A carregar...
Publicação
Urban sound : territories, affective atmospheres, and politics
| Nome: | Descrição: | Tamanho: | Formato: | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.33 MB | Adobe PDF |
Autores
Orientador(es)
Resumo(s)
This dissertation approaches issues related to the territories, affective atmospheres and politics of urban sound. The research methodology, underpinned by the concepts and methods of non- and more-than-representational theories, consists on a participatory approach in which research questions, data, and concepts were co-produced by the researcher and a group of twelve participants. I conducted two sets of experiments with the group of participants. In the first set, I conducted a series of sound diaries followed by conversations. In the second set, I conducted a series of go-alongs, which were followed by group interviews. In addition, I conducted two geoethnographic studies – one in Chiado, Lisbon, and another in Quinta da Piedade, Vila Franca de Xira – with the purpose of exploring the research concepts in ecological contexts.
The main objective of this thesis is to explore the phenomenology of the urban sonic experience, and the possibilities to intervene in urban territories through sound. By doing this, the thesis contributes toward advancing knowledge in the field of sonic geographies, namely by increasing knowledge about the urban sonic experience. I argue that the phenomenology of the urban sonic experience emerges from the simultaneity of listening and soundmaking, both of which are more-than-representational acts that intertwine affective sensing and ethico-political reasoning. Furthermore, I show that sonic interventions in urban space that engage with these more-than-representational acts, such as artistic practices or street football, have the capacity of altering urban territories by acting on the distribution of the sensible or by enacting worlds.
The thesis is composed by four individual but related studies. Study#1 aims to understand the phenomenology of moments of transition between sonic environments in the urban context through the analysis of a series of experiments conducted with the group of volunteers. I conceptualise the phenomenology of moments of transitions as sonic first impressions, drawing upon the concept of first impression by Tonino Griffero. Study#2 extends the exploration of the sonic first impression by investigating how it can be produced to change the way people understand and appropriate urban space. The study consists on a geoethnographic approach to music and dance performances in Largo do Chiado, Lisbon. I show how these different artistic practices, by producing sonic first impressions, alter the way individuals perceive urban space, and consequently, how individuals appropriate and contribute toward the formation of territories in urban space. In Study#3, I expand the phenomenology of the experience of urban sound by turning into the issue of soundmaking. The objective of this study is to understand the interaction between soundmaking and the situational relations between the individual and the environment, both in terms of the personal or collective cognitive and emotional flows, and in terms of the ethico-political content. On the other hand, Study#4 addresses the consequences of the phenomenology of everyday soundmaking by exploring how it is used to generate worlds and territories in urban space. It consists on a geoethnographic study of street football practices in Quinta da Piedade, Vila Franca de Xira, which explores how soundmaking in urban space is employed by young people to generate micro-worlds and territories.
The findings of this research project contribute toward a deeper understanding of the act of listening in everyday life, and open new routes for research by conceptualising the nuances of everyday soundmaking.