M.ARCH I DISSERTATION

Abstract

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To inhabit is to feel.

The notion of tradition is one that reminds us of who we are, and what we have left behind. The sound of bells, a childhood experience or the feeling of a lost one, these memories which once resided in our physical and social landscape, giving us a sense of space and time, have become seemingly disengaged with the interaction of modern culture.

We perceive and experience spaces through the embodiment and attachment of our senses, not confined by a single geographical location but through adapting and encountering our senses through memory, perception and thought.

Through occupying space, we collect feelings and traces of factual and personal history which have become embedded in our culture, traditions and places of dwelling. We feel history through our emotional and bodily experiences, stirred by one’s imagination and half-forgotten memories.

Yet, with the accelerating development of new technologies, mass communications, commercialised industries, rapid transportation and the rising volume of noise in our streets, cities and places of dwelling, we have increasingly prioritised our own visibility and suppressed our other senses, thereby separating ourselves with the deafening and unsettling noise of cars, technology and people around us.

In an attempt to analyse the changing soundscape accompanying the ongoing loss of sacred spaces, this dissertation will investigate the hierarchical view between the visual and aural senses by spatially mapping and recording church bells, as well as investigating the impact of noise within our spatial and cultural landscape.

Historically, bell ringing has been recognised as an acoustic ritual, calling people to worship through evoking an emotional and spiritual response. These sounds, enable architecture and space to be experienced not just physically, but socially and spatially through the interaction and multitude of various senses and feelings. Over time, the acoustic outreach of the bells has undeniably been threatened by the invasiveness and inescapable noises we experience within our urban and spatial environment.

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The invention and overpopulation of new immersive technologies and digital and social media have affected both the qualities of our physical environment and the detachment of our visual and embodied senses.

In an attempt to further understand the implications of noise and sound within public space and the hierarchical view between the aural and visual senses, this dissertation will analysis three specific environments within the urban, suburban and rural contexts of Belfast, Lurgan and Hillsborough.

Initially, this dissertation will endeavour to expose some of the detrimental effects caused by noise and visual dominance, by considering perceptions around culture and implications on sound, tradition and bell ringing. Through the use of literature review and then interviews, this study will then take spatial and acoustic measurements in three chosen different contexts. The urban, suburban and rural studies will then be analysed individually and then assessed alongside one another by way of comparison. This investigation will, therefore, attempt to understand the relationship between the visual and aural senses by investigating the importance of bell ringing within modern culture.