Even some children of the preschool age enter the hospital 'school'.

In the days when we have visited the hospital, the group consisted of mainly small children who still can't read (from 5 to 7 years-old), with only one boy who was 11. We originally prepared listening materials and writing prompts for the first two episodes of children eco-radio drama "Eco Hooligan and Petrica Puh" (see the writing prompts at the end of this chapter), which are suitable for children who are 9+ years old. As the group was unexpectedly much younger, I decided on the spot to use "Earlet the Gnome and the Mysterious Doors". I knew that the 'Sluško' radioplays will be boring to the 11-year-old child in terms of content, but since the rest of the group were pre-schoolers, I had to respect both sides. This is why I decided to give the 11-year-old a 'special task' - to be a DJ in charge for the speakers and the volume of the play during the storytelling and listening.

After the school hospital experience, what can be noticed and suggested for future events is:

1. There is a need for a specialised professional (music and arts mediator/animator) who could create meaningful live encounters with sound, music and drama within the school, but also in the shape of a performance in the hospital;

2. It is time to put back theatre plays in the children's hospitals - as it was before the pandemic;

3. There is a need to create short radio pieces and 'one time' lessons with creative exercises in the shape of written material. One of the examples that we created can be found at the end of this article, made especially for the first two episodes of "Eco Hooligan and Petrica Puh", a detective-science children's radiophonic series (see more about "Eco Hooligan and Petrica Puh" in Chapter I);

4. In terms of children's radio drama, it would be useful to think about creating applied radiophonic material for the hospital space (e.g. soundwalk that might make transition from home to the hospital and the time spent in the hospital cosier and less stressful for the child). Making the hospital space more welcoming through stories and sounds does not require additional construction work in the hospital - besides printing QR codes that would be put in visible places (e.g. walls and doors), so the children, parents and medical workers might easily approach the sound content. This activity might be beneficial for the whole community within the hospital;

5. Many activities related to singing, listening and body percussions need to be carefully crafted and navigated in the encounters with children, because of their medical condition;

6. In the heterogeneous age groups, it is good to create some special tasks for the children who are, for example, older than the majority of the group, which can be applied while working with other children.

Dear listener,

Welcome to the world of children's radio drama! You're probably wondering what a radio drama is. Here's the answer!

A radio drama is a drama that does not take place in an 'ordinary' theatre, but on the radio, therefore it has no visual elements. What helps listeners imagine the characters and the story itself are dialogues, music and sound effects.

We hope you like our radio drama about friends who set out to save the city from garbage and pollution!

But in order to join them in the story, you first have to get to know them! Listen carefully to the first episode and connect the names of the characters with everything you notice about them while listening.

P.S. Some characters have more than one feature offered!

<figure><img src="image_498.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_499.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_500.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_501.png" /></figure>
Now that you've met our main characters, listen
to what happened to them in the second episode!
Imagine if Petrica and Vesna came to your door
like trick-or-treaters! What song did Vesna sing?

Draw a scene. 😊

What kind of trouble did Vesna and Petrica find themselves in? Imagine what the solution to their problem might look like! If you could record the next episode, what would happen at the beginning, what in the middle, and what at the end? What sounds would you include in your episode to evoke the plot?

<figure><img src="image_502.png" /></figure>

What did Petrica do to help
Vesna? Did someone come
to her aid?

During this time, while Petrica
is looking for a solution - how
is Vesna feeling in the cage?
What does she do to break
free?

How does the story end?
Keep in mind that it will be
followed by a new episode!

<figure><img src="image_503.png" /></figure>

Write here the sounds you would put in each part!

<figure><img src="image_504.png" /></figure>
**Yorgos Samantas**
Anthropologist, sound designer
TWIXTlab.com
Akoo.o

**Dana Papachristou, Ph.D.**
Sound Artist, Akoo.o team
Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Culture, Creative Media and Industries
University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece
Founder - Director, To Aesthate G.P.

geosams@gmail.com

dimpapachristou@uth.gr

# TOGETHER
## A radio play for children in hospitals and beyond

"Together" (Skupaj) is a musical radio tale about the unusual friendship between a feather and a bird. It was commissioned by Radio Slovenia, in their series of radio plays that explore the healing or soothing potentials of the radiophonic medium for children with a hospitalization experience.

### The story and its sound

The story is about the unexpected friendship of a bird and a feather. It departs from a bed – presumably a hospital bed – where the feather lives inside a pillow. As the bedding is shuffled, the feather finds itself out of the pillow, flying around in the room, until a breeze takes it out through the window. It softly lands in the city, amidst the urban environment, where it sees a wounded bird by the sidewalk. They meet, exchange wishes and needs, and they decide to join forces – or rather, to help each other out – and fly together combining what each of them misses: the bird has a wounded wing and asks the feather to mend it by joining it;

and the feather, after being closed in the pillow, craves to see the world and asks the bird to be its companion. Together, they start their voyage, a flight over pleasant locations around the world. It is in fact a story of anti-heroes, or at least of heroes that are somehow troubled, non-wholesome, and they gain power by helping each other out.

For the composition, we are drawing upon various musical elements. The simple vocal melodic lines are inspired by lullabies. The whole composition follows an oneiric (dream-like) approach, without the intention to necessarily make audiences fall asleep; we rather aim at evoking the feelings one gets from a dream of flying, which, according to several psychologists, is associated with relief.

The piece is written for two 'instruments' which are rarely met in music for children. The first instrument is a Minimoog synthesizer, a legendary monophonic analogue synth born in the 1970s; it is used the musical parts. Minimoog's sound

is blended together with the second 'instrument', the use of field recordings.

On one hand, field recordings are meant to represent actual living environments, simulate them and blend them into the oneiric reality of the piece. For hospitalized children, those environments are not necessarily pleasant – partly because of the feeling of loss of agency, or control over one’s own body and space. So, their swift incorporation into the melodic and rhythmical structure is meant to bring about a feeling of playfulness with those negatively associated soundscapes, as well as their trans-substantiation into something positive. Minimoog’s vast range of timbres enables us to perform this bridge: the particular synth has the ability to synthesize sounds with analog properties. We use it by overlaying synthesized sounds, that imitate the timbre of orchestral instruments. With numerous pre-sets, and the ability to change

<figure><img src="image_505.png" /></figure>
the envelope<fnref n="1" /> and parameters of all sounds, it can create new timbres to match the soundscape compositions that engulf the entire radio piece. This instrument has a powerful ability to create new, still non-existent sounds that are created *ex nihilo*. We selected and manipulated each sound in the piece, to match with the oneiric feel we wanted to achieve. We depart from something quite realistic – a blend of field recordings and the synth’s subtle presence – and, through the Minimoog, we introduce the oneiric textures, ‘fly’ for a little while in a dreamscape and land back again into reality, having gained this flight-feeling along the way.

In the vast range of timbres of Minimoog, we sought mainly for subtle and soothing textures, to inspire calmness and to spark imagination, in support to the imaginary flight of our two friends. We only added intensity in the *crescendo* parts. These are the parts that stand out in the composition as *refrains* – or *ritournelles* – to use the French word, in consistency with philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s (1980) approach. The *ritournelles* of “*Skupaj*”, one in each part of the composition, are aimed to be remembered, sang along, and function as a reference point for the aural-oral (ear-to-voice) constitution of a “calm and stable centre [of order] in the heart of chaos” (Deleuze 1980: 382). If we may try to simplify the French philosopher’s approach, this is one of the primordial functions of music – of refrains in particular, “found in tales (both horror stories and fairy tales), and in lieder as well” (ibid.: 383): a way of creating an ordered space-time within an otherwise uncharted world.

When it comes to the piece’s innovation, both Minimoog and field recordings are quite unusual for this particular audience, as we all are used to more ‘traditional’ sounds in children’s music. Although sound effects and sound samples have been used widely as supporting elements in children’s narratives, not enough work has been put into the usage of electronic musical timbre. In parallel, nowadays musicological research focuses on timbre, added that, since the late 20th century, we experience a digital revolution in music technology. We are not going here into the discussion about the healing properties of particular musical frequencies, possibly falling into the field of interest of psychoacoustics; but the fact that electronic sound is gaining more and more ground in both popular music and the avant-garde, made it quite interesting for us to use it in a piece made for children. Moreover, the history of music is an ever-evolving field, and we find that radio for children is a fine medium to introduce this emerging musical reality to young audiences.

## Learning from vulnerable positions

Our work with TWIXTlab in B-AIR focused in a rather different field. We engaged in ethnographic, artistic and pedagogical research with Deaf and hard-of-hearing participants, aiming to introduce, create, and make sense with inclusive practices of music and sound art, together with our interlocutors (see Chapter II, “Audibility”. However, as Creative Europe collaborations provide an exceptional opportunity for encountering diverse fields and approaches, we were greatly informed and inspired by RTV Slovenia’s work with neuroscientists and developmental psychologists

towards radio research-for-creation. We find a common denominator in our research about the Deaf, and the Radio Slovenia’s inquiry about hospitalized children, namely the notion of ‘vulnerability’, and the feeling of being ‘left out’ or ‘marginalized’. Thus, we brought into play our own findings, experiences, approaches and artistic intuition, to address those issues. With the radio tale “*Skupaj*” we sincerely hope to contribute to the cause, for both general audiences, and arts-and-science research that underlies the project.

To listen to “Together”:

<figure><img src="image_506.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_507.png" /></figure>

<footnote n="1">1 In sound and music, an ‘envelope’ describes how a sound changes over time, for example in its amplitude (volume), frequency (with the use of filters) or pitch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Envelope_(music)</footnote>
Sources and literature:

Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1980). *Capitalisme et schizophrénie. Mille plateaux*. Les éditions de minuit.

<figure><img src="image_508.png" /><figcaption>Illustration by Zala Kalan</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_509.png" /></figure>
SOUND
AMBIANCES

<figure><img src="image_510.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_511.png" /></figure>
Nicolas Tixier, Ph.D.

Professor, Director of the CRESSON Team
Ambiances Architectures Urbanités research lab, ENSAG,
University Grenoble Alpes, France

Nicolas Rémy, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly, Greece
Associated Researcher, AAU_CRESSON Laboratory, France

Nicolas.Tixier@grenoble.archi.fr

nremy@uth.gr

# HOW DOES THE WORLD SOUND?

Since the first works of Pierre Schaeffer (“The Sound Object”, 1966), then Murray Schafer on the soundscape (1977), completed by the collective work of the CRESSON team (sonic effects notion, 1995), many are now the concepts likely to describe the sound phenomena as they are experienced and produced daily. These works make it possible to describe sonic phenomena on different scales: scale of the sonic sources with the sound object, scale of the body in movement with the sonic effect and scale of the landscape with the soundscape. They articulate perfectly to the attention that we have when we are listening to sounds and acting with them. They are also very meaningful and relevant to describe the *affect* produced on the listening and on the acting subject. They become operators for sound creators (installation, sculpture, radio arts, musical arts) but also for space designers (artists, architects, urban designers). Nowadays, with the revival of the general interest for sound (sound studies), the notion of sonic effect seems the most promising tool to describe our contemporary practices with the sonic environment.

More recently, the concept of *ambiance* is subject of special attention and with the work of sociologist, CNRS<fnref n="1" /> member and the researcher at CRESSON team Jean-Paul Thibaud, it appears very promising to develop a new perspective on our contemporary sonic environments.

If sound and ambiance are so closely related, it is because they both question the idea of a clear distinction between the perceiver and the perceived, the subject and the object, the inside and the outside, the individual and the world. Instead of relying on a dualistic and substantialist mode of thinking, they require an alternative to ontology of the thing and attention to the medium and fluxes involved in everyday sensory experiences. Sound has proved to be a very useful medium to describe the tuning *into*, the unfolding *of*, and the situation *within* an ambiance. Those three perspectives help to approach the puzzling notion of ambiance by revealing some of its main features: the emphasis on sensing over perceiving; the crucial role of resonance and affective tonality; the importance of internal dynamics, everyday gestures and social forms of life; the phenomenon of coalescence that

unifies the diverse components of a situation; the articulation between the spatial, the social and the physical.

In other words, this research intended to explore urban ambiances through sounds, using the concept of sonic effect both for description and creation.

What can be learned about an ambiance when we just listen to it?

In other words, **how does the world sound?**

In a world of increasing sound and communication, the confusion generated by the multiplication of media (often sonic) requires the reexamination of the effectiveness of these notions. The package of activities by the CRESSON team “B-AIR: How does the world sound?” aimed to contribute to this debate by proposing six weeks of research, seminars coupled with experimental and pedagogical workshops. Radio as a medium and radio as new forms of artistic and scientific expressions has helped us tackle this issue.

<figure><img src="image_512.png" /></figure>

<footnote n="1">1 National Centre for Scientific Research (Centre national de la recherche scientifique), France</footnote>
CULTURE ET RECHERCHE

<figure><img src="image_513.png" /></figure>

MINISTÈRE
DE LA CULTURE
Liberté
Égalité
Fuite
Faites

N° 142 PRINTEMPS-Été 2022

<figure><img src="image_514.png" /></figure>

La recherche
culturelle
et l'Europe

© Denkraft

sensibilite sonore dès le plus jeune
âge et tout au long de la vie.
Quel est l'impact du sonore
(son, voix, langage, musique)
sur le développement cognitif,
émotionnel et personnel de
chacun, mais aussi pendant la
maladie et la convalescence ?
Le groupement s'est donné la
mission d'explorer le média de
la radio sous ses formes les plus
contemporaines pour aborder ce
sujet: performances sonores dans
l'espace public, théâtre de rue,
marches sonores, émissions de
radio. ateliers sonores dans des
écoles et dans des établissements
spécialises pour les enfants
malentendants, ateliers sonores
dans des EPHAD sont autant
d'actions qui sont testées et
discutées dans le cadre du projet
B-AIR. Autrement dit, B-AIR
partage au sein de ses partenaires
l'hypothèse que l'art et le sonore
peuvent être considérés comme
un facteur de développement et
de transformation. D'une part,
le consortium explore différents
environnements sonores (espaces
publics, écoles, hôpitaux,
maisons de retraite), d'autre
part, il s'adresse à différents
publics, notamment ceux qui
sont habituellement négligés
(bébés, jeunes enfants, groupes

vulnérables, personnes âgées).
Au-delà d'une approche artistique
purement intuitive, l'objectif du
consortium est aussi de mettre en
dialogue la recherche scientifique
et la création radiophonique
en fédérant une réflexion sur le
rôle, l'impact diffus, sensoriel et
sémantique du son dans nos vies.
B-AIR promeut l'importance du
son en général et de la radio en
particulier pour la croissance, le
bien-être et la socialisation de tout
un chacun.

Art infini de la radio

Dans le paysage médiatique
actuel, la radio n'est peut-être
pas le média que l'on choisirait
en premier, mais B-AIR est
convaincu que c'est le média que
l'humanité abandonnerait en
dernier. Avec le projet B-AIR,
nous voulons permettre la
production expérimentale et la
réinvention de la radio en tant
que média créatif, comme un
geste artistique en soi, et soulever
la question de la transformation
du média radio (transformation
à la fois technologique et
sociale). Refusant une pensée
dichotomie entre ce qui est
nommé « pratique artistique »
et « pratiques ordinaires »,
les partenaires s'attachent à

développer leurs propositions
de recherche et artistiques vers
les communautés cibles. La
production d'art sonore de
qualité » réservée habituellement
aux salles de concert est portée
vers des publics sensibles: art
sonore participatif co-créé avec
des enfants hospitalisés, narration
d'art sonore communautaire dans
les maisons de retraite, la radio
étant un média commun. En
faisant participer des publics tels
que les enfants et les personnes
âgées à un processus de création
et de réévaluation. L'idée de B-AIR
est de favoriser aussi la prise
de conscience par nos sociétés
de l'importance de l'art sonore
aujourd'hui dans nos trajectoires
de vie en rendant l'enfant, la
persoña malade ou vulnérable
consciente de son potentiel créatif.
L'enjeu est de décloisonner les
processus créatifs et d'éducation
musique et sonore et d'ouvrir la
communauté à une liberté créative
avec un art sonore pour tous.

