AudioSpaces #1
January 2024. New beginnings, crucial app updates and listening to your feedback.
Hi everyone; Dylan here. I hope you’ve been hanging in there this January—I’ll try not to rub it in too much that I’ve managed to spend it between Bariloche, Mexico City and Salvador. To all those hibernating in Europe: the sun’ll be back soon.
Since we’ve got quite a few things going on at the same time, we thought it would be handy to condense all our activities into a regular digest at the end of each month. This way you’ll keep in the loop without having to do much rummaging around. Happy week x
It’s been a huge month for AudioSpaces, and since the new year it’s really felt like things are getting going now.
First things first, a massive welcome to all our new followers here on Substack and our other platforms. An even bigger hug to everyone who has downloaded and started using the AudioSpaces app. It’s honestly a pleasure seeing (and listening to) your engagement.
January in numbers
21 – different countries with AudioSpaces
76 – new app users this month
144 – AudioSpaces shared to the map in January
1,210 – Substack reads since launching
AudioSpace(s) of the month
It’s been really fun previewing all the new moments people have shared on the map; even in those twenty seconds you can get a real immersive window into what’s going on in the recording. There’s also a glorious range of places and contexts that people have shared.
In that spirit, rather than picking just one favourite, we’ll go with our top three AudioSpaces for January. Feel free to preview them on our Instagram.
1. The sound of a passing express train, Prague, Czech Republic
by roman rogner
2. Violin and banjo music in Bus
by otto
3. Sunday Evening Whiskey Opening
by joseph
January’s posts
Here are our two first posts we sent out in our newsletter this month. They’re always available here on Substack.
Welcome to AudioSpaces
Introductions are never easy. In this case it's even harder since we're introducing two things at once: the AudioSpaces project and app, as well as this very Substack newsletter. Expect the fine details to go out of date eventually, but for now if you're in doubt this is a good place to start.
The sound map
AudioSpaces involves recording sounds out in the world and pinning them to a map. The audio uploaded becomes a way of representing space. This practice has a history, which we explore here by talking about something called 'acoustic ecology' and the sound map. We also list some of our existing favourite sound maps.
AudioSpaces is partly about capturing and sharing memories, linking them to the spaces that matter to us. But we also think that the practice of recording can tune our ears to the beauty of sonic experience itself, which can be found in so many different places.
If you’re in the market for pleasing sounds accompanying pleasing moments, it’s worth keeping track of Seb’s posts on our TikTok. Here are a couple examples from this month.
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New app features
Since Christmas the app has undergone quite a few changes—all thanks to Oliver’s alchemy, no less. In line with our focus on simplicity and ease-of-use, we’ve rolled out a hefty design overhaul that makes recording, sharing and exploring AudioSpaces much smoother and more instant.
Old heads will notice we’ve stripped down all the colours and the like to keep audio front and centre, but much more crucial is the new Explore feature. This lets you see and preview all the AudioSpaces that have been made public.
Explore now appears as a separate tab to Your Map; the latter you curate yourself with your own AudioSpaces and the unique moments shared by everyone you follow.
Also new is a launch page that appears when you open the app for the very first time. This comes with a friendly walk-through of every function available, just to leave out any mysteries for anyone who still isn’t sure.
Building on these iterations, real soon we’ll be testing out more advanced features, giving more options both on the recording and the discovery side of things.
This should enhance the app experience even more—but obviously it’s a balancing act. On the one hand, we should all be able to bend AudioSpaces to our own audio-related needs, wants, and do’s. On the other, we don’t want to be weighed down by any unnecessary frills. This is the challenge.
Your feedback
Relatedly, we’ve been receiving a lot of useful comments and suggestions about the app and the project more generally. One of the common pieces of feedback we’re getting relates to bugs and/or the app crashing unexpectedly.
This problem seems to have been solved for now, but do keep on letting us know about these issues. What we would say is to make sure the app is always up to date, as Oliver’s regularly doing handy sweeping and tinkering.
Another important piece of feedback we’ve received from a few different places is the issue of privacy, data protection and safeguarding. I couldn’t agree more that, since many of us post recordings of our personal experiences on the app, and since real locations are involved (although they’re pinned locations, never live ones), control over all of one’s own activity should be a big priority.
The way things are working at the moment, as there’s an option to make your uploads private, the assumption is that if an AudioSpace is made public then the poster is happy for it to be previewed, searched for and listened to in-location by anyone on the app.
