Urban atmospheres are of course experienced through more than one sense: we use our eyes, ears, skin, and nose. Besides elements that can be experienced through the senses, many other agents are active in creating a specific atmosphere: cultural perspectives, sociopolitical and economic influences, ecological or commercial interests, etc. In short, all these agents (and many more) play a role in the ways places are designed and experienced.

Our view is that sound is an important agent in the creation of an urban atmosphere and that all these agents are connected to sound. A constantly changing constellation of traffic sounds, construction works, human activities, bells, music, as well as natural sounds determine the soundscape of cities and how these are perceived. However, when intervening in such a soundscape, several other parameters besides sound might change: social interaction, feelings of (un)safety, biodiversity., etc. Also, visual, haptic, and olfactory transformations might occur in combination with introduced sounds.

In this panel we would like to focus specifically on the relation between the sonic environment, sound art, and ecology in cities. In particular we will investigate the following question: how can sound artists intervene in the ecological climate in cities?

Linnea Semmerling (Leiden University, Netherlands)

“Those Poor Birds”: Sound Art, Public Space, and Vulnerable Listening Subjects

Sounding artworks in public urban spaces have led to noise complaints across the world. Drawing on recent histories and theories of noise nuisance (Bijsterveld), annoying music (Trotta), and aesthetic moralism (Thompson), this paper traces how involuntary art audiences have voiced their disapproval of sound installations in public spaces since the 1990s. An analysis of the complaints of residents, businesspeople, and office workers on the sites of sonic interventions by artists reveals that decibel meters fail to capture the degree of unpleasantness and disturbance felt by the locals. A recurrent rhetorical element in these complaints is the evocation of a “vulnerable listening subject” – ranging from children to pets and local wildlife – as a means of strengthening their case against the sonic intervention in question. This paper thus explores the sensory, social, and moral implications of sound installations in shared spaces.
Keywords: sound art, public space, noise nuisance, vulnerable listening subjects

Kevin Toksöz Fairbairn √ (Leiden University, Netherlands)

The Building Blocks of Urban Sound: Listening to Material Voices

The history of cities revolves around the transformation of exurban matter and (bio)energy into the infrastructures necessary to sustain dwelling, consumption, and expansion. As materials like brick, sand, and clay have given way to concrete, steel, glass, and petroleum products (plastic, foam, rubber, etc.), their supply chains have grown increasingly global, extractive, and toxic. Although discourse around urban soundscapes has largely evolved beyond R. Murray Schafer’s infamous ‘lo- fi’ formulation (Schafer 1977/1994) to acknowledge more nuanced acoustic ecologies, the relationship between these urban soundscapes and the landscapes from which their constituent parts are carved merits closer attention.
Drawing from recent literature on the practice of field recording and its complex relationship to settler-colonialism, displacement, and exploitation (e.g. Kanngieser 2023; Wright 2022; Ouzounian 2017), this paper explores how building materials in contemporary cities don’t merely record their extraction but actively voice it, and how attending to the materials that suffuse urban life enables us to sense the echoing traumas of their production. It proposes then that building materials filter urban acoustic ecologies through the displaced soundscapes whose extraction, displacement, and mutilation they reverberate.
Keywords: urban sound, field recording, listening, settler-colonialism

Marcel Cobussen √ (Leiden University, Netherlands)

The Role of Sound Art in Designing Public Urban Spaces

What can sound artists contribute to the sonic design of public urban environments? And why is it important to involve sound artists in this design process? Although slowly, it seems as if a transformation is taking place in the way (local) governments deal with the (re)design of public urban spaces: not only can we notice more attention for the sonic design of those spaces; emphasis also shifts gradually from noise measurements and noise reduction policies to a more nuanced approach in which sounds in public spaces are regarded as an opportunity: sounds can contribute in a positive sense to the experience of an environment.
Enter sound artists. Not only are they experienced listeners which may help to not denounce certain sounds a priori (e.g., because they stem from unwanted sources); artists can also offer unexpected solutions to specific problems; they can work with the unexplored sonic opportunities of an urban site; they may be able to create new types of site-involving activities; and they might be able to suggest alternative negotiations regarding sonic aspects of everyday sites and/or situations. Keywords: sound art, sound design, public urban spaces