The polyphonies which weave the city (original) (raw)

The sonic composition of the city

The Auditory Culture Reader, 2003

A common phenomenon now marks the ordinary experience of city dwellers : walking through the city to music. Geared with headphones, the walkman listener strolls along and takes in the musical scenery on his/her way. A kind of tuning in is created between his ear and his step. New sonic territories are composed in the course of this mobile listening experience. As the body moves in sync to the music, the listener transforms the public scene and provides a new tonality to the city street. His footsteps seem to say what his ears may be trying to hide. How does music with headphones mobilize the walker's gait ? What does this contemporary form of urban mobility stand for? How should we consider this micro-ecology of musical navigation ?

Towards a sonic ecology of urban life: ethnography of sound perception in Cairo

The Senses and Society, 2020

This study on sound perception in Cairo uses a methodological procedure described in a previous issue of this journal [11(3)]. The procedure involves equipping inhabitants of Cairo, the Egyptian capital, with binaural microphones that record the surrounding urban sounds during one of their daily journeys (without the researcher). Participants later describe and comment on the sounds while listening to the recording. Analysis of this material allowed us first to establish an organized lexicon in categories. We identified a structured "natural language of sounds". The data obtained reveal covert categories that describe three key domains of urban life: the active city, the city in movement, and the relational city. A principal finding is that sound perception systematically relates sounds to their origin, i.e. both the source and its social situation. This socialization of sound led us to the notion of "sound constructs" as products of an immediate socialization of the perception of sound. Experiment clarifies how perception operates in Cairo, notably through territory differentiation using sonic saliences and soundmarks. Finally, we propose a "sonic ecology" of the city: how residents collectively experience the sound dimensions of their urban territory, navigate between very different territories, recognize them and respond to them.

Urban sound: an analysis of discourses constructed by sound studies

Logos (Lithuania), 2019

For several of the latest decades, the “sensory turn” in humanities and social sciences has marked a new stage in rethinking the roles of non-visual media (sounds, smells) and perception modes (auditory, tactile, olfactory). The present article pays special attention to the consideration of urban sound discourses that have formed within sound studies. Systematization of the existing literature shows several important themes describing sound in the city. These themes include: sound as the marker of identity, memory, power, socio-economic relations, etc. A complex coverage of discourses about urban sound permits broadening its comprehension limits.

Between the Music of the City and the Urban Noise

ARTE IMAGEN Y SONIDO

Starting from the overvaluation of visual culture in the modes of representation of society, this article draws a time line that goes from the marginalization of sounds promoted by disciplines such as geography, architecture and urban planning, until reaching to the acoustic definition of the landscape. In this way we demonstrate how the landscape is reincorporated in the agenda of these disciplines, not only as something visible, but as a cultural construction of our sensory activity, which is also made of sounds. This explains the anthropocentric nature of the soundscape, using the concepts of “sonorous image” and “sonorous identity” to reveal how sound attributes character to space and humanizes it, that can be seen from a global or local point of view. This in order to conclude how the patrimonial identity of sound is capable of characterizing specific urban contexts, its space, its habits and customs, while the ordinary identity contains a trait of "detachment" that ...

Resonance – soundscapes of material and immaterial qualities of urban spaces

Cities & health, 2019

In European countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands, the compact city is regarded as a sustainable city model. Because of high density and intensity, the quality of the urban environment is essential for its success. As dense cities may also be experienced as 'dense' and 'intense' in terms of activity and sound, the acoustic environment of public urban spaces are currently attracting attention from such perspectives, including wider notions of 'quiet' and 'resonance'. To study these phenomena, a case study was set up in Copenhagen and Amsterdam, and four typologies of urban public space were defined in each city. A questionnaire survey was conducted, and supported by transcribed soundtracks, respondents' statements provided insight into their experience of the acoustic environment of these spaces, i.e. the soundscapes. Results indicate that the urban environment has the potential for offering environmental and existential resonance, and points to relations between sound quality and built density. This is of importance for both urban planning and the public health agenda. Based on these initial findings it is suggested that soundscape information may offer inspiration for rethinking compact city characteristics such as density and intensity, potentially stimulating cultural uniqueness and diversity and inspire 'new typology thinking'.

«Beyond Sound and Listening: Urban Sound Installations and Perception» En The Art of Immersive Soundscapes. Harley, J., Minevich, P. y Waterman, E., eds. Regina, Sask.: Canadian Plains Research Centre Press, 2013, pp. 25-36. ISBN: 978-0-88977-258-8

In different ways, works of art conceived for specific places lead us to consider the audience’s presence, or in a wider sense, the presence of the individual, within the space of the work. For this reason, in this chapter I analyse sound installations in urban environments using a historical and multidisciplinary approach, and focusing on their reception by the “city-citizen” (a term that recognizes the reciprocal influence of the dynamic space of the city and its urban inhabitants). When site-specific artworks include sound as a material, they also incorporate or reinforce ideas of temporality, simultaneity and dynamism and these same qualities are inherent to the modern city. Drawing on 1960s research by urban planner Kevin Lynch, I will discuss the impact of urban sound installations by Max Neuhaus, Bernard Leitner, Bill Fontana and Bruce Nauman. I will argue that all these artists create works that, by immersing the citizen in sound, change and enrich his or her perception of the city.

City Sound & Emotion: The City Understood as an Emotional Scenario from the Perspective of Sound

2019

This workshop is the result of a practice-based research, which explored several interrelated elements: first the theory of Psychogeography, applied to the creative representation of urban environments from a multilayered approach and from an emotional and psychological perspective; second, the exploration of sound and acoustic theory, as research tools and artistic possibilities, directed towards the analysis of public space, its documentation and understanding in relation to processes of identity, intangible patrimony and storytelling. And finally, an experimentation and technical research related to audio postproduction, real-time data processing and interactivity. This exploration lead altogether to the design of a persuasive experience that sought to communicate the research outcomes to a broader audience by means of an experimental performance and sound installation presented initially in several cities in the north of Europe.