Noise
Sound is both inevitable and necessary in the city – we live close together, we need to build and maintain buildings and infrastructure, we need to socialize, we need to get around. But at a certain point sound can become noise, interfering with concentration, work, leisure, and sleep, all also necessary for living.
Sound is inevitably public. In open spaces, it travels easily, invisibly and inescapably pervading our experience when we go outside. So it fits right into Spacing’s mandate to explore Toronto’s public realm. In this issue, we look a both the good and the bad of public sound. We hear from people seeking to reduce noise, and people seeking to create opportunities to make music. We look at the rules for managing noise, and how sound can bring joy or be misused. We discover that Toronto has been trying to figure out how to deal with noise ever since it grew into a significant city, and continues to work on figuring it out to this day.
In the front section, meanwhile, we look at trees being saved and being cut, Regency Toronto, chess in parks, and more, while at the back, Shawn Micallef follows the sounds of the city as they drift by.
