Richard Yanaky

student - D.6

McGill University

School of Information Studies, Faculty of Arts

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Catherine Guastavino

Background:
Richard is a PhD candidate at McGill’s School for Information Studies (SIS) and is affiliated with the Sounds in the City cross-sector partnership, the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT), and the Multimodal Interaction Lab, and the new AIRS thematic network (Air, Intersectoriality, Respiratory and Sound Research). Prior to joining SIS, he taught Applied Computing at Sheridan College’s Faculty of Applied Science and Technology, after the completion of an MSc in Linguistics, focusing on speech acoustics and perception. Currently he holds a Wolfe Graduate Fellowship in Scientific and Technological Literacy.

Research Statement:
Sound is ubiquitous in our everyday lives (even more so than our smartphones!). Yet, it remains an afterthought in most urban sound planning processes. Many consider it too difficult to consider and plan for on their own, while others don't consider it at all. This is a major factor in why noise pollution runs rampant. It has also led to a professional and regulatory monoculture that treats sound as just noise that rarely considers utilizing sound as a resource to promote health and quality of life. My work focuses on the development of new tools to help more non-sound experts understand and contribute to early-stage sound planning to provide a better quality of life for all.

This began with the development of new auralization tools to help educate people on the benefits of urban soundscape planning. This focuses on translation of research into practical lessons that can be learned and applied by anyone in new virtual reality tools that allow rapid prototyping of urban soundscapes. More broadly, this looks at the urban-sound information practices to determine the best ways to facilitate collaboration amongst a wide range of stakeholders by considering the auditory experience as the 'red thread of information' that connects us all.

Publications:
https://scholar.google.com/[…]yMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Affiliated research groups:
https://www.sounds-in-the-city.org/en/overview/
https://mil.mcgill.ca/

Thank you to the CIRMMT community for all your support!