The hearing, the mapping, and the Web: Investigating emerging online sound mapping practices.

Abstract In recent years, we have seen the emergence of sound mapping, through which users can share their recordings of sounds via online mapping platforms. These practices are enabled by an array of spatial and digital technologies that also facilitate the growth of the so-called volunteered geographic information (VGI) regarding contributions from users without training in conventional GIS or cartography. In the growing body of work on VGI, however, not much attention has been given to the emergence of such sound maps as part of the VGI constructions. Meanwhile, research in soundscape has not addressed the aspect of crowd-sourcing or user-generated contributions facilitated by new information and communication technologies. This article seeks to bridge this gap. It draws upon important insights from critical GIS research into investigating VGI as visual practices, while it is also informed by three areas of soundscape research including mapping soundscapes, tracing the production of soundscapes and exploring embodied experiences with soundscapes. Through an empirical case in China, this article suggests a two-level analytical framework: investigating in what ways crowd-sourced sound maps emerge and interpreting these sounds on their shared platforms. In so doing, this study calls for more engagement with the multi-modality aspect of visuality in mappings, which in turn may have implications for landscape design and planning. In this way, it seeks to enrich the discussion on critical visualization.