Protest against noise in Barcelona (Source: La Vanguardia)
El Soroll Mata! Environemental and recreational noise have long been a matter of concern in Barcelona, not just as nuisance, but as a force that kills. According to local authorities, 57% of its population is exposed to harmful noise levels, due to road traffic, street morphologies, density of neighbourhoods, rise of tourism, bars and restaurants. This has resulted in several initiatives (e.g. banning the megaphones, the formation of predgogic mediators, installation of noise monitoring infrastructures).
Noise in cities has an ambitious 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 the doing and the undoing of urban life: simultaneously an indication of „modernity“ (Bijsterveld 2008) and of its unforeseen consequences, of functioning infrastructure and their breakdown. Further, noise is an elusive phenomenon, doing and undoing what counts as reliable knowledge. Noise knowledges take 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 your 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 the itineraries and participate in the experiment. Participants will be provided a dossier/guidebook in advance to guide them, while also providing contextual information about the noise issues, and instructions for attuning to and documenting the noise. We will also ask participants to upload their materials digitally throughout the conference. During the final day of the conference, participants will be invitier 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 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.
Time: during the conference
De-brief session: conference venue on the final day
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 excercises, and the noise walk itineraries in Barcelona. Date of this session will be during the week of July 08-12, 2024.
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