Sound Around You (iSAY): representing and sharing the soundscape between mobile and web

Abstract

Sound Around You (iSAY) is an application available for iPhone and iPad which allows to record, judge and share with the other users the sounds of the environment. Beside the standard sound maps – internet sites in which it is possible to click on geo-tag of a map to listen to the sounds recorded in that specific places – iSAY is thought in specific to be used on the mobile phone. In this way, the mobile becomes an instrument to catch the sounds instead to produce them and the user takes part to an academic research on how environmental sounds affect the people. The paper that follows presents the semiotic analysis led on this application, which is an interesting case study to reflect on the application of semiotic methodology to new-new sound technologies.