"Sounding" the space: soundscape and construction of the imaginary in the historical district of San Berillo (original) (raw)

Sounds play a crucial role in the transmission of information needed to understand urban landscapes, as well as in the establishment of social spaces and processes that create collective identities. This role is also evident in the "sounding" of ceremonial spaces, a process that employs various expressive languages (e.g., ritual, artistic, etc.), mechanisms of construction and transmission of imaginaries and cultural memory. For this reason, "sounds" work as forms of knowledge about places and contexts and tell us more about the role of music in the description of urban space and in the elaboration of the concept of "sense of place". The contemporary debate on historical soundscape studies focuses on the reconstruction of urban soundscapes, outlining the deep relationships between sounds and the city by adopting an interdisciplinary approach based on the investigation of archival documents and iconographic-musical material. This contribution offers an account of the results achieved by a research project focused on the history of an ancient district of Catania (San Berillo). In so doing it aims to restore a " sense of place" through visual, literary, sonic and performative stratifications of the urban space.