Exposition

Documenting Sounds in Urban Places: Belfast During Covid-19 Lockdowns 1 and 2 (2023)

Georgios Varoutsos
open exposition

About this exposition

Government-regulated business closures, social distancing from people, and stay-at-home orders emptied the urban environment of the presence of people. This effectively created new sonic relationships between natural and urbanised sounds within our built society. As Covid-19 instilled a state of abandonment from our urban spaces with each variation of lockdowns, there was an opportunity to document these changes through a sonic-journalistic approach. The research is developed through artistic practice-based creative projects that capture the transitional events of Lockdown 1 and Lockdown 2 between March and October 2020 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Fifteen locations and forty-one audio-photographic files were captured during this period, focusing on perceptions and observations of Covid-19 and the sonic effect on urban spaces. This collection of material acts as a documentation of place through sensory information and has been distributed onto online platforms such as soundmaps (soundwalk apps or browser maps), which allow for revising our understanding and reflecting on changes instilled by the pandemic. The creative projects provide a timeframe of how each lockdown changed our relationship with urban spaces during a global pandemic due to the regulations and distancing from others to combat the virus. This exposition discusses the immediate planning and procedures for capturing material during the events of Covid-19, with a review of certain soundscape compositions based on the sonic relationships of urban spaces.
typeresearch exposition
keywordsSoundwalking, Soundscapes, Urban Space, Covid-19, Auto-Methodologies, Soundmaps
date26/06/2023
published26/06/2023
last modified26/06/2023
statuspublished
share statusprivate
affiliationQueen's University Belfast
copyrightGeorgios Varoutsos
licenseCC BY-NC-ND
languageBritish English
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1712696/1712697
doihttps://doi.org/10.22501/jar.1712696
published inJournal for Artistic Research
portal issue29. 29
external linkhttps://georgiosvaroutsos.com/covid-19/


Simple Media

id name copyright license
1712720 Belfast Soundwalk 2020 Georgios Varoutsos All rights reserved
1712721 March 27 2020 - Belfast Documented Soundwalk Georgios Varoutsos All rights reserved
1712736 The Entries (Joy’s Entry) on 27-03-2020 at 5:36 pm Georgios Varoutsos All rights reserved
1712743 Botanic Gardens 27-03-2020 at 7:04 pm Georgios Varoutsos All rights reserved
1712776 Process of recording and soundscape composition Georgios Varoutsos All rights reserved
1712778 Process of recording and soundscape composition Georgios Varoutsos All rights reserved
1712779 Process of recording and soundscape composition__1 Georgios Varoutsos All rights reserved
1712798 Video 3 - Arthur Square on 2020-03-27 at 5:15 pm Georgios Varoutsos All rights reserved
1712805 Image 3 - Arthur Square on 2020-03-27 at 5:15 pm Georgios Varoutsos All rights reserved
1712812 Video 4 - Arthur Square on 28-08-2020 at 3:50 pm Georgios Varoutsos All rights reserved
1712819 Image 4 - Arthur Square on 28-08-2020 at 3-50 pm Georgios Varoutsos All rights reserved
1712826 Video 5 - Dublin Road on 16-10-2020 at 6:01 pm Georgios Varoutsos All rights reserved
1712833 Image 5 - Dublin Road on 16-10-2020 at 6-01 pm Georgios Varoutsos All rights reserved
1712840 Video 6 - Cathedral Quarter on 21-10-2020 at 8:04pm Georgios Varoutsos All rights reserved
1712847 Image 6 - Cathedral Quarter on 21-10-2020 at 8-04 pm Georgios Varoutsos All rights reserved
1712857 Image 7 - Belfast City on 04-07-2020 at 6 pm Georgios Varoutsos All rights reserved
1712864 Image 8 – Pete Stollery - Covid-19 Sound Map on Google Earth Georgios Varoutsos All rights reserved
2018095 Belfast City Hall on 27-03-2020 at 5-05 pm-1 Georgios Varoutsos CC BY-NC-ND
2018100 Queen’s University Belfast 27-03-2020 at 4-20 pm_1 Georgios Varoutsos CC BY-NC-ND
2018105 Queen’s University Belfast 27-03-2020 at 4-20 pm_1 Georgios Varoutsos CC BY-NC-ND

Comments are only available for registered users.