(Counter-)mapping through the Ear. Listening Walks, Soundwalks and Audio Walks

The workshop introduces practices of walking and listening for mapping the sonic city. Topics include acoustic ecology, urban sounds, and field recordings, leading to individual artistic projects. Soundwalk is a term coined by sound practitioner Hildegard Westerkamp introduced in 1974. Westerkamp was an active member of the Canadian group Soundscape Project and has encouraged participants to expand their hearing by listening to urban and natural environments while carefully walking. During the workshop, participants will have an introduction to theories on acoustic ecology and sonic methods such as sonic diagramming and field recording. The group will be introduced to sound investigation practices that archive and map sonic environments, situating those within longer histories of sonic arts practice and soundscape studies. The workshop focuses on critical and reflective approaches, giving examples that concentrate on the context of Berlin. Various interfaces, such as online and participatory urban sound maps, will be present. The weekly workshop will expand this concept of sound walking by discussing listening walks in Extended Reality, which is an emergent field of studies that contains technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (XR). The workshop includes readings, listening exercises, an introduction to techniques for recording, and post-production of sound to export and situate those into their specific projects. At the end of the week, each participant should develop an artistic project on sonic walks.

Course leader

Samuel Perea-Díaz