L'un des outils méthodologiques
proposés par le projet B-AIR est
la création et le partage d'une
plateforme internet dédiée à la
création sonore et radiophonique
(https://b-air.infinity radio/).
Nombreux sont les partenaires

Pays engagés : Slavénie, France,
Crusie, Serbie, Finlande, Grèce,
Bosnie-Herzégovine

Partenaires : BAZART (Belgrade,
Serbie), AUU-Cresson - École
d'architecture de Grenoble
(Urenstone, France), Institut Azer
Stefan (Jalbana, Slavénie),
ITAS-Suomen Yleislistö (Finlande),
Finlande), Bauhaus-Technik
ustanova Radio - Televizija Serbie
(Belgrade, Serbie), Ruderektor
Bajc (príjatej) (Zagreb, Crtež),
TUMATrad AMKE (Zagreb,
Crtež), Vokokolovskia ustanova
internacionainai bunc univerzitet
International Buch University
(Sarajev), Bosnie-Herzégovine

Financement : Programme
Creative Europe Culture Sub-
programme "Support for European
cooperation projects" 2020
EACEA-32-2019 - Larger scale
cooperation projects (COOP2)

Responsables scientifiques :
Satka Rádiel, Radio télevizíon,
Slavénie, RTV SLID (Jalbana,
Slavénie) - Nicolas Rémy et
Nicolas Tixier pour AUU-Cresson

Contrat établit en novembre 2020,
se terminant fin 2023

<figure><img src="image_515.png" /></figure>

Ullerås Rønnekjem, frå radioet
l'union - Marché sonore, Portbou,
séptembre 2021

<figure><img src="image_516.png" /></figure>
ÉCOLE
NATIONALE SUPÉRIEURE
D'ARCHITECTURE
DE GRENOBLE
AG

WALTER BENJAMIN,
THE RADIO AND
THE CHILDHOOD
HOW CAN WE MAKE THE WORLD SOUND

"Dear invisibles" – this is how Walter Benjamin called the listeners. Benjamin wrote about the radio and for the radio. In the late 1920s, he worked for public radio stations in Berlin and Frankfurt. He loved the popular dimension of this new media which he found to have endless possibilities, including the staging of everyday life. More specifically, he produced a series of programs 'for children', which were also aimed at adults. For Benjamin, the radio was the place *par excellence* of the practical application of his reflections on means of technical reproducibility. He even sketched a theory of radio.

As part of our B-AIR research group, Benjamin's writings and radio plays have been revisited in order to question the use and potentials of radio today. Through radio, sound creation and philosophy, the seminar and the associated creative workshop were an opportunity to re-ask the following questions: How does the world sound? And how can we make it sound?

<figure><img src="image_517.png" /><figcaption>Soundwalk during the Seminar in Portbou, Spain, September 2021. Photo by Cédric Pichat</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_518.png" /></figure>
# WALTER BENJAMIN, THE RADIO AND THE CHILDHOOD – WALKING, LISTENING, TALKING

## Portbou (Spain), September 29th to 30th, 2021

In September 2021, the CRESSON team organised a seminar in Portbou, Spain, where every two years a meeting on Walter Benjamin's work brings together researchers, artists, architects and philosophers to discuss and experiment on it.

Titled "Walter Benjamin, the Radio and the Child-hood - Walking, Listening, Talking" the seminar has alternated between lectures followed by discussions, readings, sound creations and sound walks. General discussions took place inside the "Casa Walter Benjamin", by the courtesy of the Portbou Municipality.

This two-day event was free and open to the public. Over 40 people attended, including kids from the city-school who participated in the program.

The whole event was organised as a large radio set, allowing the program to be recorded and archived as podcasts:

<figure><img src="image_519.png" /></figure>

### WALTER BENJAMIN, THE RADIO AND THE CHILDHOOD – WALKING, LISTENING, TALKING

#### Program:

##### Day 1: September 29th, 2021

* 09:30 "A l'écoute" de Walter Benjamin (lecture par Didier Tallagrand)

* 09:45 "Chers invisibles" / "Dear invisibles" #1 (Nicolas Tixier)

* 10:00 Walter Benjamin et la radio (Philippe Baudouin) (diffusion)

* 10:15 "Dressez l'oreille, vous risquez d'en avoir besoin". Apprentissage de l'insatisfaction (Anne Roche)

* 11:15 Walter Benjamin et Portbou (Bruno Queysanne) Suivi d'une marche vers le mémorial W. Benjamin

* 15:30 Archéologie des "Hörspiele" en contexte allemand (Hans Hartje)

* 16:30 En partant du narrateur: devenir des récits terrestres (Jean-Paul Thibaud)

* 17:30 Electronic media and listening commons in the early years of Radio Ljubljana (Rajko Muršič)

* 18:30 RadioWalk for Benjamin (Pavlica Bajsic Brazzoduro)

##### Day 2: September 30th, 2021

* 09:30 "Le Mississippi et l'inondation de 1927" de Walter Benjamin (lecture par Sonia Pérez)

* 09:45 "Chers invisibles" / "Dear invisibles" #2 (Nicolas Tixier)

* 10:00 Navigating Borderscapes and Belonging. Memories of Children's Radio Listening in Finland (Helmi Järviluoma-Mäkelä)

* 11:00 Enfance et réalité à venir (Alexandre Costanzo)

* 12:00 The end of an era (correspondence of Benjamin and Adorno) / Sound Walk (Dana Papachristou and Georges Samantas)

* 16:00 Experimental Broadcasting and Transnational Evening of Sounds (Heikki Uimonen)

* 17:00 Sound performance – Radio Wega (Giuseppe Gavazza)

* 17:30 Conte radiophonique (enfants de Portbou)

* 18:15 Lecture transversale et échanges finaux (Pascal Amphoux)

<figure><img src="image_520.png" /></figure>
## Radio Benjamin

<figure><img src="image_521.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_522.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_523.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_524.png" /><figcaption>A radio workshop held with children from the Portbou elementary school</figcaption></figure>

The seminar was accompanied by a five-day long workshop with the students of the master program *Terrain*, of the Experimental School of Art Agency Alps. During the workshop, students took on a singular situation, that of a small town: Portbou. Portbou's unique geography of sea and mountains, and its history linked to its location on the border between France and Spain, have made it a scene of various tragedies: the *Retirada* or post-war Spanish Republican exile from 1936 to 1939,

and the suicide of philosopher Walter Benjamin in September 1940. Students were also introduced to this tragic period of our history through a meeting at the beginning of the week, with the French philosopher Bruno Queysanne, a specialist on Walter Benjamin's works.

To listen to the podcasts and see contents, participants and pictures from the seminar:

<figure><img src="image_525.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_526.png" /></figure>
ÉCOLE
NATIONALE SUPÉRIEURE
D'ARCHITECTURE
DE GRENOBLE

AG

# VULNERABILITY AND LISTENING
**Sebastien De Pertat, Ph.D. student**

Ambiances Architectures Urbanités research lab, ENSAG
University Grenoble Alpes, France

**Théo Marchal, Ph.D.**

Arch., PhD, Researcher, CRESSON Team
Ambiances Architectures Urbanités research lab, ENSAG
University Grenoble Alpes, France

**Evangelia Paxinou, Ph.D.**

Arch., Associated Researcher, CRESSON Team
Ambiances Architectures Urbanités research lab, ENSAG
University Grenoble Alpes, France

**Nicolas Rémy, Ph.D.**

Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly, Greece
Associated Researcher, AAU_CRESSON Laboratory, France

sebastien.depertat@grenoble.archi.fr

theo.marchal@grenoble.archi.fr

evangeliapaxinou@gmail.com

nremy@uth.gr

## WINTER SCHOOLS

Since 2013, CRESSON's Winter Schools have taken the form of a week of research and practice to discuss and explore laboratory methods and concepts in their ability to provide answers to a specific subject related to the sound environment, its study and its transformations. For the three years of the B-AIR project duration (winters 2021, 2022 and 2023), the Winter Schools have been working and exploring on the B-AIR project general theme of listening to vulnerabilities. These intensive weeks have included seminars, round-table discussions, sound and space research and creation workshops, enabling the participants to explore and exchange ideas and creative contents on the subject.

<figure><img src="image_527.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_528.png" /></figure>
# WINTER SCHOOL 2021:
## "Vulnerabilities and sounds, the experience of listening" (online)
### Grenoble (France) and Volos (Greece), January 18th to 22nd, 2021

Because it was held during the COVID pandemic, all the lectures, events and workshops took place online due to the lockdown restrictions.

In a world where the immediacy of information as well as the quickness of actions have become the rule, it seems more and more challenging to take the time. The acceleration of lifestyles and ways of thinking has become a prerequisite for success. Nevertheless, in parallel with this fast-moving world, long-term issues are being increasingly neglected, creating social, environmental and spatial 'vulnerabilities'. It is precisely at the intersection of these stakes that the question of ambiances and more particularly of sounds can appear as a catch. Listening to the environment – a gesture that may seem simple and insignificant – becomes a powerful tool for considering places and words at scales and temporalities that are difficult to reach with the visual. Sound is a medium intrinsically related to time, but also very capable of questioning scales that are often ‘left aside’ because they appear to be too obvious, too small or on the other hand too large. Therefore, sound could be considered as a lever for considering, questioning or reframing these issues.

To see the Seminar program: Winter School 2021 – Program & Team – Le Cresson enseigne

<figure><img src="image_529.png" /></figure>

To listen to the podcasts from the lectures and to see pictures from the seminar:

<figure><img src="image_530.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_531.png" /></figure>

Participants of the Winter School 2021 (online)

<figure><img src="image_532.png" /></figure>
# WINTERSCHOOL 2021

## ATTENDEES

<figure><img src="image_533.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_534.png" /></figure>

Localisation of the Winter School
2021 online participants (100 during
the week)

<figure><img src="image_535.png" /></figure>
**Théo Marchal, Ph.D.**

Arch., PhD, Researcher, CRESSON Team
Ambiances Architectures Urbanités research lab, ENSAG
University Grenoble Alpes, France

**Evangelia Paxinou, Ph.D.**

Arch., Associated Researcher, CRESSON Team
Ambiances Architectures Urbanités research lab, ENSAG
University Grenoble Alpes, France

**Nicolas Rémy, Ph.D.**

Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly, Greece
Associated Researcher, AAU_CRESSON Laboratory, France

theo.marchal@grenoble.archi.fr

evangeliapaxinou@gmail.com

nremy@uth.gr

# WINTER SCHOOL 2022: "Sound spaces in waiting"
## Grenoble (France) and Volos (Greece), January 17th to 21st, 2022

"Listening to the world" can be seen today as a posture of scaling facing the usual frames of reference and allowing us to pay more attention to vulnerabilities: How does the world sound to our ears? How does it sound when we are children? How does it sound when our bodies suffer and age? How does it sound when our senses or our beings are 'different'?

The 2022 edition of the Winter School proposed to the participants to think more precisely about the cultural and spatial dimensions of the perception of ambiences by working on 'sound spaces in waiting'. As architects, urban planners, artists, designers, and also inhabitants, we all conceive and occupy the public spaces of our cities, and the landscaped spaces are often the sites of various sound practices: speech, musical listening, sports practices, walking, staying, meetings, etc.

How can we design public space and its furnishings to be less vulnerable? How can a public bench become a waiting sound space, ready to be activated by an individual (a hearing impaired person, a group, a child, etc.)? How can these urban objects be designed and constructed to provide multiple, sensitive and multicultural listening experiences? What kind of 'sound spaces in waiting' can be designed and built to give or bring attention to the vulnerabilities and pluralities of uses and spaces?

This Winter School continued the reflection carried out in 2021 around the general theme of listening vulnerabilities. It took place in parallel at the Ecole Nationale d'Architecture de Grenoble, and at the Department of Architecture of the Polytechnic school of the University of Thessaly in Volos (Greece).

The participants were invited to explore the fabrication of urban furniture and urban situations (benches, kiosks, urban carpets, sound installations, art practices) at the scale of the human body in movement, using the problematic around the listening (to listen, to feel, to understand and to be heard). It was chosen to work on sound spaces and sound places for and in waiting to echo the three categories of sound vulnerability, which were previously developed during the 2021 Winter School: social, spatial and environmental vulnerability.

The workshops took place from Tuesday to Friday on each site (Greece and France) and were punctuated by exchanges and remote presentations via ZOOM meetings in English. The workshops, held on both sites in parallel, ended with a time of hybrid presentations and exchanges between France, Greece and the remote participants, to share and discuss the productions.

<figure><img src="image_536.png" /></figure>
## Volos Workshop:

The Volos workshop team consisted of 12 participants and several tutors. The participants were asked to design and construct a 1/1 scale structure (scale of the human body) at the end of the week. The workshop methodology was grounded in several theories and approaches that were introduced during the first two workshop days: ambiences theories and architectural design, design for people with specific needs, acoustics, vibrations and practical skills for human body design, wood properties and wooden construction skills. During the testing phase, along with hands-on experimentations, semi-empirical methods of sound evaluation and sound and design concepts were presented and discussed among the participants. Different design prototypes were tested by the participants, from morphology, potentials to create and material-wise. The designs were altered accordingly along the development and experimentation process. Several models and ideas were thus produced in order for the participants' team to agree upon and develop a final model that could be constructed on a physical scale (1/1).

## Grenoble Workshop:

The method involved a three-day period of intense reflection, design, sketching and fabrication of spatial devices and sound pieces. Participants had access to construction materials (wooden plates, organic wool) and sound tools (recorders, microphones, synthesisers, computers) for editing, transforming, generating and diffusing sound. The outcome was two built prototypes using sound as a material.

The first prototype focused on solid diffusion of sounds in urban furniture such as a bench de-

signed to allow different body postures and combined with several sound devices:

- a solid sound transducer for people using the bench in a lying position,

- indirect sound transducer through bones

when people lean on the bench, by using their arms to connect their body with the source of sounds, and

- low frequency vibration transducer through a seat attached to a wooden membrane.

<figure><img src="image_537.png" /><figcaption>Winter School 2022 - The Bench</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_538.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_539.png" /></figure>

The second prototype was a shell that allowed for varying degrees of isolation from the surrounding sound environment. It aimed to create a spiral space that constrained both the body and sounds, generating a gradation in isolation and absorption and limiting the number of people able to move inside the device: participants had to increasingly curl up to move forward until reaching the final point.

To read abstracts of the lectures:

<figure><img src="image_540.png" /></figure>

To listen to the podcasts of the lectures:

<figure><img src="image_541.png" /></figure>

To see workshop description and pictures (Grenoble):

<figure><img src="image_542.png" /></figure>

To see workshop description and pictures (Volos):

<figure><img src="image_543.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_544.png" /></figure>
# WINTER SCHOOL 2023:
## “Density, intensity, diversity: How does the living sound?”
### Grenoble (France), January 23rd to 27th, 2023

Aren't we a little too quick to associate density with sonority? If you take a closer look at this question, it's clear that architectural and urban forms offer a wide range of possibilities for users with very different sonorities. The back of a large building may be strangely quiet, while its street frontage is alive with traffic and shops; living on the top floor or the ground floor changes our perception of a place; from one apartment to another we experience sound proximity very differently, and, more generally and fortunately, the world around us can sound in a thousand and one way.

This Winter School was an opportunity to study, grasp and even experiment with these relationships between density and sound. Our starting point was the hypothesis that approaching our dwelling and its environment through sound would enable us to perceive and talk about density in ways other than a simple figure quantifying a ratio. This would enable us to grasp not only uses, practices and coexistences, but also materialities, spatialities and temporalities – in other words, the very essence of what helps characterise any urbanity.

To explore 'what it sounds like to live here', we explored different situations in the Grenoble metropolitan area, varying in their relationship to density. Between the *in situ* listening, interviews with inhabitants and sound recordings, the challenge of the workshops was to produce sound creations, representations, expressions or even projections imagined for the different situations studied.

The sites for this Winter school were chosen in collaboration with the Grenoble Region Urban Planning Agency (Agence d'Urbanisme de la Région Grenobloise), and the project was carried out in conjunction with IDHEAL, the Institute of Advanced Studies for Action in Housing (Institut des Hautes Études pour l'Action dans le Logement), as a part of its DESIR study program (Density: experienced, desired, imagined, feared?).

This Winter school brought together sound professionals with the Grenoble urban planning students and the students from the Cuneo Conservatory (Italie).

To listen to the podcasts and see contents, participants and pictures from the seminar:

<figure><img src="image_545.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_546.png" /></figure>
E
NS / ÉCOLE NATIONALE SUPÉRIEURE D'ARCHITECTURE DE GRENOBLE
AG

<figure><img src="image_547.png" /></figure>

HOW DOES THE
WORLD SOUND?

