Articulating sound citizenship in the general arts classroom towards sound awareness and sound living

This chapter seeks a nuanced path towards music education as/for sound citizenship. Guided by R. Murray Schafer (Soundscapes), and Pauline Oliveros (Deep Listening), the chapter posits that arts educators can encourage people's creative potential by making them aware of and exploring their immediate sound worlds and environments. They can further create their own sound works while making critical judgments that may lead to improvements to the soundscapes of the world. Sound citizenship is an aspirational proposition. It is defined as an encouragement of sound awareness in the hearts and minds of students towards an empathic and developmental view of social and cultural equity. This leads to artistic resonances that can project and activate sound living in a safe and sustainable environment. Sound citizenship also takes on the intercultural space, where the encouragement of deep listening and critical dialogue will enable the creation of more collaborative and cooperative cultural environments (Walser, 2000). This chapter analyses two cases to argue for a pragmatic approach to sound citizenship. It provides explicit examples of how sound citizenship can be activated in the spaces of general arts education in the context of Singapore. It further draws implications for arts teachers and practitioners in furthering sound awareness for students towards creating artistic responses to social and cultural issues in their immediate environment and beyond.