The Sounded City

Daily life is increasingly influenced by noise pollution, sound policies, and a host of sounding devices. Palpable sonic interventions raise pressing questions about the relations between sound and social issues such as climate change, safety, public health, social stratification, multi-ethnicity, etc.

Sound deeply influences how human and nonhuman beings interact within their environments, making sound studies directly relevant to all kinds of everyday concerns. In other words, sound is intimately intertwined with many political, social, ethnic, ecological, and ethical problems: Who decides what can be heard, where, and when? Which sounds are most noticeable, and which ones are excluded? How can we create a better (or at least a different) sonic environment? Is there a role for sound to play in cultivating the communities we hope to live and thrive in?

Despite the planetary scale of these issues, architects, urban planners, policy makers, civil servants, and project developers generally do not pay a lot of attention to the sensitive and sensible sonic design of public (urban) spaces.

This course is intended to expose and explore the complex webs of acoustic presence stretching in, through, and around our cities and neighborhoods. Weaving together many different strands of sound studies and sound art, its sessions will help to clarify the intersections between sound and social interaction, sound and politics, sound and ecology, sound and health, and so on. Within a broad theoretical scaffolding, site visits, activities, and readings will elucidate the agency of sound and its practical application in urban planning, design, architecture, and other related fields.