COMPOSING
THE SOUND /
WITH THE SOUNDS

<figure><img src="image_548.png" /></figure>
**Giuseppe GAVAZZA, Ph.D.**
Composer, Professor, Researcher at the CRESSON Team

**Nicolas Tixier, Ph.D.**
Professor, Director of the CRESSON Team

**juL McOISANS**
Media engineer / Wissenschaft Arbeiter, CRESSON Team
Ambiances Architectures Urbanités research lab, ENSAG,
University Grenoble Alpes, France

## B-AIR DAYS

Experience and expertise from organizing the Winter Schools was transposed to open-end knowledge exchange and co-creation framework aimed at the B-AIR Consortium as well.

B-AIR Days was a program composed from seminars, workshops, concerts and installations, bringing together international partners from universities, radio and sound arts over exploring new theoretical, methodological and practical tools to promote listening as well as sound creation. Through the prism of ambiances, we questioned our inhabited and living spaces in the face of environmental and societal changes, and we were particularly interested in so-called vulnerable audiences (very young children, people with disabilities, the elderly and the sick, etc.).

The diversity of skills and backgrounds of the B-AIR Consortium members finds its common base in a shared interest in listening and paying attention to the world of sound; even more specifically, paying attention to the world of children and vulnerable people.

The agenda followed a successful format which was adopted in these face-to-face events: the mornings were dedicated to public lectures, presentations, debates and meetings, while the afternoons and evenings were devoted to field activities – research actions, workshops, performances – that also involved a wider audience. At the end, there was a rendering and documentation of the field activities.

giuseppe.gavazza@grenoble.archi.fr

Nicolas.Tixier@grenoble.archi.fr

jul.mcoisans@grenoble.archi.fr

<figure><img src="image_549.png" /></figure>
# B-AIR DAYS 2022
## "How does the world sound? Composing the sound / with the sounds"

### Cuneo (Italy), October 5th to 8th, 2022

### Conservatorio di Musica G.F. Ghedini, Electronic Music Department METS

B-AIR Days in Cuneo were the bridge between two meetings organised by CRESSON, which gathered the B-AIR Consortium: the first one held in Portbou, Spain, a year earlier (27th September – 1st October 2021), and the one held in Cerisy, France, from 14th to 20th of May 2023.

The seminar in Cuneo, hosted by the Conservatory of Music, was an opportunity to involve the students (electroacoustic composition, sound engineering, pedagogy and music didactics) in some activities which were presented, tested and discussed in Portbou in 2021. The period between the B-AIR days (October 2022) and the workshop in Cerisy in May 2023, coinciding with the first semester of the 2022-2023 academic year, allowed for the organisation of some courses on the themes, offering to the students the opportunity to develop the concept for the TAROT performance that was elaborated, realised and performed in Cerisy and subsequently at the French pavilion in the Biennale di Architettura di Venezia (5 August 2023), as part of the artistic and educational activities of the Rifugio Levi-Molinari Retreat (10-11 August 2023) and which will also be included in the artistic season 2023-2024 program of the Conservatory in Cuneo.

The theme and the title of the B-AIR days held in Cuneo: "How does the world sound? Composing the sound / with the sounds" followed the thought of Jean-Claude Risset<fnref n="1" />: "One of my early desires as a musician was (...) to compose the sound itself, instead of merely composing with sounds". Taking inspiration from this sentence, the CRESSON team worked to activate a *B-AIR Antenna* in Cuneo.

The *Antenna* is an agile media that can follow, shifting in time and space, the activities all along the B-AIR project developments. It has involved, as an active host, the METS (Electronic Music and Sound Engineering) Department of the Cuneo Music Conservatory, as well as local realities related with B-AIR themes.

The theme of composing music was a driving force, but certainly not the only one that fuelled the activities in these meetings: uniting under a common theme, the different skills, knowledge and interests of all B-AIR Consortium partners led to a broadened concept of 'composing' as an organisation of sounds extended to space design, and to the concept of ambience that is the meeting point for the network partners.

Involving experts and specialist departments of education, this process has been open to research and experimentation on sound and listening in the world of children and disabled and vulnerable people.

Following this thread in the three meetings which covered the time span of 18 months, local stakeholders and guests came across. Composers, musicians, architects, urban planners, university professors and researchers, philosophers, radio programme directors, theatre directors, neurologists, psychologists, all played a significant role in the meetings, as well as the Conservatoire and art school students who followed the didactic and pedagogical programme which focused synergistically with the themes.

This seminar, including guests, took place in 4 ways:

- Theoretical presentations or reports of experiences, in the morning,

- Small group working in the afternoon (writing, recording podcasts, walking, preparing sound installations, etc.),

<figure><img src="image_550.png" /></figure>

<footnote n="1">1 Jean-Claude Risset (1938-2016) was a composer, a pioneer of musical research, a founder of Music Research Center ACROE and initiator of the AST - Art Science Technology concept.</footnote>
* Listening and discovery of sound installations at the end of the day or in the evening,

* A creative workshop with students from art schools (Annecy, Tours) and the Conservatory of Cuneo.

To listen to the podcasts and see contents, participants and pictures from the seminar:

<figure><img src="image_551.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_552.png" /><figcaption>B-AIR Days in Cuneo, Italy, October 2022</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_553.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_554.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_555.png" /></figure>
# B-AIR DAYS 2023
## "How does the world sound to our ears and how might it sound tomorrow?"

### Cerisy (France), May 20th to 25th, 2023

### Centre Culturel International de Cerisy la Salle

How does the world sound to our ears and how might it sound tomorrow?

It's a vast question, but one that is unique among the disciplines, albeit transversal to them, that touches on the understanding and design of our inhabited spaces.

What does the soundscape of an urban space, a square, a hospital, a school, or the soundscape of a lake, a forest or a glacier, tell us? When do we really listen, what do we hear, and not only the inhabitants, but also the world of beings that we live in? What empathy with the world does sound convey, and how does sound affect and shape our ordinary practices?

Approaching our disciplines through sound, and therefore through listening, calls for a different relation to the materials of research, but even more so for sharing and debating them. It engages the participants to find a medium of communication and creation that reflects both the sensitive part of the world, and the debates that drive our research.

This multidisciplinary seminar has modestly set out to achieve this by sharing knowledge, experimenting with situations and creating sound.

The Agenda kept the schedule from the B-AIR Days in Cuneo, combining seminars in the morning, creative workshops on writing, recording podcasts, walking, preparing sound installations, etc. in the afternoon and concerts and presentations in the evening. It included the students from art schools in Annecy and Tours, the conservatory of Cuneo and the school of nature and landscapes of Blois.

<figure><img src="image_556.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_557.png" /></figure>
## B-AIR DAYS 2023

# "How does the world sound to our ears and how might it sound tomorrow?"

### Seminar Program

TUESDAY May 16th, 2023

#### Seminar 1: The sound factory of imagination

1. Giuseppe Gavazza: *The Castle of Crossed Destiny, call for the participative project*

2. Evangelia Paxinou, Petros Flampouris, Nicolas Rémy: 92,5FM

3. Ona Ballo: *The heritage that remains. The sound space of the Romanesque churches of the Catalan Pyrenees*

4. juL McOisans, Cédric Pichat, Nicolas Tixier: *Radio Utopia – News from the World*

#### Sound Installations and Performances

Evangelia Paxinou, Petros Flampouris, Nicolas Rémy: 95.2 FM Sympathy Radio

Sébastien de Pertat: Losonnante

#### Shared Listening

DJ: TWIXTlab

WEDNESDAY May 17th, 2023

**Working groups** (podcasts, B-air publication reporting, writing, walking, reading, etc.)

#### Sound performance

Thierry Mouillé: ISS

#### Shared Listening

juL McOisans, Cédric Pichat, Nicolas Tixier: *News from the World*

THURSDAY May 18th, 2023

#### Seminar 2: The sound factory of imagination

1. Helmi Järviluoma, Heikki Uimonen: *Where to go? New directions in studying sensory environments*

2. Lejla Odobašić Novo: *Sounds from Sarajevo siege*

3. Dana Papachristou, Georges Samantas, Petros Flampouris: *Tangible Radio – Haptic orientations on a deaf planet*

4. Sébastien De Pertat, Marc Higgin, Laïs Janvion: *Listening to the city between water, mountains, and industry: making sense of Grenoble and its hinterlands*

**Working groups** (podcasts, B-air publication reporting, writing, walking, reading, etc.)

#### Sound Installation and Performance

Cresson Team: *Les sirènes du Drac*

#### Shared Listening

*RTV program*

FRIDAY May 19th, 2023

#### Seminar 3: The sound factory of imagination

1. Théo Marchal, Nicolas Rémy: *Sharawadji*

2. Lolita Voisin, Olivier Gaudin: *Learning by sound, becoming landscape designers*

3. Perrine Poupin: *Ambiance of a country in wartime: An approach based on Ukrainian artists' works in progress*

4. Saška Rakef: *Symphony for babies and toddlers*

**Working groups** (podcasts, B-AIR publication reporting by BAZAART, writing, walking, reading, etc.)

#### Sound Performance

Cuneo Team: *The Castle of Crossed Destinies*

#### Sound evening

Organized by students (Cuneo, Tours, Annecy)

SATURDAY May 20th, 2023

General B-AIR Meeting about the research report, evaluation and dissemination.

To listen to the podcasts and see contents, participants and pictures from the seminar:

<figure><img src="image_558.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_559.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_560.png" /></figure>
ÉCOLE
NATIONALE SUPÉRIEURE
D'ARCHITECTURE
DE GRENOBLE

AG

SYMPATHY RADIO
Evangelia Paxinou, Ph.D.

Arch., Associated Researcher, CRESSON Team
Ambiances Architectures Urbanités research lab, ENSAG
University Grenoble Alpes, France

Nicolas Rémy, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly, Greece
Associated Researcher, AAU_CRESSON Laboratory, France

evangeliapaxinou@gmail.com

nremy@uth.gr

# 95.2 FM SYMPATHY RADIO

In order to tackle the issue of social, environmental and spatial vulnerabilities due to sounds, the architects, designers and artists of the B-AIR Consortium decided not to differentiate the populations which they addressed, considering the fact that we all, permanently or temporarily, have found ourselves in vulnerable situations, especially through sounds. Therefore, more general forms of vulnerability through ordinary and everyday listening situations have inspired our work of theoretical reflection on the design of spaces and sounds.

In this frame, an epistemological and ethical approach to the term 'sympathy' attempts to investigate the obvious relations that exist between vulnerability and sympathy of spaces and people. Designing spaces by creating ambiances through sympathy enables architects to overpass the empathetic identification and to be more in correspondence with the place.

More specifically, in architecture, the notion of sympathy is perfectly used to express the aesthetic relations of the correspondence between spaces, the ambiances that activate them and the feelings they provide.

What interests us in this term is the fact that sympathy allows us to put ourselves in the place of others and to tune in with the world in which we live, in infinite sensitive relationships.

The 95.2 FM Sympathy Radio is a methodological tool which uses radio waves to explore attentive listening to sound environments, reveal situations of vulnerability and promote common sympathy practices in the public space. In practice, two sound broadcasters record and transmit live their sounds (composition) on the 95.2 FM frequency to three listeners that are wearing bone conduction audio headsets. While walking, the listeners simultaneously hearing (naturally and by bone conduction) the surrounding sound environment and the sound compositions of the two sound broadcasters. The 95.2 FM Sympathy Radio emerges thus as a method and a tool between a sound installation and a sound performance, like a musical counterpoint between individual and collective soundscapes.

<figure><img src="image_561.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_562.png" /><figcaption>Sympathy Radio in Volos, Greece</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_563.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_564.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_565.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_566.png" /></figure>
Sympathy Radio in Action

<figure><img src="image_567.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_568.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_569.png" /><figcaption>Sympathy Radio in the Castle of Cerisy, France, May 2023</figcaption></figure>

We may say that the installation is incorporated
into the performers. The broadcasters hold an
antenna in one hand and the microphone-recorder
in the other while carrying a radio transmitter
in a small bag. The listeners are wearing bone
conduction audio headsets and with their mobile
phones they listen to the 95.2 FM radio station.
Both listeners and broadcasters are moving in
different intersected circular transmission zones

(with diameters that vary from 50m to 100m,
depending on the build environment). So, the
broadcaster becomes the antenna and the listener
the headsets. The radiophonic electromagnetic
waves connect the participants' sound worlds in
an unexpected and playful way. Each one has to
be very concentrated and sensible in hearing the
sounds of their environment. For the broadcasters
the goal is to compose their transmission sounds,

and for the listeners the goal is to perceive
them, while they both move around in different
transmission zones. The bone conduction audio
headsets are perfect for that use because they
simultaneously enable the immersive hearing
through bones and the hearing of the airborne
'real' sounds through the ears.

<figure><img src="image_570.png" /></figure>
For the listeners, this is clearly an opportunity to hear the sounds of the place like never before, through this co-presence of direct sounds and sounds transmitted by the radio. It's like seeing a place simultaneously from two different and distant points of view. The listener is confronted with small inconsistencies in the soundscape, which however do not create discomfort (feeling of being lost, assaulted by the sounds) but conduce to a playful state centred on what one listens to, according to one's position in the space. We then grasp all the sounds that we are not used to hearing (sound of footsteps on the ground, sounds of nature which are very often masked – insects, breeze in the leaves, birds). Listening switches constantly between hearing and listening; as to resume the words of Pierre Schaefer (écouter, ouïr, entendre, comprendre). We don't always understand what we hear, but the experience is often marked by surprise and joy.

For the broadcaster(s), it is a way of composing the sound world while s/he traverses it with the antenna and the microphone. Like any sound recorder, the broadcaster has the audio feedback on the sounds he transmits and he is responsible for his/her sound emissions. When there are not many sound events, the broadcasters feel disconnected, insecure and vulnerable. The absence of sound

"This dynamic hearing is reinforced by the affordances of the movement engagement of every living organism involved in the performance (people, birds, leaves, flowing water, sea waves etc.)."

"It is more like a process of sympathy between the participants and their sound environment."

<figure><img src="image_571.png" /></figure>

events to transmit activates the need to create and produce sounds. Sounding the world is therefore a way to deal with the vulnerabilities of listening. The search for sound sources engages her/his body in motion with specific movements, sometimes small and delicate and sometimes fast and sharp, in order to bring the microphone closer to what she/he wants to offer for listening. The microphone body leans towards a source, rises in the air to capture the sound

<figure><img src="image_572.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_573.png" /></figure>

of a bird better; the broadcaster uses her/his feet to play with the materiality of the ground, grabs a stick or a metal rod to strike a wall or a metal pillar, etc. The broadcaster enters into an endless dance while he composes his sound production of events unfolding in front of him, to tell his story from a distance: he approaches a group, participates in their conversation, then moves away from it to hear better and make other sounds.

Using 95.2 FM Sympathy radio is therefore a listening game that enables us to hear the sonic world. It is a playful game where we can listen to our environment and be heard by it – a game of trying to enter into sympathy.

95.2 FM Sympathy radio was used by Evangelia Paxinou, Petros Flampouris and Nicolas Rémy to create a sound piece “M’Akous?” (*Do you hear me?*), that was played at 18th Venice International Architecture Biennale in August 2023, within the framework of the “Radio Utopia, le bal des sonorités” (dir. Carlotta Darò, Nicolas Tixier).

Duration: 07:13

Created by Evangelia Paxinou, Petros Flampouris, Nicolas Rémy for B-AIR

<figure><img src="image_574.png" /></figure>

“M’akous?” (in the Greek language) or “Do you hear me?” (in English) is an original composition created from sound fragments recorded in situ using a portable transmission and receiving FM radio system (92,5 FM Sympathy Radio). The presented sound piece is composed as a musical counterpoint between individual and collective soundscapes experienced by the participants.

Sympathy radio is set (in 92.5 mhz) in radio receiver devices which enables the simultaneous hearing (though air-born and bone-conduction methods) of different and remote points of the same place, in real-time.

To listen to the sound piece
“M’akous?”:

<figure><img src="image_575.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_576.png" /></figure>
E
NS / ÉCOLE NATIONALE SUPÉRIEURE D'ARCHITECTURE DE GRENOBLE
AG

RADIO UTOPIA:
NEWS FROM
THE WORLD
# B-AIR PROJECT AT THE 18TH VENICE INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE 2023

## Giardini della Biennale, August 1st to 5th, 2023

B-AIR has joined forces with the French pavilion at the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale for a week of research and public creation. In an international public setting, this week was an opportunity to showcase work already completed, to produce new work and to invite a number of artists and researchers to it.

