//Unheard_Landscapes - listening | resonating | inhabiting 10th FKL/ENP/AAU_CRESSON International Symposium on Soundscape BLOIS | October 27 -30

Unheard landscapes: this metaphor leaves space to imagination, to the un-thought, to the un-known, to past and future, as well as unexplored sound scenarios. It also reaches the field of auditory perception, the acoustic domain. Sound, through auditive qualities, acoustic phenomena, design practices, artistic creations, and listening experiences, offers an inspiring transversal entry onto landscapes and ambiances. Beyond the discussions on “soundscape”, approaching ordinary environments through sounds increases the awareness of our own capacities to feel, while we inhabit and move across different worlds. From an ecological perspective, resonance appears a key word, too. It puts sound and space together. It implies the idea of a plurality of bodies, things and living beings vibrating all together, sharing common contexts of time and space. The act of listening bypasses the passive meaning it usually receives. It contains in itself a completely unexpressed potential, connoted with «project», «pro-action» and «active decision» by individuals. What will be the sounds of the future and the soundscapes in which we will live, or would like to? How can listening practices evolve, how will we listen or how differently could we listen to the world around us, tomorrow? Inhabiting the world brings to us questions about how we want to manage our being in it. How do we want to inhabit the world sonically? How sound and listening do actually affect our way to inhabit it? Have we lost some of our abilities to resonate with the world? What remains to be heard? Where could the practices of listening and attuning take us to?

Nicola DI CROCE | IT |

Paper

Forme di coesistenza a venire. Sintonizzarsi a un ambiente sonoro sgradevole e inclusivo / Forms of future coexistence. Attuning to an uncomfortable and inclusive sonic environment

Abstract

The contribution follows the current debate regarding the new ecologies that are resizing human primacy in favor of a non-human and material agency and are outlining a future scenario for a multi-species coexistence. Within this context much has been said about the potential alliances between humans, non-humans, and matter (Haraway, 2018), as well as about the need to reimagine the inclusiveness of the urban, which has left out and domesticated the “wild nature” (Coccia, 2018). From such theoretical background, following a research perspective attentive to the sounds and vibrations (Bennett, 2010) emerging from the multiplicity of voices cries, and noises that mark the encounter and confrontation between species (Voegelin, 2018), the present reflection aims at defining the political possibilities of a future sonic ecology. An ecology nurtured by a sonic togetherness (LaBelle, 2018), ready to embrace the contradictions, the conflicts, and the struggles of coexisting bodies, cultures, and materialities. In order to approach such sonic ecology, it is pivotal to address the notion of “attunement” as the possibility for an interspecific understanding that can be encouraged by the raise of sonic awareness. The ability of tuning with a speaker or a context through sound and listening becomes then a crucial tool for better acknowledging the relationship between humans, and for empowering the connection between bodies and matter. In fact, attunement leads to critically reconsider the concept of noise from an aesthetic and affective perspective, and helps to encompass how uncomfortable sounds are regularly condemned and silenced by the (human) political system. As to foster the dialogue between bodies and matter and to provide an inclusive and plural urban atmosphere, a new sonic ecology needs then to tackle those policies that govern sensory (and in particular sonic) experience within the everyday environment. In summary, the contribution underlines the key role played by sound and listening in orienting and facilitating the dialogue between bodies and matter, as well as in analyzing within the urban atmosphere the signs of exclusion and the ways sonic affects are mobilized to enhance or discourage interspecific inclusion. Listening can therefore unveil a “sonic coexistence” that promotes collaborative forms of understanding and setting of the urban atmosphere. A coexistence that encourages a constant exchange between parties with the aim of redefining the notion of nuisance emerging and setting the basis for a politics of coexistence that does not promote domestication and pacification of the sonic environment rather embraces the potential conflicts resulting from the confrontation with otherness.

Biography

I am an architect, sound artist, and scholar. I have a Ph.D. in Regional planning and public policies, and I’m currently a Postdoctoral research fellow at Iuav University of Venice, Italy. My research deals with the relationship between Urban Studies and Sound Studies. In particular, I’m interested in a collaborative and participatory approach to urban policy analysis and design through methodologies emerging within Urban Planning, Urban Sociology, and Sound Art practice. Sound is central to my artistic and academic practice, as I intend critical listening a pivotal tool for the investigation of urban and cultural transformations affecting particularly vulnerable areas, such as depopulation, segregation, and loss of local identities. Through articles, lectures, compositions, performances, and installations I aim to foster sonic awareness and to empower institutions and local communities, exploring new potentials for urban regeneration, participatory processes, and local development. www.nicoladicroce.com

<<< back

Tip

Tip