A new interdiscipline combining the talents of scientists,
social scientists and artists (particularly musicians).
Soundscape design attempts to discover principles and to develop
techniques by which the social, psychological and aesthetic
quality of the acoustic environment or soundscape may be
improved. The techniques of soundscape design are both
educational and technical. The latter include the elimination or
restriction of certain sounds (noise abatement), the evaluation
of new sounds before they are introduced indiscriminately into
the environment, as well as the preservation of certain sounds
(soundmarks), and above all the imaginative combination and
balancing of sounds to create attractive and stimulating
acoustic environments. Soundscape design may also include the
composition of actual environments, and in this respect it is
contiguous with contemporary musical composition. To the extent
that it attempts to understand individual, community and
cultural behaviour, soundscape design takes the broad p