The Goethe-Institut, Hexagram and DOCK Berlin unite forces to present a series of events exploring the relationship between sound, art and urban space.
In an effort to address the lack of research and knowledge about the role that sound plays in the urban environment, participants from Berlin, Boston and Montreal, and from a variety of backgrounds including sound artists, urban planners, curators and researchers, will gather for an interdisciplinary event to explore the impact and importance of sound in the built environment. Three evenings of public events are planned, including a sound walk by Montreal artist Nicolas Dion Buteau, presentations by German curators Carsten Seiffarth and Carsten Stabenow on artistic platforms promoting sound works and the urban environment, the presentation of a listening map of Bonn by sound artist Sam Auinger, a performance by Boston-based composer Ernst Karel, and finally, a roundtable, led by Concordia professor Chris Salter, on the transformation of urban sounds in the built environment.
Program
September 21, 5pm – 6pm – From the Goethe-Institut (1626 boul.St-Laurent) to Oboro (4001, rue Berri) Urban sound walk
TRAVERS By Nicolas Dion Buteau
A sound action taking place in the public space, between point A (Goethe-Institut) and B (Oboro), between the appropriate time and the time beside it.
September 21, 8pm – Oboro 4001, rue Berri, local 301 Public Presentations
bonn hoeren – Urban Sound Art in Bonn since 2010 by Carsten Seiffarth, Berlin
Sound art in public space has a long history, beginning in the early days of sound art in the 1960s. With this awareness of history, bonn hoeren has invited annually since 2010 an acclaimed sound artist to work in Bonn to create a piece for public space. Each year the focus changes and past themes have included sound art and urban planning, sound art and architecture, and sound art and landscape.Carsten Seiffarth: Sound art curator and artistic director of the projects bonn hoeren, and singuhr in Berlin, and co-founder of the Berlin art and media production platform DOCK.
Followed by
Tuned City – Sound and Space in the Urban Context by Carsten Stabenow, Berlin
Tuned City is a platform researching the relationship between sound and space in the urban context. At the core of this event are artists’ works and theoretical approaches which critically examine urban and architectural situations alongside their resulting socio-political implications. The first edition of Tuned City – Between Sound and Space Speculation took place in July 2008 in Berlin, with almost 100 artists, architects and thinkers gathered in a variety of locations. Tuned City continues as a platform, travelling to other cities and locations with their own cultural and social settings, working site specifically on the question of how sound and architecture are related.
Carsten Stabenow: Curator, producer, artist. Artistic director of Tuned City and co-founder of the Berlin art and media production platform DOCK.
September 22, 8pm – Oboro 4001, rue Berri, local 301 Public Presentation + Concert
Listening Sites in Bonn by Sam Auinger, Berlin
My time as the first “Bonn city sound artist” was marked by countless walks and exploratory tours. The interesting thing about getting to know a city on foot is that you never leave the large, perceptible urban setting and the slow pace of movement enables a high level of attention for sensory impressions – ideal conditions for exploring a city from an aural point of view. Out of this artistic research, I created “Listening Sites in Bonn”. This map is an invitation to visit various sites in Bonn and experience their auditory qualities, to consciously expand the individual perception, recognition and interpretation of urban settings through the aural dimension. – Sam Auinger
Sam Auinger is a composer, sound artist and sonic thinker.
Followed by
Morning and Other Times, Concert by Ernst Karel, Boston, quadraphonic, 32 min, 2014
A multichannel sound composition which was recorded in the city of Chiang Mai in 2014 — a few months before the military coup leading to the current dictatorship under General Prayuth. The piece addresses the multidimensional nature of the city, not just in terms of human multiplicity, but also in terms of the ways it’s inhabited by beings of different species.
Ernst Karel makes experimental nonfiction sound works for multichannel installation and performance.
September 23, 7pm – Goethe-Institut 1626, boul. St-Laurent Public Roundtable lead by Chris Salter, Artist, Co-Director Hexagram and Concordia University Research Chair in New Media, Technology and the Senses (QC/CA/US)
Urban Sounds: Acoustic Transformations in the 21st Century City
The ubiquity of sound within the built environment and its continual transformation through new social technological means is becoming a major global theme, not only in art and design but in the planning of cities and economic and social policy in the North and South. This concluding roundtable brings together sound artist/sonic thinker Sam Auinger, curator Carsten Stabenow, artist/researcher-creator Chris Salter and Marthe Boucher, Head of the Permits and Inspections Division at Ville-Marie’s Department of Urban Planning to explore the socio-technical-cultural-economic impact of sound’s relationship to the built environment and the ways in which we can begin to bring sonic thinking into our everyday urban practices.
