Interactive Session 3: Sound Art after COVID

Title

• “Sound Art after COVID: can participatory sound art initiatives lead to a new understanding of sound environments in urban settings?”

Presenter

Description

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted on and changed many aspects of urban life which contribute to social well- being and economic stability. It has dramatically altered the way that people and communities’ access or are excluded from public spaces and changed the complex role that sound plays in framing urban experience. Indeed, while current noise policies and public discourse focus almost exclusively on reducing sound levels, the unprecedented experience of “quietened” cities during lockdown both highlighted the unsustainability of this goal, related as it was to the reduction in economic, social and cultural activity and opportunity. It also led more people to notice the transformation of the urban soundscape and listen to their immediate environment. This relationship between the soundscape and community activity and the ‘listening turn’ that developed offer the opportunity for a new understanding of sound environments in urban settings informed by innovative forms of collaboration and participation.