From Japan to Holland: Soundscape and emotions in Japanese expatriate communities

Aimee Mollaghan is one of the first to combine the concepts of soundscape and psychogeography in the pursuit of examining how the Irish landscape can serve to express emotion, alienation, and nostalgia. Focusing on a film about an expatriate sound recordist and his journey from his new home Berlin to that of his childhood. She describes the film as a work that engages with soundscape and landscape in a psychogeographical manner. Inspired by the work of Mollaghan, this thesis delves deeper into the notions of psychogeography and soundscape as described by Guy Debord and R. Murray Schafer. Abiding by Mollaghan’s study, the thesis concentrates on soundscape and psychogeography and its correlation between the experiences of individuals from an expatriate community. Throughout the years, the Japanese expatriate community in the Netherlands has grown increasingly, and so have the institutions and services catered towards Japanese expatriates. Is it possible that the emergence of familiar...Show moreAimee Mollaghan is one of the first to combine the concepts of soundscape and psychogeography in the pursuit of examining how the Irish landscape can serve to express emotion, alienation, and nostalgia. Focusing on a film about an expatriate sound recordist and his journey from his new home Berlin to that of his childhood. She describes the film as a work that engages with soundscape and landscape in a psychogeographical manner. Inspired by the work of Mollaghan, this thesis delves deeper into the notions of psychogeography and soundscape as described by Guy Debord and R. Murray Schafer. Abiding by Mollaghan’s study, the thesis concentrates on soundscape and psychogeography and its correlation between the experiences of individuals from an expatriate community. Throughout the years, the Japanese expatriate community in the Netherlands has grown increasingly, and so have the institutions and services catered towards Japanese expatriates. Is it possible that the emergence of familiar institutions and activities may create a similar soundscape to that of urban Japan? And if so, does this familiar soundscape evoke negative emotions or acculturative stress among expatriates? This thesis endeavors to explore the link between an unfamiliar soundscape and the loneliness, homesickness and nostalgia that it might evoke.Show less

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From Japan to Holland: Soundscape and emotions in Japanese expatriate communities