ABSTRACT
Rapidly developing technologies are enabling the democratisation and consequent proliferation of sound and audio-based modes of creative production. The accessibility and portability of affordable home studio and field recording equipment are making audio a compelling and burgeoning mode of participatory, and community engaged forms of creative practice. Beyond participatory public art works, there has similarly been little interrogation of how sound and listening are increasingly being used in community engaged practices. Community can be an amorphous concept, which despite falling somewhat out of favour in recent years, continues to hang on in cultural practice, research, and policy. We have begun to approach ideas of ethics and aesthetics in the ways that different sound- or audio-based practices and works engage with communities and audiences or invite their participation. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