The Ball Theater's response to the “Laboratory of the future” theme, selected by Lesley Lokko, is a spectacular sound architecture emerging as an alternative space for reflection, and a laboratory of imagination and festivity. The theatre has the form of a light and modular sphere, conceived as a laboratory of identities. It adopts a poetic and utopian dimension that explores the notion of growth. It can be interpreted both as a foretaste of the future and as a multifaceted sphere that dramatises the interplay of sound, space and bodies. It becomes the arena for a monthly cycle of workshops-residences-events in which a multiplicity of voices and narratives took the stage, opening up the theatre to the world and its planetary challenges.

It functions like an echo chamber, resonating with topical issues around the fragility of the planet, our colonial heritage, our representations of identity and gender. It suggests a new approach to today's crises, based on questioning, letting go, seeking alternatives and building on different visions.

The party's not over!

<figure><img src="image_577.png" /></figure>
# RADIO UTOPIA, LE BAL DES SONORITÉS

By Nicolas Tixier, AAU research unit, Cresson Team, ENSA Grenoble, and
Carlotta Darò, LIAT research unit, ENSA Paris-Malaquais

In collaboration with juL McOisans and Cédric Pichat, and the
support of Marc Higgin, Sébastien de Pertat and Théo Marchal

During this week, the Ball Theatre was transformed into a veritable radio studio open to the public. Capturing and broadcasting different types of soundtracks, this radio antenna connects the radio theatre to numerous French and foreign partners, territories, institutions, researchers, artists and acousticians. Its programming was evolving throughout the week, with a series of live broadcasts titled "News from the world", site-specific installations and the opportunity to wander around the pavilion's interior and exterior spaces with mini sound speakers from all over the world, collected through a call for contributions. This sound laboratory offered an experimental platform to better grasp our times, learn to listen differently and make audible new voices from here and elsewhere.

As a part of the French pavilion represented by Muoto at the 18th Venice International Architecture Biennale 2023, we have launched a call for contributions to receive news from the world in the form of soundtracks lasting less than 7 minutes. By world news, we meant: News of place, News from the other, News from the future, News from the past, News of fiction, News from the spheres. Proposals could have been of any kind: creations, fiction, interviews, soundscapes, archives, etc.

Conceived as a receiving and transmitting antenna, the Ball Theatre, installed in the French pavilion, was opened up as a field for fictional experimentation, research and debate: a radio theatre.

This world news broadcasted as part of a science week – "Radio Utopia". They were transmitted on individual small radio loudspeakers, which could be used by anyone in the pavilion's interior and exterior spaces, as well as in the Ball Theater.

We received over 200 news submitted from all over the world. They were selected on the basis of their production quality and content, in line with the proposed themes. A veritable sound laboratory for the duration of the week, the French pavilion gave us a taste of what the world sounds like.

A subjective selection of some of the 150 "News from the world" chosen titles:

To listen to the "News from the world":

<figure><img src="image_578.png" /></figure>

"Mais où veux-tu aller pour être mieux?"

"Thé ou café: online, inlife"

"Cellular Xenospaces 41"

"Chrion.2060"

"Dérives: du globe au paillasson"

"Électro faune"

"Gestures of thaw (supraglacial)"

"Induction Soundscape"

"e veux une ville nouvelle"

"L'effet Proust ou Le chant de Gaïa"

"Le Corbusier by the ear"

"Lockdown: A radius of one km in Marseille"

"New York Night Walk"

"Night atmosphere of the front-line city of Kharkiv"

"Nouvelles de la plaine"

"Puffs & Pings"

"Reprendre appui sur la terre"

"Rêve sonore de villes disparues"

"Réveil à Séoul"

"Scene of daily life in a lilong"

"Soudain, entre les murs, l'animal"

"The Rock Wall"

...

<figure><img src="image_579.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_580.png" /><figcaption>Ball Theatre, French Pavilion, Venice Biennale, August 2023. Photo by Schneppe Renou</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_581.png" /></figure>
PROGRAM

Permanent installations
(August 1st to 5th, 2023)

<figure><img src="image_582.png" /></figure>

**News from the World,**
Carlotta Darò,
Nicolas Tixier

**Losonnante,**
Thomas Bonnenfant,
Sébastien de Pertat

**Radio Wega,**
Giuseppe Gavazza,
composer in collaboration
with Alessandro De Cecco

**Trio,**
Thierry Mouillé,
artist

TUESDAY August 1st, 2023

11h: Sound installation: *The Sirens of the Drac*,
Cresson Quintet, in collaboration with APNÉES

15-17h: **Radio set: L'écoute des mondes:** Perrine Poupin, sociologist, AAU_CRESSON, Sabine Von Fischer, historian and critic of architecture, Marc Higgin, anthropologist, AAU_CRESSON, Thomas Bonnenfant, Nuit Architecture, Sébastien de Pertat, AAU_CRESSON and PACTE.

With **recorded contribution** from Tim Ingold,
anthropologist, University of Aberdeen

**Sound piece: DRUM,** Sally Jane Norman, Te Kōkī - New Zealand School of Music, with Riki Gooch, composer

Animation: Damien Masson, Nicolas Tixier

17-18h: Listening session:

* Vibroscape, discussion with Meta Virant-Doberlet and José Lopez Diez

* NIB, Slovenia, Department of Organisms and Ecosystems

* Flee project, discussion with Alan Marzo and Olivier Duport

* **Welcome of the World - Movements II and IV**
  - **Courage and Critical Thinking**, Irena Popović
  - Dragović (BAZAART), B-AIR

18h: Sound performance: *Ubiquités*,
Cresson Quintet

WEDNESDAY August 2nd, 2023

11h: Sound installation: *By heart, the sound that remains*, Monica Fantini

15-17h: **Radio set: Le son qui reste:** Ona Balló, art historian, Monica Fantini, sound author, "Ecouter le monde" Radio France Internationale, Jean-Paul Thibaud, sociologist, AAU_CRESSON

Followed by a tribute to Sandrine Depeau:
*Between the words of the brats*

Animation: Nicolas Tixier

17-18h: Listening session: *Là où chantent les palourdes*, Didier Tallagrand

18h: Sound Performance: *Scanographic soundscape*, Julien Clauss

THURSDAY August 3rd, 2023

11h: Sound installation: "Etoiles", Nicolas Frize

15-17h: **Radio set: Utopian territories:** Marco Assennato, philosopher ENSA Paris Malaquais/ACS.

With **recorded contributions** from Werner Oechslin, art and architecture historian, ETH Zürich, Ada Ackerman, art historian, CNRS/ THALIM

Animation: Carlotta Darò

17-18h: Discussion: *L'ouïe des villes*, Pascal Amphoux, architect, AAU_CRESSON, Nicolas Frize, musician and composer

18h: Sound performance: *Chemins de l'eau*,
Bernard Fort, composer and audionaturalist

FRIDAY August 4th, 2023

11h: Sound installations: *Photosynthetic Beats*,
Ludwig Berger and Julian Sartorius; *Lightning Ellipse*, Raviv Ganchrow

15-17h: **Radio set: Sound futures:** Nadine Schütz, (((Echora))), architect and sound artist, IRCAM-STMS, *Achilleas Xydis*, architect and sound artist, ETH Zürich, Ludwig Berger, landscape designer and sound artist, *Raviv Ganchrow*, architect and sound researcher
**Animation:** Carlotta Darò

17-18h: Listening session:

* Duo LP: *Baby Blues*, Nikoleta Dojčinović, B-AIR

* On the planet..., TWIXTlab, B-AIR

* M'akous? [Do you hear me?], Evangelia Paxinou, Petros Flampouris and Nicolas Rémy, B-AIR

18h: Sound performance: *Echoes, effects and synergies*, Collectif Cresson + guests)

<figure><img src="image_583.png" /></figure>
11h: Sound installations: *Espaces Matières*: Horizons, Point d'orgue, Plage de la défense #2, Nadine Schütz; *Resonant Spaces*: Exploring Architectural Soundscapes, Achilleas Xydis

15-17h: Radio set: Sound, fiction, architecture: Open stage, in the presence of **Gilles Delalex**, muoto architect, Fiction reading: **Armelle Le Mouëllic** (TVK), Sound piece: 28,000 m³ of silence (excerpt), **Soline Nivet**, ENSA Paris-Malaquais architect and **Angélique Tibau**, director France Culture

With recorded contributions from Bruther, List, Muoto, François Charbonnet Made in, Momoyo Kayjima Atelier Bow Wow, Kosmos, MBL, Luca Merlini, Philippe Rahm, Mio Tsuneyama and Studio mnm, Truwant+Rodet+

Animation: Carlotta Darò and Nicolas Tixier

17-18h: Listening session:

* So Quiet - Symphonic work, Larisa Vrhunc, B-AIR

* Sea - radio opera for babies, Saška Rakef, Bojana Šaljić Podešva, B-AIR

18h: Sound performance: *Tarots, Tetrapack+* (METS students from the Cuneo Conservatory) based on an idea by **Giuseppe Gavazza**

<figure><img src="image_584.png" /><figcaption>Radio set program at the Venice Biennale, August 2023. Photo by Nicolas Tixier</figcaption></figure>

To see global programmation:

<figure><img src="image_585.png" /></figure>

To see the publication:

<figure><img src="image_586.png" /></figure>

To listen to the podcasts and see
contents, participants and pictures
from the seminar:

<figure><img src="image_587.png" /></figure>

To listen to the podcast:

<figure><img src="image_588.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_589.png" /></figure>
'A'A'

L'Architecture
d'Aujourd'hui

Numéro spécial / Special issue

fr / en

son, fiction, occupation
sound, fiction, occupation

<figure><img src="image_590.png" /></figure>

Pavillon français, 18ᵉ exposition internationale d'architecture, Venise 2023

LE BALL THEATER

Carlotta Darò,
Nicolas Tixier,
“Sound, Fiction,
Occupation”,
The Ball Theater,
Architecture
d'Aujourd Hui,
Numéro special /
Special issue,
p. 66, 2023

<figure><img src="image_591.png" /></figure>
RADIO UTOPIA

150 News from the World

Paris, “City of Architecture”, October 14th to 15th, 2023

After the Venice biennale, CRESSON has been invited to Paris, to the “City of Architecture”, to present their work during the open weekend of the “National Architecture Days”.

The “City of Architecture” hosted the Ball Theatre event held at the French Pavilion of the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale in August 2023. Architects, acousticians, artists, sound designers and researchers responded to a call for ‘news from the world’ with sound compositions lasting less than 7 minutes. The audience could sit back and listen for as long as they liked to these unusual, soothing, intimate and surprising recordings that permeate our daily lives and our imaginations.

<figure><img src="image_592.png" /><figcaption>“News from the World” at the “City of Architecture”, Paris, France, October 2023</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_593.png" /></figure>
Nicolas Tixier, Ph.D.

Professor, Director of the CRESSON Team
Ambiances Architectures Urbanités research lab, ENSAG,
University Grenoble Alpes, France

Nicolas.Tixier@grenoble.archi.fr

# HOW DOES THE WORLD SOUND? SOUND EXPERIMENTS AND PUBLIC COMPOSITIONS

## 18<sup>th</sup> Venice International Architecture Biennale 2023
*Giardini della Biennale, August 1<sup>st</sup> to 5<sup>th</sup>, 2023*

CRESSON is for many years naturally connected with artistic practices involving sounds & spaces, but most of the time as an observer of social situated phenomena. The B-AIR program gave us the opportunity to develop this artistic dimension in a more active way – by inviting some artists to propose a presentation of their current works related to the thematics of the research, but also by arousing experiments that question the porosity between artistic and scientific fields and their mediation.

<figure><img src="image_594.png" /><figcaption>Nicolas Frize, the invited artist to the Venice Biennale, August 2023</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_595.png" /></figure>
## Giuseppe GAVAZZA, Ph.D.

Composer, Professor, Researcher at the CRESSON Team
Ambiances Architectures Urbanités research lab, ENSAG,
University Grenoble Alpes, France

## Alessandro De Cecco, Ph.D. student

Independent musician and researcher,
Member of the APNÉES association

# RADIO WEGA

Radio Wega: B-AIR is an old valve radio I inherited from my grandmother. When someone approaches it, it turns on and transmits radio broadcasts from the years gone by. Radio Wega is a modified analogue-digital hybrid radio: instead of scrolling through radio wave frequencies, the tuning knob controls a scan between recordings of radio broadcasts of different periods, collected in a playlist arranged chronologically following a palimpsest. Radio Wega: B-AIR navigates through the waves and becomes a sonic time machine.

As a site and time-specific installation, Radio Wega is a prototype that will be designed in specific variations. This version, Radio Wega: B-AIR, features 120 snippets of radio broadcasts, year by year, from Guglielmo Marconi's first broadcast in 1901, to my own field recording of a portable radio, recorded on January 31st 2020 in Tissamine, Moroccan Sahara, in which the news report announces more cases of Coronavirus in China.

Radio Wega measurements: height = 40 cm,
width = 60 cm, depth = 25 cm

To listen to Radio Wega:

<figure><img src="image_596.png" /></figure>

giuseppe.gavazza@grenoble.archi.fr

https://adececco.wordpress.com/

<figure><img src="image_597.png" /><figcaption>Radio Wega installation at the Venice Biennale, August 2023</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_598.png" /></figure>
# LOSONNANTE
## Sound installation

‘Losonnante’ – title composed from French words “L’os”, the bone, and “sonnante”, sounding – is a listening device that uses the capacity of a bone to conduct sound. To listen, you have to cover your ears, resting your elbows on the vibrating surface. It is an invitation to listen differently, in resonance between the body, the object and the sounds. In a sense, Losonnante is a moment of silence, a pause: plug your ears, close your eyes and let the sound find a way through your arms, your hands. No Hi-Fi sound here, but vibrations and distortions; a new ear tending to the living sounds that surround us.

Following artists such as Laurie Anderson, Marcus Kison or Pascale Criton, among others, the idea of this installation was to challenge our perception of sound by listening through the solids, using our elbows, arms and hands as headphones. This device is also meant to investigate about and to question our relations to public spaces and living environments through sound and listening.

All the compositions played on Losonnante are by Knud Viktor (1924-2013), a Danish artist who lived for almost 50 years in the Luberon, in the south of France. As a painter, he moved to this region to find the light of Van Gogh's works; he was drawn to the sounds and vibrations of his environment and became what has been called a 'painter of sound'. Always working with

very rudimentary equipment, often of his own making, Knud Viktor deployed a very meticulous and attentive form of listening to the living world around him. His compositions are a testimony to this sensuous relation between the artist and his milieu.

Losonnante was created by Thomas Bonnenfant and Sébastien De Pertat and developed in AAU_CRESSON and Pacte laboratories in Grenoble in 2019 and 2020.

<figure><img src="image_599.png" /><figcaption>Losonnante at the "Lydmaler Knud Viktor" exhibition in the ARoS Museum, Aarhus, Denmark, April 2021.
Photo by Sébastien De Pertat</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_600.png" /></figure>
It was supported by the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences (InSHS) in the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).

## Losonnante in different contexts and exhibitions

With the support of the B-Air project, Losonnante has been taken to ARoS Museum in Aarhus, Denmark, in April 2021, to the Castle of Cerisy in France, in May 2023, to the 18th Venice International Architecture Biennale in August 2023 and to Paris for the “City of Architecture”. To each of these installations, the work of Knud Viktor was displayed. Even though the same sounds were played, it would each time be listened differently, depending on the milieu where the object was taking place: a post-Covid spring in a public museum; a sunny week in a castle park; a crowded pavilion in an international exhibition.

The other reason why we chose Knud Viktor's work to listen through Losonnante is because it is one of the greatest listening experiences we made with this device. Through Losonnante, we had a new ear given to those pieces, while totally shifting the listening experience: going closer and deeper into the movements of the sound created by Knud Viktor (the small drop of the water, the rumble of the falling rocks, the humming of a bee...).

We were therefore invited by associations AUT and Allô la Terre for an exhibition around Knud Viktor's work in ARoS Museum, one of the major art museums in Northern Europe. The exhibition took place in April 2021; however, due to sanitary restrictions at that moment, preventing the audiences to attend the event, the second exhibition period was proposed by the museum, for July 2021.

<figure><img src="image_601.png" /><figcaption>Losonnante in front of the Castle of Cerisy, May 2023. Photo by Sébastien De Pertat</figcaption></figure>

Losonnante was part of the exhibition with two other installations: a human-sized owl nest, playing a Knud Viktor's piece about a small owl called “Le petit Duc”, and The Bamboos, a sound installation created by Knud Viktor himself, that he displayed at “the planetary garden” exhibition (le jardin planétaire) by Gilles Clément, in La Villette, Paris (1999).

