Mapping Soundscapes of Warning: Experimental Interfaces for Public Sound Culture

Abstract

This short paper introduces Soundscapes of Warning, an experimental research application designed to support the comparative study of public warning signals as cultural and aesthetic artefacts. Developed through a collaboration between Linköping University and the C2DH at the University of Luxembourg, the platform enables users to explore how alarm sounds -– sirens and civil alert signals – vary across national and historical contexts. By combining geographic comparison with custom-designed 3D visualizations of alarm signals, the application offers a new model for investigating how warnings, urgency, and authority have been rendered sonically in different societies. Instead of approaching warning sounds as purely functional or technical signals, the platform emphasizes their role in shaping public space, perception, and memory. Designed as both a research tool and an interpretive interface, Soundscapes of Warning contributes to current efforts in the digital humanities to critically engage with sound as a mediated and historically contingent form.