I hear the soundscape as a language with which places and societies express themselves. In the face of rampant noise pollution, I want to be understanding and caring of this 'language' and how it is 'spoken.'. . Perhaps in that way these natural sounds can be understood as occupying an important place in the soundscape and warrant respect and protection. -Hildegard Westerkamp

A sound map of a city is like a growing organism.  Sound maps of any one location cannot hope to match the fixed in time/space quality that a two-dimensional street map represents. Rather, a sound map reflects not any one of the following but all of them combined: physical space, the activity within, time (temporal and ephemoral), the weather and any phenomenon as a result of the combination of these variables.

A sound map must also consider the social and cultural transformation of place as years, decades and centuries leave their mark.

The NYSoundmap is a container - a concept or idea to hold many types of processes and projects. This online sound map is only one of these possibilities.

The NYsoundmap is a tool that is at once a holistic encapsulation of an entire sonic environment and a many-layered, readily re-configured representation of shifting temporal, physical and cultural contexts.

Creating a sound map of a city is not an easy task. In addition to the difficulties of presenting multiple ideas of time, space and context as expressed above, there are also challenges in collection, preparation and presentation of material. Small scale examples of sonic mapping projects abound, especially in light of recent trends in locative media and developments GPS, cellular and wireless mobile technology. 

We are artists, architects, sound engineers, philosophers and designers. Our relationship to sound as a vital and key component of urban living is made manifest by our desire to create and share this map with and for friends, neighbors and fellow citizens of the city of New York. Through the NYSoundmap project, the NYSAE aims to facilitate a dialogue between people from a wide variety of communities and backgrounds - from beginners to professional sound artists and musicians

The relationship of the sounds - to each other, to their particular moments in time, and to contemporary listeners - is central to providing an overall understanding of the map as a three-dimensional, interactive space to be entered into and experienced as both installation and web interface.

While acknowledging that the visual sense often dominates, and conscious of the fact that the internet is largely a visual interface, we strive to create spaces that engage ALL the senses, and the mind, in a truly interactive way.

Maps, like theories, have power in virtue of introducing modes of manipulation and control that are not possible without them. They become evidence of reality in themselves and can only be challenged through the production of other maps and theories. -David Turnbull, Maps are Territories, 1989

Maps are tools for understanding the world from different points of view -- political, cultural, personal, and historical. Maps hold the power to shape the truth about the world and mapmakers shape the future.

The NYSoundmap is a map created by citizens that privileges the ear over the eye. The project reaches across the city's geographic, economic, educational, cultural and racial divides. It is at once a historical record and a subjective representation of the city. It is what each user wishes it to be and it is ever growing, ever changing and totally interactive.