A specific time was designated for groups of children at the exhibition, enabling them to discover the 'sounds of nature' as heard by Knud Viktor, and to experience different types of listening (with Losonnante, the Nest and The Bamboos).

In Cerisy and Venice, we continued to share this encounter between Knud Viktor's work and Losonnante device, and explore how each offers a new listening to the other. Each installation was the occasion to experiment with different conditions – in terms of spatiality, scenography, sonic environment and specific audiences (occasional experiences with children or deaf people, for example).

<figure><img src="image_602.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_603.png" /></figure>

Losonnante and Radio Wega, Venice Biennale, August 2023.
Photo by Manon Genet

<figure><img src="image_604.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_605.png" /></figure>

Losonnante, Venice Biennale, August 2023.

Photo by Nicolas Tixier

<figure><img src="image_606.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_607.png" /></figure>

Losonnante in
the Salle de la
coupole, "City
of Architecture",
Paris, France,
October 2023.
Photo by Cédric
Pichat

<figure><img src="image_608.png" /></figure>
# TAROTS

## Tetrapack+ / Students from the METS, Conservatory of Cuneo, based on the idea by Giuseppe Gavazza

"Tarots" is an electroacoustic composition created by five students from the METS (Electronic music and sound engineering) department of the Cuneo Conservatory, each bringing with them a wealth of experience and different musical tastes. It was performed and presented as an interactive improvisation system built during a stay organised at the Château de Cerisy.

The experience came about as part of an electronic music composition course conducted by Giuseppe Gavazza with these five students and was inspired by Italo Calvino's book "The Castle of Crossed Destinies". The week at the Castle of Cerisy, in the framework of the B-AIR international seminar "How Does the World Sound" in May 2023, created the opportunity to design and realise a collaborative project open to all seminar participants: some 50 people from different countries, languages, cultures and experiences crossed their destinies in this magnificent castle.

The tarot cards, which are at the narrative heart of this book, were taken as the core of the performance. In the novel, the use of tarot cards is made necessary in order to communicate in the castle

between travellers who are inexplicably unable to speak: given the theme of the seminar and the skills involved, for all of us participants who deal with sounds, voices, radio broadcasts, listeners (Walter Benjamin's "Dear Invisibles" radio listeners) of the preverbal age of language and vulnerability, it has been an inspiring challenge.

The system resembles a game but is inspired more by tarot card reading, through associating sounds to the cards of the Major Arcana and elaborating improvised and performative sound events. It also seeks to move away from the frontal realisation of a concert, with the performers surrounded by the audience like an island, and involving spectators/listeners who can interact with the musicians through the tarot cards gameplay.

On the first day of the seminar, we presented the project in more detail. In the meantime, we had prepared a series of 50 short sounds (lasting between 5 and 10 seconds) to be proposed in listening sessions (via headphones or portable loudspeakers) open to anyone, and during which:

- we selected 22 sounds,

- we associated them with the 22 Major Arcana cards (taking as reference the 'Tarot de Mar-seille', the same as used by Italo Calvino),

- we associated with the same (inverted) Tarot processes of musical composition and performance,

- we established operational procedures to achieve a performance that we have conceived and rehearsed daily.

This performance was concluded on the last evening with the tarot cards which were chosen and proposed by the audience to the musicians who performed in the centre of the hall.

To listen to the Tarots:

<figure><img src="image_609.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_610.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_611.png" /></figure>

"Tarots", Venice Biennale, August 2023.

Photo by Nicolas Tixier

<figure><img src="image_612.png" /></figure>
# IN BETWEEN KIDS WORDS
## An audio analysis

During the research action program “ANR Mo-bikids” founded by CNRS, children took part in the in situ ‘commentary walks’ which were recorded and transcribed for analysis. The question then arose: What else is there in these recordings that could not be transcribed? The result is an analysis ‘by ear’ of what we hear between and beyond the words: the tonalities of expression.

A part of the methodology was based on the “Com-mented city walk” developed by Jean-Paul Thibaud and revised here with children. Thus, with chil-dren who consented, the procedure consisted of collecting children’s voices and photos (video-re-cording in the second year) taken by them during the commented walk made in a familiar context (their ordinary school-home travel). More precise-ly, this was to make the return journey from school and to ask the kid to describe his/her perceptions, sensations and other observations along the way. This walk and comments were recorded in situ, then transcribed to help with the various forms of analysis afterwards. Mainly 7 categories of the sonic material shared by children participants can be described: relationship to the environment, in-teraction with the interviewers, melodic voice ex-pressions, monosyllabic expressions, hesitations, speech adjustments and verbal expressions.

But, as a matter of principle, the transcriptions only preserve what is expressed in the order of speech, while the children’s expression is much richer and more subtle than the simple words they use. They expressed themselves through the voice, its in-tonations, its rhythms, its hesitations or silences sometimes; expression is in the relationships that we hear between the child walking and the sounds of the environment, or the interviewer who accom-panies and questions them.

To listen to the city walk:

<figure><img src="image_613.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_614.png" /></figure>
ÉCOLE
NATIONALE SUPÉRIEURE
D'ARCHITECTURE
DE GRENOBLE

AG

PUBLIC CREATIONS
AND INTERVENTIONS
AT THE 18TH VENICE
INTERNATIONAL
ARCHITECTURE
BIENNALE 2023

as part of the French pavilion / Ball Theater /

La fête n'est pas finie "Radio Utopia",

le bal des sonorités

Giardini della Biennale, August 1st to 5th, 2023
# SOUND VOLUMES

## Public creation

August 1st to 5th, 2023

By Julien Clauss, artist invited to Venice

Some of formal references evoked by the Ball Theatre's cut-out metal sphere led to sound experiments onsite.

Taking inspiration from acoustic radar, a half-sphere was used as a sound diffuser. The layered metal structure was employed for its diffraction qualities. A liveable mirror ball, the Ball Theatre installation also hosted a “constructivist” DJ set in which the records were replaced by physical volumes with different textures. From the concave hull of the theatre to objects hijacked by a laser, these performances and installations explored processes of sound creation in relation to volumes and architecture. Finally, the installation of radio devices producing an interaction between the private sphere of listening and the shared space of the theatre opened up a choreographic movement of the random and undirected audiences.

### Gradient

A harmonic noise emerges from silence. The sound is projected by a loudspeaker towards the heart of the Ball Theatre, which reflects and diffracts it throughout the pavilion. The volume of this resonant framework increases steadily, gradually overpowering the conversations, until it reaches a pitch that saturates the acoustics and mantles the pavilion in a dense, opaque calm. At its climax, the

noise stops abruptly. In an instant, the short reverberation of the space is heard, exposing its architectural essence. The sound of the air-conditioning is defined, and the interior is once again coloured by the murmur of flying insects. In less than a minute, the sound space has been saturated and then brutally emptied of its content, revealing the acoustic signature of the building. The room can be played ad-lib.

### Contour

Three turntables are equipped with a laser sensor. Objects – geometric shapes, micro-architectures, abstract sculptures – measuring around twenty centimetres, are placed on the turntables and rotated. Each laser works like a reader head, scanning the contours of the objects. Interpreted by a synthesiser, this signal sculpts the sound. Its dynamics, frequency and timbre are entirely determined by the profile of the objects. The synthesis created incorporates elements from minimalist and improvised music, resulting in visible and audible abstract patterns that can be harmonic or noisy.

### Micro Radio

A low-power FM transmitter relays the radio programmes held each day in the Ball Theatre. Radio sets scattered in and out of the pavilion make it

possible to follow the exchanges by choosing the place and atmosphere in which to listen.

The discussions from the pavilion emerge in radio ether that can be traversed as listeners and radios move about.

<figure><img src="image_615.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_616.png" /><figcaption>Julien Clauss, sound performance. Photo by Manon Genet</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_617.png" /></figure>
# THE SIRENS OF DRAC RIVER
When the fault-lines of a territory howl
Public creation

August 1st to 5th, 2023

By AAU_Cresson Quintet: Sebastien De Pertat,
Marc Higgin, Théo Marchal, juL McOisans, Cédric Pichat

By the river Drac, to the south of Grenoble, sirens are wailing, reverberating off the mountains. Emergency drills in case of the failure of dams upstream, or accidents in the neighbouring chemical plants, these sirens reveal a territory criss-crossed by industrial infrastructures, threaded – through air and water – to the lives of half a million of inhabitants.

This project focuses on the industrial neighbourhood south of Grenoble. This is a small area of a few kilometres in diameter, where the valley is bordered by mountains from all sides, with two rivers flowing through – the Drac and the Romanche – that have shaped the course of Grenoble history: Grenoblo Malheuru. Controlled and canalised, these unpredictable waters have been the motor of the city's modern history: as material resource, as energy. With the invention of hydro-electric turbine at the end of the 19th century, the territory became one of the centres of France's second industrial revolution: paper, cement, carbide, aluminium, silicon, chlorine and derivatives – that set the stage for the singular knot of industry, science/engineering and military, that characterises this territory in 20th and 21st centuries.

<figure><img src="image_618.png" /><figcaption>Location: Saut du Moine waterfalls, France. Map by Ingrid Saumur</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_619.png" /></figure>
Every three months, all the emergency sirens in the area sound for an alarm drill. At that moment, they make tangible the fault-lines that run through this area: the whole of the Metropole is revealed as a potential disaster zone – due to accidents of fall-out in the two vast chemical platforms, and the collapse or malfunction of a dam in the rivers, making the Metropolis become a vast potential flood plain.

In June 2022, we recorded the sirens in seven different locations, then used the recordings as the basis for a multi-channel sound installation that re-presented and re-sounded the area. In 2023, we re-recorded the sirens *in situ*, with musicians from the APNEE collective, who produced a collective – but dispersed – electroacoustic improvisation.

This installation is an invitation to listen to these sirens in a different way, to question the territories they compose, with its transient boundaries dictating which spaces are forbidden and which are permitted. Beyond instilling ‘good reflexes’ and expected behaviour, what is the sonorous geography revealed by these sirens?

<figure><img src="image_620.png" /><figcaption>Marc Higgin and Théo Marchal, "The Sirens of Drac River". Photo by Nicolas Tixier</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_621.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_622.png" /><figcaption>Radio Utopia, Venice 2023, "The Sirens of Drac River" (Les sirènes du Drac), AAU_CRESSON, Photo by Manon Genet</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_623.png" /></figure>
# NO ONE CAN GET USED TO IT
## Ukrainian Soundscapes in Wartime
## Public intervention

August 1st to 5th, 2023

By Perrine Poupin (AAU_CRESSON)

For the past fifteen years, I've been using an ethnographic approach to study planning and environmental conflicts in Russia, Ukraine and France. Ukraine's soundscapes have changed considerably since the country was invaded by Russia. These transformations encompass different sensitive experiences of the destruction of urban landscapes, territorialities, cities, neighbourhoods, habitats, historical and cultural heritage, environments and ecosystems. Andrii Nidzelskyi, a Ukrainian sound engineer with whom I've been collaborating for several years, recorded sounds in various inhabited spaces. In these sounds, artillery fire and impacts resound amid bird songs, dog barks and 'concrete sounds' such as natural phenomena and the sounds of everyday life. Air raid sirens and ambulance sirens feature regularly. Certain sounds are rare. In bombed-out areas, the sound of traffic jams, crowds, and city noise is a thing of the past. War has created an anguished 'silence' everywhere.

Sounds are at the root of many accounts of the war experience in Ukraine. They also have an insidious physical and psychological impact on people. In February 2022, people were terrified by warning sirens and instantly dropped to the ground.

Today, they react with much more restraint, quickly 'reading' the threat level from the sounds. They have learned to distinguish the 'subtleties' of the air-attack warning system. Anxiety also evolves. Silence, too, hides traumatic experiences. On the battlefield, silence is literally the calm before the storm. Soldiers know how to analyse the source and intensity of bombs and artillery. When silence reigns, anxiety sets in. You don't know what's going to happen next.

These juxtapositions of noise and silence reflect the paradox of the war experience. On the one hand, the eerie silence, on the other, the cacophony of warfare. These war-related sounds and disturbances have become a normal part of life in Ukraine for over a year and a half. These experiences affect people's health and well-being. Countless testimonies assert no one can get used to it. The purpose of Russia's actions in Ukraine is to incite terror and instil fear in the population.

To access the Radio Publication in Radio France International:

<figure><img src="image_624.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_625.png" /></figure>
# THE SOUND THAT REMAINS
## The Forgotten Atmosphere of Romanesque Churches
### Public intervention

August 1st to 5th, 2023

By Ona Balló Pedragosa (AAU_CRESSON)

Studying the sounds of the past means taking an interest in a material that no longer exists, reconstructing traces, testing hypotheses, but also allowing for interpretations. The 'divided heritage' of the Romanesque churches in the Catalan Pyrenees prompts the inquiry of work decontextualisation, atmospheric fragmentation, and historical evolution through an *in situ* return that primarily stimulates the senses as a cognitive instrument.

Many churches and hermitages dating back to the 11th and 12th centuries can be found in the valleys of the Catalan Pyrenees. Filled with murals, music, words and silence throughout their history, they are now mostly closed. At the beginning of the 20th century, to limit sales to North American art collectors, measures were taken to remove the murals. Transported from the mountains to the regional capital, they were then permanently installed in the National Art Museum of Catalonia. While the fresco paintings may have been moved, the world of sound that once enveloped them is still present on the sight.

These churches have a history of practices that originate from a tradition that is both Christian and pagan, providing space for prayer, refuge, and entertainment. The murals show a close link with the sound practices of the place. For example, the iconography of the church of Sant Joan de Boí features a juggler playing a stringed instrument, while the paintings of Sant Romà de les Bons show figures reacting to the sacred message through their exaggeratedly visible ears. The frescoes at the bottom of the walls, depicting backdrops for liturgical dramas, are also in question. But what sound space did these images bathe in?

Today, the artistic value and heritage significance of these murals are unanimously recognised, but this does not prevent most of the churches that house them from deteriorating and ceasing to have any activity that brings them to life. And yet their acoustic qualities are obvious when voices or music are heard there again. If today the issue of returning the murals is not currently relevant due to potential conservation risks, how can we bring this 'divided' heritage to life, if not by activating its sensitive part and its eminently narrative dimension?

The idea is to restore meaning to these churches through the historical, geographical and societal paths that link them to their fresco paintings. We're operating under the premise that sound and walking are potent sensory experiences for comprehending this heritage, and envisioning modern creations<fnref n="1" /> to forge fresh connections.

<figure><img src="image_626.png" /></figure>

<footnote n="1">1 For example, the work of musician Arnau Obiols in the churches of Sant Pere and Sant Pau de Esterri de Cardós and Santa Maria in Ginestarre, during one of our research visits.</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_627.png" /></figure>

Field recordings,
Ginestarre, Spain.
Photo by Balló
Pedragosa

<figure><img src="image_628.png" /></figure>
# RECORDING “THE SOUND THAT REMAINS”
## Recorded public intervention

August 1st to 5th, 2023

By Tim Ingold, anthropologist, University of Aberdeen

Interview by Peter Loovers, adapted by Marc Higgin

If you ask a physicist, they will tell you that sound consists of mechanical, longitudinal waves conducted through a medium, such as air, and that these waves travel from a vibratory source to a recipient – to your ear, for example. In this physical sense, sounds can exist regardless of whether any ears are around to pick them up. Sound is simply mechanical vibrations conducted through a medium within a certain range of wavelengths.

Ask a psychologist, however, and they might give you a different answer. They might insist that sound is what we hear. It's something we register within our own minds on the basis of an input of sensory data from the ears to the brain. Sound is registered in the brain; it is not something out there in the world.

So, we seem to be faced with a choice between two senses of what sound could be: it is either a purely physical phenomenon or a purely mental phenomenon. But both answers depend on our making a rather rigid distinction between the physical world *out there* and the mental or psychological world *in here*; as though there was a fundamental boundary between mind and world.

But this, I would argue, is not how it is in our experience. And sound, first and foremost, is a

phenomenon of experience; it is something we become aware of. When we're listening to sound, in a sense we're hearing our own awareness of it. Here, sound and hearing become one and the same. In this regard, hearing is not an inner mental sensation but something that happens when the boundaries between mind and world dissolve.

Philosophers often present us with a kind of thought experiment which goes like this: Suppose a tree falls in a storm and lands on the ground with a great thud. The question is, would the falling tree make a sound if no one is around to hear it? Following the schema outlined earlier, the physicist would, of course, say ‘yes’ – it makes a sound because waves are emitted; while the psychologist would say, ‘no’ – it doesn’t make a sound because there’s nobody, no mind, to pick it up and process the waves as sound.

