sounds are not pure, but reach us distorted and changed by the architecture, the environment, the uniqueness of our bodies and our cultural backgrounds. Listening, thus, is an active process of information exchange with the world we live in.

R.M Scahfer, the Canadian composer and researcher invented the term soundscape to describe the active process of interactive listening and sound making that occurs when a human enters an environment. For Schafer and his team at the Vancouver based World Soundscape Project (now an international project entitled the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology with membership organisations across the world), discovering the impact of humans on the world soundscape was a revelation. It is from this work that noise pollution became recognised as a problem we are all part of. Thus the notion of Acoustic Ecology was born, the study of acoustic balance in the world.

25 years after the World Soundscape Project began its groundbreaking research into the way we listen, the Community Sound [e]Scapes research project, based at the Improvisation, Community and Social Practice research unit at the University of Guelph has been exploring what happens when communities become aware of the sounds around them and are given the opportunity to play an creative role in their acoustic world. Researchers have been training community members to listen to the world and to capture sounds from their everyday lives through the use of audio equipment. They have then been given easy to use online tools to make sound art pieces from these sounds that represent the ways they want their community to sound, or to expose the unique ways that sound shapes their culture and their lives. So far Community Sound [e]Scapes has worked with teenagers and local residents from Guelph, in Ontario, Canada and young people from a  housing estate in Belfast in Northern Ireland. They have also worked with older community members from Woolgoolga, a small town in Australia. Whilst the research is not yet complete, already researchers have seen that sound can be a powerful way to look at the places and communities you are part of, as well as a creative way to individually connect with the world around you.

On July 18th, 2010, Community Sound [e]Scapes is participating in World Listening Day. This is an international event organised through the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology which celebrates the joy of listening. Community Sound [e]Scapes is encouraging people to record 2 minutes of sound at 12pm local time wherever they are on July 18th. Recordings can be uploaded directly onto the Community Sound [e]Scapes website http://soundescapes.improvcommunity.ca, where they will be featured with recordings from participants across the world. Lead researcher on the Community Sound [e]Scapes project, Dr Rebecca Caines, suggests that people consider getting involved with World Listening Day and similar events that teach you how to start to listen again. "We spend most of our lives learning to block out the sounds around us, especially if they are loud or constant, like traffic or the neighbours shouting, but this cuts us off from engaging with what is happening around us," says Caines. "We may not notice the sounds that tell us a lot about our commuities, or we may be missing the beauty of simple everyday sounds like birdsong or the steam in the kettle."

Caines suggests we try these simple techniques to start listening properly again:

1. Take 5-10 minutes everyday to stop, sit and listen to the world around us.

2. Become aware of constant noises that are causing you low level anxiety or stress, like an air conditioner or traffic and try to minimise or mask them.

3. Become aware of noises that bring you joy and try to remember to listen for them. This could be kids playing in the park, a comforting ad slogan, a single bird in the morning, or the sound of the bath running or your partner singing in the shower.

4. Take notes, or use a recorder to remember the sounds that are important to you and why. Most cell phones, laptops and iPods have a built in recorder these day or digital voice recorders are very cheap and available in electronic stores. Try to purchase a cheap plug in microphone to ensure you catch the quieter sounds.

5. Consider: What do your everyday sounds tell you about the place you live and work, the choices you have made and the communities you are part of?

6. Learn to listen in all aspects of your life and consider it a meditative way of relating to people and to the environment.

Caines also suggests that people think about their soundscape as a creative process, an artistic improvisation that we engage in everyday.

"Through creatively engaging with the world through sound, we hope that people will feel less isolated from the spaces they live and move in, and become more active in their local communities. Deep listening can unlock the creative in everyone, encouraging us to take joy in the incredible acoustic diversity around us, and wake up to our part in that diversity."

For more information in the Community Sound [e]Scapes sound art project or get involved with World Listening Day, visit http://soundescapes.improvcommunity.ca.