Dear all,
We would like to invite you to join and register to an experiment/outdoor
multimodal tour of noise “Silenci – El Soroll Mata!: an ethnographic
experiment in the doings and undoings of urban noise” (L009) during the
EASA2024 conference in Barcelona.
You can find information here:
https://easaonline.org/conferences/easa2024/programme#15143 //
https://www2.hu-berlin.de/wavematters/el-soroll-mata-an-ethnographic-experime
nt-easa2024/
Description:
El Soroll Mata!
Environmental and recreational noise have long been matters of concern in
Barcelona, not just as nuisances, but as forces that kill. According to the
local authorities, 57% of its population is exposed to harmful levels of
noise, due to road traffic, street morphologies, the density of
neighbourhoods, rise of tourism, bars and terraces. This has resulted in
several initiatives (e.g. the banning of megaphones, the formation of
pedagogic mediators, installation of noise monitoring infrastructures, and
recently, plans to regulate tourist spaces).
However, noise in cities has an ambiguous status: it is a sign of
conviviality, of a vibrant urban life, but is also its harmful consequence.
Noise can be regarded as an index for both the doing and undoing of urban
life: simultaneously a sign of “modernity” (Bijsterveld 2008) and of its
unforeseen consequences, of functioning infrastructures and their breakdowns.
Noise itself is an elusive phenomenon, doing and undoing what counts as
reliable knowledge. It takes shape within the “dynamic friction” (Peterson
2021) between techniques, media and forms that seek to objectively fix it, and
the sensibilities and bodily practices through which it is perceived.
We would like to invite EASA2024 conference participants to join us for an
ethnographic experiment during their time in Barcelona to try to attune to and
capture its noises. This experiment will happen along curated itineraries to
places where noise has particular textures and resonances: to experience
different kinds of noise, where noise has long been and still is a source of
urban conflicts, and to test different modalities for attuning to specific
noisescapes. At each noisy place, participants will be asked to attune to
noise through a specific mode and medium: a drawing or sketch, a written
description or text, photographs, or sound recording. The aim is to explore
the challenge of capturing, attuning and relating to noise in distinct ways,
and to reflect on the difficulties of making noisy knowledge.
This experiment seeks to provide conference goers an opportunity to explore
the city of Barcelona through an acute urban and environmental issue while
they are not at the conference venue. Instead of a specific place and time for
the experiment, we will ask the participants to use their moments outside of
the conference throughout the week to follow itineraries and participate in
the experiment. In advance, participants will be provided a
dossier/guidebook/map to guide them, while also providing contextual
information about the noise issues, and instructions for attuning to and
documenting noise. To avoid contributing to the situation we seek to explore,
we will not form as a large group at a specific time and location in
Barcelona, but will ask participants to individually, or in small groups,
follow the guidebook and map themselves. We will also ask participants to
upload their materials digitally throughout the conference. During the final
day of the conference (26 July, 11.15-13.00), participants will be invited to
come together for a session to share their materials and experiences of noise
in Barcelona. During this de-briefing session, an expert from the Barcelona
city administration will also join the conversation to discuss and re-act to
our noisy experiences.
Itineraries will include curated noise walks through Raval, Gràcia, the
Waterfront, Eixample, and Sagrera.
There will be a pre-conference information session for interested
participants on Zoom. During this information session, we will provide further
details of the ethnographic experiment, instructions for the attunement
exercises, the digital upload process, and the noise walk
itineraries/guidebooks. Date of this session will be during the week of July
08-12, 2024.
L009
Time: during the conference
Location: specific locations in Barcelona
De-brief session: Friday, July 26, 2024 – 11.15-13.00 (at the conference
venue)
If you would like to join the experiment or if you have any questions, please
contact us through email: elsorollmata@gmail.com
Deadline for registration: July 08, 2024
This is part of the ERC project called “Urban Vibrations: How Physical Waves
Come to Matter in Contemporary Urbanism” (WAVEMATTERS) led by Ignacio
Farías at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
Brett Mommersteeg (he/him)
Senior Researcher
ERC WAVEMATTERS
Dept of EuroEthno
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
brett.mommersteeg@hu-berlin.de
Variations of a Building
(2023, Palgrave)
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