The concept instrumentarium comes from the work of a multi-disciplinary team of sound researchers organized around the centre du recherche sur l’espace urbain at the National School of Architecture in
The sound source: any object that may make a sound in the city.
Urban space: the medial space through which sound travels from source to listener: "applied acoustics shows how space, volume, shape and materials all determine the propagation of sounds. But urban zoning, the layout of road systems, traffic maps, and the distribution of socioeconomic activities can also offer other efficient possibilities for sound information or interpretation to citizens."
The individual listener: sound phenomena are actively ‘shaped’ by subjectivity: “the physical signal is under a perceptive distortion, a selection of information and an attribution of significance that depends on the abilities, psychology, culture and social background of the listener. “
Different combinations of these general terms lead to different sound perceptions. And so when they say the instrumentarium is a "reservoir of sonic possibility", they mean that it is in possession of innumerable potential configurations of these three terms. The instrumentarium does not itself refer to a way of listening but it does imply one, one at odds with the old model of passive receipt and alternatively based on the listener’s active intervention in the circumstantial causes that actualize sonic phenomena.
