In the human/built environments (which are supposed to be designed because they are constructed), the qualitative aspects of these environments are also crucial to the well being of society. The visual aspects of these environments (architecture, interior design, landscape design, urban design etc.) have long histories of being designed. The acoustic aspects of environment are in most cases not designed[2], and it is only very recently that the concept of sound design and soundscape have even existed.

In natural environments, sound design can be perceived as the pleasing sound relationships we hear (and expect to hear) between for example, song birds in a forest.What we perceive as being aesthetically pleasing sound relationships have deeper ecological functions, such as the ability of many bird songs to travel long distances and to be clearly recognizable. This can happen even during the acoustically active early morning time without these songs overwhelming each other. This ability of certain bird songs to travel long distances and to be clearly recognizable is not caused by the songs being loud relative to other competing songs, but because the melodic shape and exact frequencies of these songs are tuned to the acoustics of the particular habitats they are in. It is also interesting that in the melodic shapes of these songs, they are not constantly at a peak loudness but are only momentarily at these peaks, making it possible for melodic lines from different birds to overlay each other and retain their individual clarity. Thus, the central design aspect is the ability of all of this sound information to be heard together and achieve its communications purposes.

In the human/built environment there are some interesting examples of designed sounds that can be beautiful to hear. For example, fog horns, train whistles, and bells are designed to travel long distances and be clearly recognizable. However, in a general sense the human sound scape is not designed. Many densities of sounds occur at sustained high levels that have no quiet space in their acoustic shape. This traditional lack of designed sounds and sound relationships is largely influenced by the concept of noise. This concept assumes a hierarchical value difference between meaningful and meaningless sounds. It is a general fact that most people in our Western culture find little meaning in their everyday experience of ambient sound. Sounds are normally considered meaningful when they are part of a semantic context such as speech and music. Most ambient sounds exist in a semantic void, where they are perceived as being noises. In addition to the semantic context in which meaningful sounds are experienced (music and speech) the physical context in which this semantic context is experienced is a crucial perceptual issue in the potential meaning of ambient sound. The language of contemporary music is full of sounds (from John Cage and other serious composers to the sampled sounds of popular music). The presence of ambient sounds in the music context has certainly influenced perceptions of ambient sound among people who are exposed to the music. One limitation, however, is that the physical contexts in which music is experienced are nearly always isolated from the physical contexts in which ambient sounds take place (concert halls, home stereos, walkmans etc.).

In my sound sculptures of the past 10 years, the relocation of ambient sounds to urban public spaces is a radical attempt to redefine the meaning of the acoustical context in which the sound sculpture is experienced. By comparison to musical situations, the use of these public spaces exposes the sound sculpture to many people who would normally never think about such aesthetic issues. This experimental redefinition of acoustical context is also a way to temporarily transform the concept of noise. Such a transformation of "noise" in a more permanent way will make the human/built environment become more livable, because it will stimulate society to develop a sensibility for its ambient sounds, causing more of the general public soundscape to become designed.