Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Geographical Information Science on 10/12/2018, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13658816.2018.1552789
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Hearing the silence: Finding the middle ground in the spatial humanities?
T2 - Extracting and comparing perceived silence and tranquility in the English Lake District
AU - Chesnokova , Olga
AU - Taylor, Joanna
AU - Gregory, Ian Norman
AU - Purves, Ross
N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Geographical Information Science on 10/12/2018, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13658816.2018.1552789
PY - 2019/10/1
Y1 - 2019/10/1
N2 - We analyse silence and tranquillity in historical and contemporary corpora to explore ways landscapes were -- and are -- perceived in the Lake District National Park in England. Through macro and microreading we develop a taxonomy of aural experiences, and explore how changes to categories of silence from our taxonomy -- for instance, the overall decline in mentions of absolute silence -- provide clues to changes in the land- and soundscape of the Lake District. Modern authors often contrast silence with anthropogenic sounds, while historical authors adhere to a cultural construction where the Lake District is presented as a tranquil area by ignoring industrial sounds. Using sentiment analysis we show that silence and tranquil sounds in our corpora are, as a whole, more positively associated than random text from the corpora, with this difference being especially marked in contemporary descriptions. Focusing closely on individual texts allows us to illustrate how this increased positivity can be related to the emergence of silence and tranquillity as valuable components of landscape. Mapping our corpora confirmed the influence of Wordsworth's writing on descriptions of silence; and revealed the co-location of pockets of tranquillity near to transport arteries in contemporary descriptions.
AB - We analyse silence and tranquillity in historical and contemporary corpora to explore ways landscapes were -- and are -- perceived in the Lake District National Park in England. Through macro and microreading we develop a taxonomy of aural experiences, and explore how changes to categories of silence from our taxonomy -- for instance, the overall decline in mentions of absolute silence -- provide clues to changes in the land- and soundscape of the Lake District. Modern authors often contrast silence with anthropogenic sounds, while historical authors adhere to a cultural construction where the Lake District is presented as a tranquil area by ignoring industrial sounds. Using sentiment analysis we show that silence and tranquil sounds in our corpora are, as a whole, more positively associated than random text from the corpora, with this difference being especially marked in contemporary descriptions. Focusing closely on individual texts allows us to illustrate how this increased positivity can be related to the emergence of silence and tranquillity as valuable components of landscape. Mapping our corpora confirmed the influence of Wordsworth's writing on descriptions of silence; and revealed the co-location of pockets of tranquillity near to transport arteries in contemporary descriptions.
U2 - 10.1080/13658816.2018.1552789
DO - 10.1080/13658816.2018.1552789
M3 - Journal article
VL - 33
SP - 2430
EP - 2454
JO - International Journal of Geographical Information Science
JF - International Journal of Geographical Information Science
SN - 1365-8816
IS - 12
ER -