# Using Virtual Soundwalk Approach for Assessing Sound Art Soundscape Interventions in Public Spaces
## 5 Conclusions  
Three soundscape interventions with musical features, located in three different cities, and designed to remain in an urban open space were investigated within this study. The sonic content introduced ranged from clear harmonies to acoustic effects. The virtual soundwalk approach was applied to combine benefits from on-site and laboratory-based methods. Two measurement points per location were used--one at the point where the intervention was clearly perceptible, another further away but within the same urban open space so it could be regarded as the baseline condition. The soundscape intervention at two locations (A and C) proved to have the expected positive (perceptual attributes changed to more positive on the 'pleasant side of the model') effect, while the effect at one location (B) was not determined due to the low recognition of the sound source introduced by the intervention. The series of rank-based Kruskal-Wallis tests identified statistically significant changes in:  
* sound source type recognition related to the soundscape intervention at the locations A (when the sound of Sea Organ was introduced, \(p=0.0410\)) and C (when a flutter echo was added by architectural features of the pavilion, \(p=0.0000\));
* 'positive soundscape descriptors' at all three locations, related to pleasant, calm, and vibrant dimensions;
* 'negative soundscape descriptor' of annoyance/unpleasantness at one location (B);
* appropriateness to the visual representation at two locations (A and B);
* rating of the overall visual setting at one location (A). No statistically significant changes were found in the following perceptual attributes: eventful, uneventful, chaotic, and monotonous. The soundscape interventions investigated do not create an everyday soundscape and the SSQP does not reveal this per se. While the question about the presence of an acoustic effect provided statistically significant result at the location C, where it was clearly perceptible, it created confusion at the locations A and B. A similar result was gathered from the question on a designed sound source where it provided statistically significant results only at the location A (the sound of the Sea Organ installation). Therefore, further research is needed towards categorizing sounds with musical features, produced by sound art installations, which could be then addressed through a protocol. However, the statistically significant drop in the perceived dominance of noise sound sources while \(\mathrm{La_{eq,5 min}}\) and loudness values increased, speaks for the effective noise masking at locations A and C. At both locations A and C, traffic and other noise were perceived less prominent at the measurement points which featured a soundscape intervention. Traffic noise was present at all locations but perceived as dominant only at one location (B), which was also the smallest in size and the closest to the road. The statistically significant changes in sound source recognition were followed by statistically significant changes in the soundscape only at single locations as follows:  
* measurement point with lower perceived noise (locations A and C) featured a more pleasant soundscape (location A), a more exciting (location C) and a less calm soundscape (location C),
* measurement point with lower perceived dominance of human sounds (location B) was less calm and more unpleasant,
* measurement point with higher perceived dominance of a designed sound source (location A) featured a more pleasant soundscape,
* measurement point with higher perceived dominance of acoustic effects (location C) featured a more exciting and a less calm soundscape. The change in the perceived dominance of the sound source added by the intervention was followed by the statistically significant positive change on the positive side of the circumplex soundscape model.