But what if, instead of conducting this rather abstract thought experiment, we imagine that we're actually out there in the forest with a storm raging, and a tree falls. In the moment of the tree's falling, we are completely caught up in the event, even if we had no wish to be. When it falls, we feel the rush and thud in our guts, we feel this tremendous sound, it overwhelms us as though we and the tree

were, for a moment, bound together in this extraordinary event. It's not as though the tree emitted the sound as a package of information which then travelled through the air and arrived at our ears, and we thought, "Oh, that must be a tree falling." It is, rather, that in hearing the sound, we become participants in the event itself – an event that carries on with a duration of its own, in the real time of our experience.

So we have to distinguish between two senses of sound, or, if you will, *two lines* of sound.

First, there's the line of transmission that connects the source to the recipient. We might draw it as a straight line from one to the other, while noting that it takes a certain amount of time for the sound waves to travel the distance, a certain amount of time to be processed by the ear and sent to the brain, and so on. But that's one kind of sound-line. The other kind describes the actual evolution of the sound in your own awareness, in your consciousness. And that's the line of sound I'm interested in – a line that describes the sound that arises when our own awareness meets and mingles with the real-time unfolding of a cosmic event.

<figure><img src="image_629.png" /></figure>
Following this line, I would say that sound is neither physical nor mental, but *atmospheric*. So, let's treat sound as a phenomenon of atmosphere, as the underside of our own experience of hearing.

What does this mean for our understanding of the ear and of the body? We can no longer think of the ear simply as a receptor organ that is picking up signals from a source and sending them to the brain for processing and interpretation. Rather, the ear signifies the attentiveness of an entire body that is, so to speak, on aural alert – alert to everything going on around in your surroundings. So instead of being a body with ears, it becomes something like an ear-body. The whole body becomes an antenna that is reaching out and attending to this unfolding of the events in the storm that is going on around you. That means we have to think of the body less in anatomical terms than as something like a bundle of affects.

Take that famous episode in Shakespeare's play *Julius Caesar*, where Mark Antony makes a speech. He gets up on the podium and declares, "Friends, Romans and Countrymen, lend me your ears." Obviously, he doesn't mean that everybody should cut their ears off and give them to him! What he means by "lend me your ears" is "please give me a voice." That is, "when I open my mouth to speak, let it be heard." In lending their ears, Mark Antony wants those people in the audience to stretch out their aural attention towards him so that he can have a voice, so that it may be heard. And I think there's something very fundamental about this because it shows that we're not just consuming sound, picking it up and interpreting it; we're complicit in its very production. But more than that, by attending to the world that surrounds us, by lending our ears to it, we are actually giving that world a voice.

Thus, when we listen to the sounds of nature, it's not a way of our taking possession of the world. Rather, it is the way in which the world itself takes possession of us. And in doing so, it allows us to lend our own ears to what is going on and, in that way, to give nature itself a voice. If we go back to that tree falling in the storm: the tree, of course, doesn't have a voice of its own; it doesn't have vocal cords; it doesn't have ears. It's just a tree. But in lending our ears to the tree as it falls, we give it a voice that it wouldn't otherwise have. And I think this is really where the true meaning of sound resides. Sound is the way in which, through attending aurally to the world around us, we become possessed by it. And paradoxically, through becoming possessed by it, we give the world a voice so that it can speak to us.

<figure><img src="image_630.png" /></figure>
# “ETOILES”

## Public creation

### August 1st to 5th, 2023

By Nicolas Frize, artist invited to Venice

But human perception, with its irrepressible appetite for poetry, unity and contemplation, will grant the celestial dome the status of a landscape! Here, of course, acoustics help the sound sources to blend and compose themselves, yet they always remain distinct and distant sources! The limits of the composer's dream of atmosphere and homogeneous space are undoubtedly the loudspeakers... so he resigns himself to a polylogue, calling on the walls for help whenever he can.

<figure><img src="image_631.png" /><figcaption>Nicolas Frize, sound and notation creation. Photo by Nicolas Tixier</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_632.png" /></figure>
# BY HEART, THE SOUND THAT STAYS

## Public creation

August 1st to 5th, 2023

By Monica Fantini, RFI, artist invited to Venice

For the past ten years, Monica Fantini has been offering the listeners of the Radio France International the chance to hear the world differently, using the words and sounds of everyday life. For the "*Par cœur – Le son qui reste*" series of programs, she has taken an interest in what we are capable of reciting 'by heart', those fragments that constitute living archives of what we retain of the world, whether voluntarily or not. She shares with us words, poems, lullabies, slogans and songs that have escaped oblivion, collected from people of different languages, backgrounds and ages, evoking the context and memories they resurrect... What is our sound memory made up of, and how does it shape us? Assembled and interwoven, these memories compose a sound mosaic of the world's memories, for a spatialised and immersive listening experience, orchestrated by RFI Labo, as part of "Radio Utopia". The installation "*Par cœur – Le son qui reste*" consists of seven episodes of "Ecouter le monde": *La langue perdue* (with Léa Seide, student); *La chambre noire* (Christophe Rosenberg, musician and composer); *La phrase inoubliable* (with Gérard Théruel, baritone); *L'absurde* (Jordan Sibeoni, child psychiatrist and writer); *Mémoire Palace* (Violaine Lochu, artist and performer); *Le poème en grec* (Ephie Raikopoulou, literature teacher); *Le mystère* (Isabelle Le Gouic, lover of words and sounds).

<figure><img src="image_633.png" /><figcaption>Monica Fantini,
sound installation.
Photo by Nicolas
Tixier</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_634.png" /></figure>
# WHERE THE CLAMS SING

## Public creation

August 2nd, 2023

By Didier Tallagrand, artist invited to Venice

Readings set to sound with excerpts from texts by:

Chen Fou, “Six souvenirs of a floating life”

Tim Ingold, “Walking with dragons”

Samuel Beckett, “Mal vu mal dit”

Lucretius, “The nature of things”

Raymond Queneau, “Les fleurs bleues”

Henry D.Thoreau, “Walden”

Elisée Reclus, “Story of a brook”

Kenzi Miyazawa, “Snow crossing”

René Char, “Les matinaux”

Alain Mons, “Le bruit-silence”

Augustin Berque, “The reasons for the landscape”

Philippe Bonnin & Nishida Masatsugu, “Vocabulary of Japanese spatiality”
& Various excerpts from Jim Harrison’s superb novels.

<figure><img src="image_635.png" /><figcaption>Didier Tallagrand,
sound creation.
Photo by Manon
Genet</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_636.png" /></figure>
# HEARING OF CITIES – STORY OF A PUBLIC LISTENER

## French edition of the book by Nicolas Frize, an invited artist in B-AIR

Researcher, musician and composer Nicolas Frize listens to the sounds of the world. For over forty years, he has been scrutinising living spaces and public places, exploring the sound potential of objects. He is one of those people who enjoy the impact of a train passing under a small bridge in a corner of the countryside, and who are particularly interested in the crinkling of cotton balls in the hand, the rubbing of plastic on the skin or the shattering of crystal glass. He stages concerts in unlikely locations, orchestrating the audience's movements to multiply the listening experience.

Nicolas Frize works in hospitals, offices and factories, usually as part of public commissions, increasingly in residence, or artistic collaborations, for example with the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. He has also taken part in research programs run by the French Ministry of the Environment, and worked for municipalities such as Saint-Denis to establish sound audits of the urban context, leading to social proposals.

This book is a buzzing structure that traces an artistic, philosophical and political project. It is the singular account of a man mad about listening, an artist, a citizen, who takes us closer to what the world of sound can teach us.

This edition, produced by Effa (2023), was created in partnership with the CRESSON team of the AAU laboratory at ENSA Grenoble, as part of the B-AIR research program.

<figure><img src="image_637.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_638.png" /><figcaption>Nicolas Frize, artist</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_639.png" /></figure>
twixt lab

<figure><img src="image_640.png" /></figure>

# SOUNDWALKS: EXPERIENCING SOUND SPACES AND NARRATIVES
# SOUNDWALK COMPOSITION – NARRATIVES, SOUNDSCAPES AND MAPS IN AUGMENTED AURALITY APPLICATIONS

Soundwalking and audiowalking as artistic practices encourage conscious listening and interaction with the sound environment. Often related to the theoretical approach of ‘promenadology’ (Burckhardt, 2006/2015) and *flânerie* (Baudelaire, 1863; Benjamin, 1974, pp. 177–221), soundwalking artworks invite the walker/listener into a wandering within an “aurally augmented” urban public space – whether through a redefinition of the hierarchized sensorium or through technological means of aural augmentation (Papachristou, 2021). This artistic practice uses field recordings and soundscape or music composition, and creates new spatial and aural routes that question the concept of linear interaction with the city, in order to escape from the model of the prominently visual public space.

Sound walks, audio walks and listening walks as artistic practices deal with sound, walking and the public space. There is a distinction between these three artistic practices: a listening walk is walking while concentrating in hearing the existing sounds of an area. A sound walk is the exploration of a specific area’s soundscape with the use of a score as a guide, usually the score being a map that draws

the attention of the listener to unusual sounds or places, inviting them to stand and listen throughout the route. An audio walk is a walk in which the soundscape of an area is augmented through the use of technology: pre-recorded sounds from the same – or any other – area, narratives, music or soundscape compositions come to the surface during the walkthrough, usually with the use of GPS geo-located mobile applications.

The choice of terms here is not arbitrary: although sound walks were established as an autonomous artistic practice rather recently, the term has been used since the 70s by members of the World Soundscape Project as a practice of browsing the soundscape of an area using a score-map that draws attention to unusual sounds. Murray Schafer (1977/1994, p. 212–213) specifically distinguishes ‘sound walk’ from ‘listening walk’ defining the latter as a simple walk with enhanced attention to environmental sounds. The very subtle distinction, as he writes, brings forth the issue of active listening and hence the “cleansing of the ears”, which is a central demand of the author in his earlier works. Moreover, the term ‘soundscape’,

also coined by Schafer (1969) in order to describe our sound environment, is a central concept in the development of the interdisciplinary field that can be called Sound Studies.

Moreover, the impact of the concept in anthropology becomes immediately evident in the pioneering ethnography of Steven Feld (1982/2012), which marks the awareness of anthropologists in sound culture and addresses the soundscape as a cultural system. Feld, apart from being the theoretical proponent of ‘acoustemology’ – an epistemological model that exceeds the primacy of vision in western art and science – is one of the first anthropologists to experiment expressively with sound and open an alternative path of anthropological articulation, which involves a more sensory and cognitive level of cultural understanding. Referring to his own acoustic compositions, which represent the soundscape of the rainforest as perceived by its residents, Feld refers to the legacy of Murray Shafer for the concept of soundscape as a musical composition, and not as a supposedly authentic ‘imaging’ of reality.

<figure><img src="image_641.png" /></figure>
From a different field and view, sound walks, audio walks and listening walks are often related to the theoretical approach of promenadology (Burckhardt) and *flânerie* (Baudelaire and Benjamin), because – as artworks – they invite the walker/listener into a wandering within an “aurally augmented” public space. Lucius Burckhardt, deriving from the field of architectural design and sociology, uses the human body in motion in order to study urban space (2006/2015). In search of a tool to investigate the material and social world that unfold together within the urban environment, Burckhardt proposes a broad approach to urban space – promenadology, whose principal methodological tool is walking. The sensory intake of the built environment is thus being enriched by the urban imaginary of wandering and daydreaming; promenadology is a proposal to establish a theoretical framework based on walking, which brings together – socially, culturally, materially, technologically and artistically – frameworks and networks.

The *flâneurs’* legacy as explorers of the modern city is certainly innate with the imaginary creation of modernism. Walter Benjamin leads a significant theoretical role both by referring to Charles Baudelaire as a wanderer in the city of modernism, and by taking over the role of the wanderer in his work on arcades (*Passagenwerk*) (1927–1940/2002) which was unfortunately never completed. The concept of the passive walker in the city was transformed in the 1920s by André Breton, who used walking to experiment with automatic writing and to trigger certain social attitudes in public space. The political stake is crystallised even more clearly in the ‘50s, with the term ‘psychogeography’, a set of ideas and practices developed within the artistic current of Letterists. Criticising Urban Geography, the Letterist International (and later the Situationist

International) identifies a function of enforcement and monitoring within the city, by exploring the emotional/psychological impact of urban planning and architecture to its inhabitants. Guy Debord’s psychogeographic wandering manual in the late ‘50s identifies and proposes a liberating dimension of the ‘dérive’, which he describes – in the Situationist International – as “a mode of experimental behaviour linked to the conditions of urban society: a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiences” (Situationist International, 1958).

Locative media art practices (audio walks) use open-source, freeware or commercial platforms that combine locative media technology, music/ sound compositions, narratives and performance arts by applying them onto a mapped area. These platforms are tools for creating an environment of “augmented aurality” within public space. The user of such applications can attach sounds on the map of an area, and later, when the listener is physically situated at the point of this attachment, s/he can hear the pre-located sounds, through the operating system/environment of a mobile phone. The application detects the user-listener’s location via GPS and plays the geolocated audio files, where they have been pre-located by the user.

Locative media technology aims to reverse the process through which only certain cultural expressions become part of the cultural heritage, offering the community a tool to engage in these processes by linking the real space with people’s collective memory. As Rebecca Solnit writes, introducing us to her work on the history of walking, “the most obvious and the most obscure thing in the world” (Solnit, 2000, p. 3), the research on walking offers us the paths and meeting points leading “into religion, philosophy, landscape, urban policy, anatomy, allegory, and heartbreak...” (Solnit, 2000, p. 3).

The result of these practices can be collaborative maps and audio walks about and inside the city, the way its residents are experiencing it. Itineraries are thus created that escape from the concrete, primarily visual, and panoptically designed urban planning, by suggesting a new cartographic model that could represent various layers of perception and experience of urban space, based on mobility rather than stasis. This model includes time, the subjective glance, the relational and emotional layers of experience, and finally, it is open to a polyphonic narration about space, at the process of its transformation into place through a “walking ethnography”, as Tim Ingold (2000) would suggest.

Strolling within an aurally augmented city is an open-ended artistic gesture, ready to be reinterpreted and re-toured by each listener. These platforms are a tool for ‘détournement’ (Situationist, 1958), both by subverting linear interaction with the urban environment and highlighting hidden soundscapes, narratives, sounds and minor historiographies, all while appropriating the widely spread format of tourist guides into a medium for non-touring and non-guiding, but still impelling the listener into strolling. The notion of “augmented aurality”, as used in the artistic practice of sound walks and audio walks, consists of the intervention on space with audio means. This intervention is an experience of immersion to a hybrid environment between material and potential reality, which employs the multiple levels of the constantly transforming notion of public space: structured and virtual environment, social networks, digital communities.

<figure><img src="image_642.png" /></figure>
Sources and literature

Baudelaire, C. (1863). *Le peintre de la vie moderne. Lyriktheorie*. Retreived February 8, 2024. https://www.uni-due.de/lyriktheorie/texte/1863_baudelaire.html

Benjamin, W. (1974). *Eseji*. Nolit.

Benjamin, W. (2002). *The Arcades Project* (R. Tiedelmann, Ed.). Belknap Press. (Unfinished work concieved 1927).

Burckhardt, L. (2015). *Why is landscape beautiful: The Science of strollology* (M. Ritter & M. Schmitz, Eds.). Birkhäuser. (Original work published 2006).

Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (1980). *Capitalisme et schizophrénie 2: Mille Plateaux*. Les Éditions de Minuit.

Deuchars, R. (2011). Creating Lines of Flight and Activating Resistance: Deleuze and Guattari's War Machine. In J. L. Shaw & M. Hemmingsen (Eds.), *Human Beings and freedom* (pp. 158–185). https://www.academia.edu/1509881/Human_Beings_andFreedom_An_Interdisciplinary_Perspective

Feld, S. (2012). *Sound and Sentiment – Birds, Weeping, Poetics and Song in Kaluli Expression* (3rd Edition). Duke University Press. https://www.dukeupress.edu/Assets/PubMaterials/978-0-8223-5365-2_601.pdf (Original work published 1982)

Feld, S. (2004). A Rainforest Acoustemology. In M. Bull and L. Back (Eds.), *The Auditory Culture Reader* (pp. 223–239). Berg.

