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
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/


Copyrights

nameMarch 27 2020 - Belfast Documented Soundwalk
copyrightGeorgios Varoutsos
licenseAll rights reserved
usagespicture
nameThe Entries (Joy’s Entry) on 27-03-2020 at 5:36 pm
copyrightGeorgios Varoutsos
licenseAll rights reserved
usagesvideo
nameBotanic Gardens 27-03-2020 at 7:04 pm
copyrightGeorgios Varoutsos
licenseAll rights reserved
usagesvideo
nameProcess of recording and soundscape composition__1
copyrightGeorgios Varoutsos
licenseAll rights reserved
usagespicture
nameVideo 3 - Arthur Square on 2020-03-27 at 5:15 pm
copyrightGeorgios Varoutsos
licenseAll rights reserved
usagesvideo
nameImage 3 - Arthur Square on 2020-03-27 at 5:15 pm
copyrightGeorgios Varoutsos
licenseAll rights reserved
usagespicture
nameVideo 4 - Arthur Square on 28-08-2020 at 3:50 pm
copyrightGeorgios Varoutsos
licenseAll rights reserved
usagesvideo
nameImage 4 - Arthur Square on 28-08-2020 at 3-50 pm
copyrightGeorgios Varoutsos
licenseAll rights reserved
usagespicture
nameVideo 5 - Dublin Road on 16-10-2020 at 6:01 pm
copyrightGeorgios Varoutsos
licenseAll rights reserved
usagesvideo
nameImage 5 - Dublin Road on 16-10-2020 at 6-01 pm
copyrightGeorgios Varoutsos
licenseAll rights reserved
usagespicture
nameVideo 6 - Cathedral Quarter on 21-10-2020 at 8:04pm
copyrightGeorgios Varoutsos
licenseAll rights reserved
usagesvideo
nameImage 6 - Cathedral Quarter on 21-10-2020 at 8-04 pm
copyrightGeorgios Varoutsos
licenseAll rights reserved
usagespicture
nameImage 7 - Belfast City on 04-07-2020 at 6 pm
copyrightGeorgios Varoutsos
licenseAll rights reserved
usagespicture
nameImage 8 – Pete Stollery - Covid-19 Sound Map on Google Earth
copyrightGeorgios Varoutsos
licenseAll rights reserved
usagespicture
nameBelfast City Hall on 27-03-2020 at 5-05 pm-1
copyrightGeorgios Varoutsos
licenseCC BY-NC-ND
usagesvideo
nameQueen’s University Belfast 27-03-2020 at 4-20 pm_1
copyrightGeorgios Varoutsos
licenseCC BY-NC-ND
usagesvideo

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