Sonic Urbanism
Attention is turning more and more to the way cities sound, from experimental music and acoustic engineering to urban anthropology. But can urbanism really be done sonically? Who decides what is wanted and unwanted noise? What can the crafts of music and sonic art teach us about how acoustics structure social life?
Building on an interest in links between music and architecture since Theatrum Mundi’s inception, this project aims to articulate more specifically how research and design processes that shape cities can incorporated techniques, concepts, and values from sonic practices. It has included workshops and a conference co-organised with Recomposing the City, and is in part constituted by the analysis of the creative project Voi[e,x,s] Chapelle Charbon.
The project has been developed through Atelier TM, an ongoing series of experimental workshops initiated at the Collège d’études mondiales (Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme) in Paris, as part of the Global Cities research chair held by Richard Sennett and on which John Bingham-Hall held a postdoctoral fellowship from 2016 – 2017.
