1. Health

Taking into account the human hearing capacity, the limit levels of auditory perception are not extensible. The ear has no eyelids, the human being listens without pause to a world that increasingly resorts to sound, audiovisual and proximity listening at increasingly higher sound levels and, often, continuously.

• Inform the school about the risk of accelerating hearing degradation by listening at very high levels, for too long and too often.

• Inform about the dramatic consequences of an accidental alteration of hearing, whether or not it is accompanied by tinnitus or hyperacusis: isolation, depression, difficulty or inability to integrate into the world of work.

• Understand the impact of unwanted noise on stress, blood pressure, sleep, and concentration.

• Carry out hearing tests systematically in newborns and throughout life. Good hearing and oral comprehension are necessary conditions for the acquisition of basic learning and for integration into the family and social environment.

• Promote the use of hearing aids.

• Support scientific research in physiology, auditory perception and hearing aids.

2. The sound environment

The sound environment is an essential component of our balance, since it conditions our personal and collective behavior. Limiting noise disturbances, designing listening environments, controlling the acoustics of spaces and reinforcing the diversity of sound actors are currently the conditions for living better in community. Worldwide, the densification of downtown areas and the intensification of urbanization make the sound space a concern of professionals and citizens who participate in the transformation of their living spaces.

• Learn to listen to the environment in order to control its effects: the concentration of effects, tranquility, violence...

• Make the sound level scale known, in the same way that the temperature scale is known.

• Promote skills to integrate acoustics and acoustic comfort in the design and construction of individual and collective housing and urban infrastructure.

• The integration of acoustic and sound data in urban planning documents (mobility plan, local urban development plan, peaceful areas...).

• Make acoustic treatment of public places, especially schools, a social priority.

• Promote the creation of sound maps of cities.

• Create sound observatories in the territories that are places of preservation of the sound memory and at the same time of creation of the sound identity of tomorrow.

• Promote innovative industry in terms of the quality of our sound environment.

3. Recording techniques and sound reinforcement

Electroacoustic sound diffusion techniques enter our lives and seem familiar to us, but we ignore the operation and the underlying sound synesthesia. However, the means of recording and reproduction allow penetration at any time and in any place in the intimacy of the individual. The compression of “sound dynamics” has accustomed us to listening to music and speech without nuances, even in noisy sound environments. Deviated from its original purpose, an exaggerated compression leaves the listener breathless, who, already tired, loses the willpower to exercise critical listening and, in spite of himself, becomes a recipient of increasingly invasive messages.

• Integrate the teaching of sound in school curricula, raise awareness about the sources of degradation of the original sounds and make it known that the loudspeaker is not in itself a musical instrument.

• Raise awareness among planning and cultural professionals about recording and sound techniques.

• Promote, in concert halls or public broadcasting, the use of multiple loudspeakers to obtain a better homogeneity of sound distribution and reduce the general noise level.

• Recommend recording and downloading music in a quality as close to the original as possible.

• Recommend the use of a minimum of sound dynamics in recordings that guarantees respect for musical nuances.

• Create sound libraries in charge of preserving sound heritage files and consider them privileged actors in the evolution of our societies.

4. The relationship between image and sound

In the general context of access to audiovisual and multimedia, sound is a key element of visual perception and the final perceived quality. Sound design is an integral part of the audiovisual work and the live show.

• Teach children that sound quality determines visual quality.

• Improve the quality of sound reproduction for personal and collective multimedia devices.

• Regulate sound levels in all television, radio or cinema programs. Compliance with a minimum sound dynamic must be required.

• Promote throughout the territory the development of cinemas equipped with acoustic comfort and multiple loudspeakers.

• Integrate sound quality into any event with sound reinforcement.

• Recognize the contribution of sound professionals in audiovisual creation.

5. Musical and sound expression

Musical expression through the voice and the musical instrument is a balancing factor, both personal and collective, for oneself and for others. Scientific research shows to what extent musical practice contributes to the development and maintenance of cognitive performance at all stages of life. It allows to increase learning capacity and memory, and also favors the acquisition of other skills, especially in children.

• Make known that musical practice is an element of personal and collective development, meeting and social bonds.

• Become aware that musical practice is a means of fighting against violence and exclusion.

• Consider musical practice as an important factor in the construction of auditory acoustic references of musical instruments by the individual.

• Promote and facilitate the practice of music from school to university, in the family and in society.

• Expand artistic practices recognizing sound arts as an area of ​​world cultures.

• Design suitable places for collective musical practice in any new school or university construction.

• Develop sound creation through the use of innovative technologies and pedagogies.