"It Was the Nightingale, Not the Jumbo": Acoustic Borderlands at Frankfurt Airport

Noise is a notorious issue in conflicts over airport operation and extensions, affecting spatial planning, land use, and public health in airport regions. Whereas sound studies research has mostly concentrated on “mechanical sound” and its implications for humans, we are interested in investigating the tensions at the intersection of environmental sound and mechanical noise. Focusing on Frankfurt Airport, we examine three acoustic configurations in and around the airport: 1) practices of observing the interference of aircraft noise and birdsong by soundscapers; 2) the design of noise barriers between the airport and its adjacent environments; 3) experiments with acoustic technologies to scare away birds as part of birdstrike prevention. These case studies will contribute to a larger group project that maps the manifold borderlands of Frankfurt Airport using historical and ethnographic methods.