We’ll review this as things go on, and plan to include some more nuanced features that give you more power over who can access your contributions. But while we’re still in our early stages, we think the simple private/public option will keep us ticking along for a bit.
The other issue that affects data privacy comes with using Apple’s application services, including Apple Maps. Unfortunately, there are a degree of trackers and data collection that just always come with using infrastructure designed in Silicon Valley, which in all fairness comes with using any other native map-based app.
For now, this presents a technology limitation that we don’t have the resources to move past just yet. In the future, with enough funding and technical support we may be able to, among other things, use open-source software with more encryption options, and of course Android-supported technology.
There are some things you can do for now to keep piece of mind, while we work on things on our side. An easy thing to do is carefully consider what information you reveal when sharing, both in the metadata and in the audio itself (when recording voices this is something to take particular care with).
One AudioSpaces friend has also suggested people go with pseudonyms if they’re concerned with their digital trail; names can always be easily changed within the app.
Reflections on the survey
We’ve also been reflecting on all your responses to our ongoing survey. Keep posted for more updates on this, but couple points have stuck out so far.
Amongst our respondents, almost everyone already regularly records and listens to audio in a variety of contexts. Interestingly, most of you said you record voices more than anything else (especially voice notes—over half of you usually record messages a minute or less), but don’t identify voice notes as the main thing you listen to—most of you think of music in terms when asked what recorded audio you engage with.
In a way this intuitively makes sense, but it’s worth exploring here in the newsletter that when prompted to think about exactly how we engage with recorded audio, as recorders most of us think of voice, and as consumers we’re music listeners. What of listening to other voices? What of all the others sounds?
We identified a lot of ambivalence about recording ability and how comfortable people are with recording around other people. Just over a third of you don’t like recording in front of other people, which we might be able to link to one of the most popular reasons for using the app: alongside recording music (interesting) and nature sounds, being able to save your own personal memories to revisit on your own.
At the same time, though, what was especially exciting is that a lot of you (21% yes, 35% maybe) would actively go outside in search of sounds, and expressed a real interest in exploring other people’s AudioSpaces. Since we began the survey we introduced twenty second previews, and it seems that this makes people even more tempted to actively use the map as means to go navigating our collectively-built, evolving sonic world. Good stuff.
You’ll get tired of hearing this, but we really appreciate your feedback in whichever way it comes. Make sure to fill in the survey if you get a few minutes. Message us or comment on any of our platforms, or alternatively catch us at oliver@audio-spaces.com.
Coming up
A quick reminder on the posting schedule here on Substack. The plan at the moment is two articles per month, which will be sent newsletter-style to your email inbox on every first and third Monday.
The newsletter complements the AudioSpaces app, but can also be followed and engaged with in its own right.
Our mission here is to explore the world of sound and audio in all its social aspects, opening up conversations in a way that is both accessible and interesting to the non-specialist. Dylan’s mostly leading with the articles at the moment, and you’ll get used to his angle on things, but ideally this will be a place for dialogue with a plurality of voices.
We’ve got a few guest articles already on their way. Expect, in the near future, discussions about storytelling, audio’s role in the practice of public history, and critical reflections on the politics of sound art and ambient music.
In addition to our full-length articles, we’ll throw lots of extra stuff on the website. One thing to watch out for is the weekly Traces series: micro-essays that invite us to home in on those sounds that seem to stick in our heads, even if they almost escape description.
Silent echoes of memories, both personal and collective. An archive of sonic residue in words, our collection of traces are sourced from anywhere and everywhere—and you’re warmly invited to send in your own.
We’ll put everything in one place here in the monthly round-up, alongside updates from the app and lots of juice from the wider AudioSpaces universe. The best thing to do, of course, is to subscribe for free to make sure you never miss out.
In other news, more friends are getting onboard behind the scenes, bringing a bunch of new perspectives and skills. You’ll get to know them very soon. On that note, beyond the odd name, none of us have been formally introduced yet. We’ll roll out a who’s-who of AudioSpaces over the coming weeks, new faces and old.
Finally, it’s worth emphasising that we’re always open to new projects, events, campaigns, collaborations, articles, and anything else that fits with what we’re trying to do here. Not only are we just starting out, but we’re genuinely all ears (sorry) to new ideas.
Consider this a forever call-out for collaborations. You know where to find us, so give us a shout!