Fezer, J. and Schmitz, M. (2012). *Lucius Burckhardt Writings – Rethinking Man-Made Environments*. Springer. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-1257-1

Hentrick, J. (2012). What is Nomad Art ? A Benjaminian Reading of Deleuze's Riegl. *Deleuze Studies*, 6(1), 27–41. https://www.academia.edu/10257960/What_is_Nomad_Art_A_Benjaminian_Reading_of_Deleuzes_Riegl

Ingold, T. (2000). *The Perception of the Environment – Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill*. Routledge. https://leiaarqueologia.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/the-perception-of-the-environment-tim-ingold.pdf

Lyotard, J. F. (1984). *The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge*. University of Minnesota Press. https://www.academia.edu/8930613/Lyotard_ThePostmodern_Condition_A_Report_on_Knowledge

Papachristou, D. (2021). *L'esthétique des arts technologiques selon Capitalisme et Schizophrènie I & II de Gilles Deleuze et Félix Guattari*. Freigeist Verlag.

Raban, J. (1974). *The Soft City*. The Harvill Press.

Rice, T. & Steven, F. (2021 October 12). Questioning Acoustemology: an interview with Steven Feld. *Sound Studies*, 7(1), 119–132, DOI: 10.1080/20551940.2020.1831154

Situationist International (1958, June). *Definitions* (K. Knabb, Trans.). Retrieved February 8, 2024, from https://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/definitions.html

Schafer, R. M. (1969). *The New Soundscape: A Handbook for the Modern Music Teacher*. Berandol Music.

Schafer, R. M. (1994). *The Soundscape – Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World*. Destiny Books. (Original work published 1977)

Solnit, R. (2000). *Wanderlust – A history of walking*. Penguin.

Thibaud, J. P. (2003). The Sonic Composition of the City. In M. Bull & L. Back (Eds.), *The Auditory Culture Reader* (pp. 329–341). Berg.

Westerkamp, H. (1974/2007). *Soundwalking*. In A. Carlyle (Ed.), *Autumn Leaves, Sound and the Environment in Artistic Practice*. Double Entendre. Retreived February 9, 2024. https://www.hildegardwesterkamp.ca/writings/writingsby/?post_id=13&title=soundwalking

<figure><img src="image_643.png" /></figure>
Dana Papachristou, Ph.D.

Sound Artist, Akoo.o team

Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Culture, Creative Media and Industries

University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

Founder - Director, To Aesthate G.P.

Yorgos Samantas

Anthropologist, sound designer

TWIXTlab.com

Akoo.o

dimpapachristou@uth.gr

geosams@gmail.com

# THE END OF AN ERA: AUDIO-WALK COMPOSITION

## Portbou (Spain), 30th September 2021

The audio-walk composition “The end of an era” is based on the written correspondence of Walter Benjamin with Gretel Karplus (later, Gretel Adorno) and Theodor Adorno, in the period from 1933 to 1940. Excerpts from the extensive mail correspondence together with fragments of their literary influences (translated in English), are composed in an itinerary that links together various landmarks in Portbou, Walter Benjamin’s last place of residence, where his legacy dwells vividly. The audio-walk was originally presented as a geo-located composition, still accessible in Portbou through Echoes.xyz locative media platform.

The work was homage to the deceased philosopher who fled Germany and then France, so as not to be captured by Nazis in the surroundings of World War II. His exhaustion and torment became unbearable as he was waiting in Portbou for his fate to be decided. In the audiowalk “The End of an Era”, his correspondence clearly shows the slow and difficult road from carefreeness to the rise of Nazism in Europe, from work and holiday plans

<figure><img src="image_644.png" /></figure>

“The End of an Era” sound map on Cartophonies website (The Cartophonies website explores the contemporary sound experience by creating a sound map of different locations around the world.)

shared with friends to a suicide letter addressed to them. The listener can roam Portbou and listen to these letters combined with soundscape and musical compositions (Dana Papachristou & Yorgos Samantas), walking from the hotel where he was staying to his memorial by Dani Karavan, overlooking Portbou.

To listen to the audio-walk “The end of an era”:

<figure><img src="image_645.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_646.png" /></figure>
## RADIOWALKS

“RadioWalk” is a cycle through which RadioTeatar affirms and explores the innovative format of the radiowalk. It is a peripatetic radio drama performance, an interaction of walkers with the landscape, soundtrack they listen to in their headphones, and sometimes also live performances. The aim is to create a kind of ‘kopfkino’ (inner cinema) for the walker, or even a special kind of an intimate ‘radio to go’.

Technically, a radiowalk is easily feasible. The production needs are not big, it uses the simple methodology of a children’s’ treasure hunt and can thus be open to authors who are exploring radio formats for the first time.

In working with and for the young, it offers exceptionally large artistic possibilities; children can create their own radiowalks as a result of school workshops. Radiowalks could even be used in the school system to create a peripatetic way of diving into some parts of the curriculum, literature etc. In comparison to an already established term ‘soundwalk’ in the world of contemporary art, seen as a title for several types of walking with some kind of the soundtrack in your ears, we see the radiowalk more openly, able to include almost all of the radio broadcasting formats of contents, combining storytelling with reportage, radio drama, radiophonic documentary, music and live act.

The first three “RadioWalk” cycles of Radio Theatre gathered new audiences and authors in Zagreb, Rijeka and Dubrovnik around what is an innovative practice in our cultural context, and we believe that its recognition and development are just beginning.

For RadioTeatar, it is clear that the radiowalk form represents another way of a possible meeting point between radio and theatre, so it matches our research and artistic goals perfectly. Some of the radiowalks had been based on the educational research of the B-AIR program, such as “Soundwalks for babies”, “Streets are also feminine”, “Radiowalk for Benjamin” etc.

<figure><img src="image_647.png" /><figcaption>“Soundwalk for babies”. Photo by Lara Varat</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_648.png" /></figure>
# RADIOWALK FOR BENJAMIN

## Portbou (Spain), September 2021

The collaboration of our team member and artistic director Pavlica Bajsic Brazzoduro and AAU_CRESSON / ENSAG project partner started at the winter school in Grenoble where Pavlica presented her research and the radiowalk, a new format created by merging of a soundwalk and a theatre performance. Due to COVID restrictions, this participation and presentation were only possible online, but they also intensified the communication and collaboration between the project partners RadioTeatar and AAU_CRESSON / ENSAG.

It resulted in September 2021 in Portbou, a small port on the border of France and Spain (only 1000 inhabitants), where Pavlica Bajsic Brazzoduro and her 10-year old daughter Zvonka presented an artistic production in memory of Walter Benjamin who died there running away from the Nazis. It is a radiowalk format dedicated to him and his writings for radio and for children, using also sounds from German radio archives. In its form, a radiowalk is based on the children's treasure hunt and is therefore inspired by children and their responses. Benjamin's writings for children are thematically very intriguing for this format.

<figure><img src="image_649.png" /><figcaption>Soundwalk in Portbou, Spain, September 2021</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_650.png" /></figure>
From Pavlica Bajsić Brazzoduro’s “Travel Diary”, published in “The World of Culture” in June 2022, telling how she and her daughter created the “Radiowalk for Benjamin”:

“The two of us are preparing a radiowalk that will actually end in silence at the place of Benjamin's phenomenal memorial, which leads you up the stairs to the sea all the way until you are stopped by the invisible plexiglass in which you see your reflection. And behind it is a straight line of open sea. I am writing the text that comes to my mind as we are walking; we seek places for sound installations for which I prepared a recording of Brecht's song "Little Radio" in German, which we used in the Berlin performance "Eter uber Berlin" in 2016. We will place small speakers in the narrowest passage which even has Benjamin's name, because it is located near the hotel where, also on a September night, only in 1940, he took his own life after crossing the same difficult hills through which we drove, and managed to cross the border, hoping to escape to America. But due to a sudden change in procedures between Spain and France, upon arriving in Portbou, Benjamin was told that he would actually be deported back the next day. Desperate, he took a large amount of morphine that night. They say that the group of refugees who were with him during the crossing was however allowed to continue unhindered on the same day.

We are looking for a small square for Zvonka's performance of the song "J'attendrai" ("I will wait") on the violin. It is a song that was a counterpart to Lili Marlen in France during the Second World War. My niece Nina Bajsić adapted it on one occasion and I find in it some almost mantric power. The French from the conference call me and ask if they can do both the English and French version of the walk. I would love to, but it's really too difficult for me in 48 hours, my dear French people. Wow, at a late age I set my first boundaries. My little girl and I measure how long it takes us to walk from various points in order to maximally adjust the soundtrack broken into 13 parts for this kind of sound walk. I am consulting colleagues from Greece about the soundwalk application, which is still in the pilot phase. Later in the apartment, I finish the text with which I will take the conference guests on a sound walk through the recordings. I am also editing recordings of Benjamin's radio dramas for children from the Bauhaus archive sent to me by a former assistant from Weimar, Fabian. I am creating the world of radio on the fly, extremely site specific, it is determined by space, I am inserting moments of performance, interactions of walkers with a stone, a door, a shop window, I am creating Portbou in another dimension and I am excited about it. Languages abound from the recordings I process, German, French, Catalan, Croatian. I understand most of it.

And I realize that this is what I love to do the most.”

<figure><img src="image_651.png" /><figcaption>Photo by Pavlica Bajsić Brazzoduro</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_652.png" /></figure>
# SOUNDWALKS WITH STUDENTS

## Rijeka (Croatia)

In 2021, in the peak of Covid time, Pavlica Bajsić Brazzoduro started a collaboration with students from the Academy of Applied Arts in Rijeka (Department of Acting & Media) and simultaneously with students of the Bauhaus University in Weimer (students of experimental TV, prof. Jakob Hüfner), striving to combine our experiences of the radiowalk concept with VR (Virtual Reality).

Students from Weimer were in charge for the VR part, and students from Rijeka for the writing and recording of the soundwalk. The project was titled "Life Jacket" and it combined the historical content about the sailor from Rijeka who worked at the ship "Titanic"; the entries from the found diary from one Croatian passenger that survived that catastrophe; the walk through the remnants of the former "Hotel Immigrants" that was built for the purpose of emigration hundred years ago; and personal impressions of our students.

During one semester we worked partly online, partly Pavlica Bajsić Brazzoduro would come to Rijeka with the writings, audio recordings and illustrations to be finished by our students. The final part was planned to happen live, with all students meeting in Rijeka, finalizing the work and performing our walk. Sadly, this was not possible, due to Covid restrictions.

However, the outcomes of the project were great. Students from both cities had an precious opportunity to collaborate on such an experimental combination of radiowalk and VR.

Also, Pavlica Bajsić Brazzoduro was invited to propose a curriculum on Radio Art for the Academy in Rijeka and was promoted to the position of assistant professor.

<figure><img src="image_653.png" /><figcaption>Photo by RadioTeatar</figcaption></figure>

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DOCUMENTARIES
STEP AHEAD

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# JOURNEY AT THE EDGE OF THE NIGHT
A radio documentary about dr. Evgen Bavčar

For Evgen Bavčar, sound is the companion drawing the contours of his surroundings, the world, people, events and sensations. The night journey to the break of day raises profound questions about human existence, differences, exploitation, the struggle for justice, the environment, freedom and the intimate desire for duality, the sun and a new spring.

The radio documentary about dr. Evgen Bavčar “Journey at the edge of the night” was realised by Radio Slovenia as a joint project between First Program, the Ars, and Val 202. It was also filmed in the spring of 2023 in Lokavec near Ajdovščina, on the island of Capri, and in Naples.

Concept was designed by Mojca Delač and Luka Hvalc and screenplay by Mojca Delač, Saška Rakef and Luka Hvalc in cooperation with dr. Evgen Bavčar. Director of the radio documentary is Saška Rakef, dramaturges Saška Rakef, Mojca Delač and Luka Hvalc and sound designer Urban Gruden.

To listen to the “Journey at the edge of the night”:

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<figure><img src="image_658.png" /><figcaption>Dr. Evgen Bavčar and Mojca Delač in the recording of the radio documentary "Journey at the Edge of the Night". Photo by Luka Hvalc</figcaption></figure>

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Evgen Bavčar, Dr.h.c.

Philosopher, photographer, writer, activist

Slovenia and France

# COMPLICITY OF THE BLIND AND THE RADIO:
## Working with the crew of RTV Ljubljana on the "Journey at the edge of the night"

Working with the crew of RTV Ljubljana on the relationship between the visual and invisible reality allowed me to relive some of the notions of sightless existence. In terms of the cognition of reality, us blind people are in a kind of complicity with the radio broadcasters, whose creativity addresses an invisible ear that is also, metaphorically speaking, blind. Radio is a medium for the transmission of the word, which makes content visible to its unseen audience. This passing from one reality to another, shows us how the modern world is oculocentric, meaning that the reality of our perception is more an image than a word, be it spoken or heard.

The radio medium is a unique universe, a treasury of words, a continuation of a narrative culture that was essential when most people were still illiterate. Even some famous figures of human history, such as Homer or Milton, were spoken orators and yet they communicated to us the deepest truths of their existence, their cultural milieu.

The trip to Capri offered proof that the world we inhabit also contains sound images, phonetic fragments, unlike the much more familiar and recognised visual reality. For the crew, night became a domain of a different sight, a realm of otherness

<figure><img src="image_660.png" /><figcaption>Self-portrait by Dr. Evgen Bavčar</figcaption></figure>

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that validates the nightingale's singing as a symbol of the natural troubadour. It strives to overcome the deserted monotony of the night, to fill the silence and make sense of it with its presence. "Journey at the edge of the night" is involved in the desire to give words, sounds, noises, cries a new meaning, an as yet unknown value in competition with the purely visual perception of the world. The blinding of the birds in their refuge on Capri, as depicted by Axel Munthe, therefore recalls the life context of the blind throughout history, who by natural necessity made sense of the word – because they embodied the word that, as such, is blind. Despite this characteristic, it allows us to see beyond the usual avenues of visual perception, beyond the realm of vision and the input of the right brain hemisphere. Several scientists have stressed the difference between the left and right halves of our best, most universal organ. Modern society favours the right hemisphere at the expense of denying the spoken word as an expression of the blind, either realistically or as a metaphor of duration in time.

The difference between the two types of perception is vast by its very nature. Sound is defined by a speed of 300 metres per second, light by 300 thousand kilometres per second.

Night thus symbolises duration, and day the moment of simultaneity of an image formalised by photography, film, video. Images rush, words become. We realise this differentiation of specificity when listening to the nightingale in the duration of the night, while accepting the otherness of the word of the blind man, which carries vision within it. Let me point out that in German universities, until the invention of photography, many pictorial works in painting were described. Describing visual reality is one of the still under-exploited possibilities of the radio medium, which I myself have tried out a lot on the French radio network

France Culture, for example in the series "Painting with eyes closed". Blind and sighted listeners are on equal footing when listening to descriptions from a radio receiver. The deep complexity of creating the content of "Journey at the edge of the night" is thus an important step into the still under-exploited possibilities of the radio medium. This collaboration, in a very specific and deeply egalitarian democratic way, ordains the word as a kind of creature of the modern gospel, which says that in the beginning was the word, and therefore also the radio word. I am pleased to have shared this precious new word with sincere interlocutors and collaborators who were able to move into a universe of different perceptions.

Our friendly cooperation proved that man should not be held hostage to the visual, but that we can access the night equally as well as the bright side of the day. The Slovenian writer Karel Širok wrote about the blind nightingale in 1922 already. With Mojca Delač's team I felt like one of those blind birds, not only in listening to the world but also in calling out to the world in the name of my own words, my own experience of reality. As I shared the silence of a May night with the friendly RTV crew, I remembered Lorca's verse about the cricket, which he describes as the sounding star, the estrella sonida. Something like that was the tiny bird that sang faithfully to us through the dark night, adorned and enlivened by our words in a quiet sonic reciprocity.

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<figure><img src="image_663.png" /><figcaption>Recording of the radio documentary "Journey at the Edge of the Night". Photo by Luka Hvalc</figcaption></figure>

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**Mojca Delač**
Journalist, editor and programme host
1st Program of Radio Slovenia, RTV SLO

# JOURNEY AT THE EDGE OF THE NIGHT THAT HAS CHANGED MY DAY(S)

> "What a joy it is! What grace to be able to create within a team of people who inspire and drive you, who pursue the same goal, share the effort, the days of success and the nights of agony. How fortunate one is to be able to share her work with others. And perhaps, in some way, contribute to seeing things and the world differently."

I vaguely remember my words capturing the concluding thoughts at the public premiere of our documentary on dr. Evgen Bavčar, but I recall the feelings strongly. It is almost impossible to truly articulate the tangle of pride, satisfaction, surprise, fatigue, and happiness that was woven by the threads of creativity on that evening. The threads that had been wrapped around the event as we, the authors of this radio piece, wrapped ourselves in the cocoon of the exploration of the world that dr. Evgen Bavčar opened for us.

It is the trust and the excellent collaboration of this internationally recognised philosopher and visual artist, who warmly welcomed us into his thoughtful world of the night, that we need to primarily thank. For without it, the creation of the documentary would not be possible. From the very beginning, our first and core aim of inspiration was – the sound. However, we (the authors) needed to listen more carefully to the world of blindness to see the plot that was our sonic star of creative guidance.

<figure><img src="image_665.png" /><figcaption>Mojca Delač and Saška Rakef in the recording of the radio documentary "Journey at the Edge of the Night". Photo by Luka Hvalc</figcaption></figure>

The journey took us to many places, from Lokavec to Capri, from the firm grounds to the sea and even up in the sky.

Coexistence in time transcends spatial limitations, just as sonority enhances what the eye can see. What does this mean through the ears and

lenses of our documentary? I hope it opens deeper questions of our existence, the complexity of the human being and its comprehension of the world. I hope it takes the listener to new places, broadens the horizons of knowledge, and opens space for thoughts about love, freedom, migrations, passion, exploitation, humanity, longing, and mortality. One night – enough for a lifetime of substance.

Our documentary lives solely through the ears of the listeners. I can only hope that there will be as many opportunities for it as possible. And that the duet with the nightingale will continue to evoke memories of that night in May when we set up microphones to catch it.

For me as the author, this project has also brought an exceptional opportunity to get experiences with a new genre, to work within a very creative, professional, and inspiring team, to develop new concepts of thinking in the work process, to gain a lot of new knowledge and skills that I will be able to continue using in my work. And most importantly, this night has changed my days. I dare say that my ears will never find them quite the same again.

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<figure><img src="image_667.png" /><figcaption>Lokavec at night.
Photo by Evgen Bavčar</figcaption></figure>

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# MY EXPERIENCE IN THE B-AIR PROJECT: FOR MORE RADIO JOURNEYS AT THE EDGE OF THE NIGHT!

It was a really nice journey, a radio journey at the edge of the night. For me as a journalist, participating in the B-AIR project was an entirely new experience. The primary advantage was teamwork with various profiles of radio professionals: journalists, radio director, sound engineer. Despite all being from the same media company, we seldom get a chance to work together deeply and strategically. This project allowed us to function as a creative team from the beginning to the end of the working process. We did many things in a completely different way from established practice.

Preparing different broadcasts was exciting, especially working on a radio documentary about the polymath Evgen Bavčar. I have almost 20 years experience as a radio journalist, but it was the first time I was able to create content and format so thoughtfully, precisely, and in such a multidisciplinary way. We fist held in-depth interviews with the protagonist. That was highly important because we found a very special story behind his life and work. We developed it and upgraded it with fieldwork. Capri, Naples, Lokavec, and Ljubljana were our stations.

In the process, we used different techniques of interviews, resource analysis, sound recordings, and developing the script. It was also a great experience for me working on the final production in the studio.

Collaboration with professional and superb experts opened a new perspective on modern radio production. I have learned a lot, and I am now applying this knowledge in my daily journalistic and production activities.

The radio documentary "Journey at the Edge of the Night" was a joint project between three programs of Radio Slovenia, and it was truly delightful. I hope we can do a similar project again. Here's to more radio journeys at the edge of the night ...

<figure><img src="image_669.png" /><figcaption>Journalist Luka Hvalc and director Saška Rakef recording the radio documentary. Photo by Mojca Delač</figcaption></figure>

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<figure><img src="image_671.png" /><figcaption>Recording of the documentary-feature radio play "The Whisper of Memories" in the Loška Valley. Photo by Saška Rakef</figcaption></figure>

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# THE WHISPER OF MEMORIES:
A documentary-feature radio play

This participatory documentary-feature radio play for children and adults emerged in cooperation with children, the elderly, and radio creatives who drew a sound map from the tales and narratives of the past and present in the Loška Valley in Slovenia. The rich documentary materials intertwine with the story of the boy who is carried into the sky by the eagle, taking him on a flight over plains, mountains and caves – and from once upon a time until today.

To listen to the
"Whisper of memories":

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**Credits:**

**Director and concept author:**
Saška Rakef

**Screenplay:**
Ana Obreza

**Sound recordist:**
Urban Gruden

**Sound design:**
Darja Hlavka Godina

**Music artists:**
singers of the Lož Valley Pensioners'
Association, and the folk singers Vida Truden
and France Anzeljc

**Teaching methodology expert:**
Ana Čorić

**Ethnologist and anthropologist:**
Katarina Juvančič

**Editing mentor in the pedagogical process:**
Marta Medvešek

**Narrator:**
Blaž Šef

**With the participation of:**
Milena Kraševec, Sonja Lipovac,
Anton Mestnik, Milena Ožbolt,
Andreja Ravšelj, Miha Razdrih, Jožefa Strle,
Alojz Troha, Boža Troha, Peter Troha,
Fani Truden, Vida Truden, Ida Turk,
Tone Udovič, Janja Urbiha, Leonida Zalar,
Gašper Modic, Aljaž Dujo, Lea Lenarčič,
Urh Anton Mlakar, Tadej Mihelčič,
Patrik Ožbolt, Urška Ožbolt, Živa Palčič,
Vili Strle, Marina Trivunčević,
Martina Trivunčević

Fiction Editorial Board

Recorded in the studios of Radio Slovenia in
December 2023

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Katarina Juvančič

Anthropologist, musician and music critic
Ljubljana, Slovenia

katarina.juvancic@gmail.com

# SOUNDSCAPES AND SONIC SENSIBILITIES IN LOŠKA VALLEY:
## “The Whisper of Memories”

The B-AIR project called “The Whisper of Memories” (Šepet spomina) was initiated and lead by the radio director Saška Rakef and the team comprising the sound engineer Urban Gruden, sound artist Marta Medvešek, dramatist and musician Ana Obreza, musical pedagogue and researcher Ana Čorić and Katarina Juvančič, anthropologist, ethnologist and singer-songwriter.

The objective of the fieldwork project component was to collect and map the sounds of Loška Valley (Loška Dolina) as perceived by the locals, primarily through intergenerational dialogue involving primary school children and the older generation, specifically their grandparents. Their interactions, employing ethnographic and journalistic methods of collecting material, contributed to the creation of a radio play for children that was broadcast nationally. Simultaneously, sonic data were collected for creating a comprehensive sound map of the valley.

The central theme of the radio play revolves around the story of a young boy named France, who daydreams of having wings to fly while working in the fields with his family. He is picked up by an eagle, and together they soar across his native land encompassing hills, valleys, forests, streams, lakes, and villages. Throughout this journey, France witnesses and hears many things. Time unfolds differently in

<figure><img src="image_675.png" /><figcaption>Recording of the documentary-feature radio play “The Whisper of Memories” in the Loška Valley
Photo by Saška Rakef</figcaption></figure>

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fairy tales, and by the end of his airborne adventure, France has aged into an old man. The eagle returns him to where it initially picked him up, revealing all the visible and auditory changes in the landscape and the ways of life that are now forever altered. What he saw and heard during his extended flight on the eagle's back is reflected in the sound material collected from the locals and utilized in the radio play.

In the process of gathering stories related to sounds, local customs, traditions, leisure activities, and the daily lives of yesteryear, children not only conducted interviews with older locals and their relatives on-site but also actively participated in sound editing and screenplay writing as co-authors during and after our visit. While conducting interviews on-site, they received guidance from Saška Rakef for interview questions and commentaries, and from Urban Gruden for sound recording. Throughout the post-fieldwork process, they continued to receive coaching from Ana Obreza for radio play screenwriting, as well as from Marta Medvešek and Ana Čorić for sound editing in online sessions on Zoom.

During our stay they, the participants were also mentored by Leonida Zalar, the school librarian, who served as a main liaison between the local community, kids and the researchers.

Our 'home base' for the week was the Elementary School "Stari Trg" pri Ložu, where librarian Leonida Zalar introduced us to students from Primary 6 to Primary 9 (ranging from age of 12 to 15) interested in collaboration. They could participate as interviewers (conducting interviews with older locals or their own grandparents, neighbors, or other villagers), recording technicians, and, in both the parallel and subsequent phases of the process, as sound editors and screenplay writers. Initially,

approximately 40 students expressed some level of interest in collaboration, but ultimately, only 11 took part in the fieldwork, engaging in interviewing, recording, and later participating in sound editing and screenplay writing.

## Methodological framework and coding

The focus of the project on-site was to gather data for the radio play using a qualitative method of semi-structured interviews. Qualitative methods comprising of interviews and fieldwork are "therefore crucial for constructing comprehensive picture on any given landscape" (Uimonen, 2017, p. 117).

The tapestry of our investigation unfolded not only through the efforts of adults but also in collaboration with children who played pivotal roles as interviewers. The adult team comprised Saška Rakef, Ana Obreza, and Katarina Juvančič, with Ana Čorić and Marta Medvešek assuming the role of observant participants during the interviews. Urban Gruden, instrumental in recording all audio materials, not only fulfilled the technical role but also assisted the children in the recording process. Saška contributed her expertise by guiding the children in formulating questions and intervening when necessary.

Over the course of five days, we immersed ourselves in the rich cultural landscape of Loška Valley, conducting a series of interviews with approximately 15 people. Engaging with individuals spanning various age groups, genders, and backgrounds, the children-turned-interviewers posed inquiries that delved into the essence of personal sonic experiences. From eliciting reflections on the most and least cherished sounds from childhood to exploring fears associated with particular auditory stimuli, the questions reflected the children's curiosity.

Initially tentative, the questions posed by the children evolved in sophistication and depth throughout the five-day process. Their heightened sensitivity toward inquiries related to soundscapes and their growing competence in articulating more intimate and unconventional questions marked a transformative journey. The evolving nature of their queries, subsequently complemented by the contributions of the broader research team, enhanced the depth and specificity of our exploration into the intricate realm of auditory memories and experiences.

Thematic analysis is an approach to qualitatively analyse data from interviews, aiming to uncover recurring patterns through the identification of codes and themes. During the coding process, notable or pertinent ideas articulated by interview participants were singled out. Codes that convey similar concepts were then assembled into overarching themes. Additionally, these overarching themes can encompass related subthemes, creating a structure within the analytical framework.

The coding developed in this acoustic inquiry embraced a classification system, delineated as follows:

### I. Nature Sounds:

a) Weather elements (wind, sleet, rain, etc.)

b) Hydrological elements (water in its various manifestations)

c) Ambient environments (caves, echoes, leaves, trees)

### II. Animal Sounds:

a) Birds & wild animals

b) Domestic animals

c) Mythical animals

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### III. Social Sounds:

a) Mechanically generated sounds (clocks, bells, hand saws etc.)

b) Humanly crafted sounds (singing, music, whistling, talking, shouting, calling, local dialect)

### IV. Work Sounds:

a) Interior workspaces (kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms)

b) Exterior work environments (fields, wetlands, forests)

c) Transportation sound (automobiles, carts, trains, buses, furman, etc.)

d) Industrial sounds (mills, sawmills, chainsaws, construction sites, factories, etc.)

While a degree of thematic overlap existed within these categories, the paramount objective lies in structuring the coding system to align with the overarching research inquiries. This arrangement served as a strategic framework, facilitating a nuanced exploration of the multifaceted dimensions of sound within the study's purview.

### Methodology

The main method of data collecting very much reflected the ethnographic fieldwork which constitutes the basis of ethnological and anthropological research, involving the first-hand study of people and cultures in their natural environments. It is a method of gathering data and gaining a deeper understanding of social practices, beliefs, and behaviours of the local population. Fieldwork typically involves extended stays in the community being studied, allowing ethnologists, anthropologists and other researchers to immerse themselves in the daily lives of the people and to build

relationships. While the rest of the research team (Rakef, Gruden, Medvešek and Čorić) commuted from Ljubljana to the Loška Valley on a daily basis (approx. 65 km one way) – with the exception of Ana Obreza, who lives locally – I decided to stay with one of the informants and his wife who is my cousin, for the duration of five days, to get a better sense of the place and trying to immerse myself into communal spaces and connections.

Ethnography-based research was focused on the acoustic qualities of people's lives and the cultural meanings associated with sound within a specific community or context through intergenerational interaction. Saška Rakef was prepping elementary school children to talk to their older relatives and locals in order to learn about the importance the sound played and plays in their lives, and interviewees

<figure><img src="image_678.png" /><figcaption>Photo by Saška Rakef</figcaption></figure>

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were also encouraged to ask children about their sound perception. Our method involved the use of semi-structured interviews and participant observation to explore the ways in which people perceive, experience, and engage with sound in their everyday lives and to gain insights into the subjective experiences and cultural interpretations of specific sounds.

The ethnographic intergenerational work also included a visit from four retired women to elementary school to discuss the sounds of their youth, with researcher's visit to the local folk singer's weekly rehearsal. Due to lack of time some interviews were conducted only by researchers themselves.

## Theoretical framework

In all the stages of the process – ethnographic fieldwork as well as radiophonic and artistic (radio play) work, we employed the principles of collaborative and participatory ethnography, emphasizing active collaboration between researchers and the community. This approach challenges the traditional power dynamics in research and seeks to create more equitable partnership between researchers and the community. Inclusion of local elementary school children as active participants, collaborators and co-creators of the content of interviews as well as the radio play provided a more comprehensive view of daily life, social dynamics, and cultural practices within a community, where their creative input was not just facilitated but also encouraged by researchers, teachers, parents and the interviewees alike.

This type of collaboration also promotes ethical practices by recognizing the rights and perspectives of young community members and encourages researchers to consider the impact of their

work on future generations. It also helps children to gain new skills outside the school curriculum, connects them with the older members of community outside their family ties and helps them to develop aural sensibilities to their environment.

However, in working with children it's essential to approach their inclusion in the research, technical and artistic processes with sensitivity and ethical considerations. Informed consents and the well-being of the children involved were considered as a high priority in all stages of the process.

The unedited audio material gathered in the field by both researchers and local children will be accessible to community members through the B-AIR online platform in its entirety. Consequently, this resource could serve as a foundation for ongoing research and artistic projects, such as sound mapping of the valley, the creation of new school radio plays and documentaries. These endeavours aim to enhance local capabilities, empower children and the local community, promote sustained collaboration across generations (children & mentors, children & adult locals, children-to-children) and hence ultimately foster positive change in their social environment.

The theoretical framework of the anthropology of sound and soundscapes that was laid by a pioneering work of Steven Feld in the 1980s that explores the relationship between sound, culture, and emotion, was also employed in the research. The book is based on his fieldwork in the Bosavi rainforest region of Papua New Guinea, where he lived among the Kaluli people. Through an ethnographic approach, Feld delves into the intricate ways in which sound shapes and reflects the emotional landscape of the Kaluli. Feld argues that sound plays a crucial role in expressing and shaping emotions

within a cultural context and introduces the concept of the “acoustemology”, a term he coined to describe the cultural perception and knowledge of sound. In the context of the Kaluli, acoustemology refers to how they understand and interpret their sonic surroundings. This includes not only the natural sounds of the environment but also the sounds produced by human activities, rituals, and music.

Hearing, especially in our 'Westernized' culture, is often perceived as hierarchically inferior to sight, among other senses such as smell, touch, and taste. Shifting the focus to hearing as the primary area of research challenges dominant narratives regarding how a particular natural or cultural phenomenon is experienced. Engaging with the auditory aspects of culture provides opportunities for reimagining fresh perspectives on comprehending and grasping a culture. Our thesis posited that, within the sonic dimensions of daily experiences and interactions, individuals construct meaning and establish connections with one another through the sense of hearing. This offers "immense insights into a range of issues pertaining to the present-day political equations of power, governance, control and conflict, inflected by globalization, technological and digitization (Kumar, 2022, p. 139)."

Similar to the Helmi Järviluoma and Lesley Muray's study of cultural transformations through transgenerational sensobiographies we conducted ethnographic studies on individuals born in the 1940s and 1950s, with some born even in the 1930s and children born in 2000s. This allowed us to comparatively explore their sensory connections and experiences growing up with, as well as without computers and digital devices, to observe if there were any significant changes in perception of environmental sounds and sound sensibilities.

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Closely connected to the topic of sound perceptions and narratives is the concept of collective social memory. This collective social memory serves as a shared point of reference formed by the recollections of individuals within a shared social context. These recollections, functioning as social sense-makings, are constantly negotiated, shaped, and transformed through dynamic, active processes within the communities. Or as Barbara Misztal defines it: "Collective and social memory are both defined as group's representations of its past, both the past that is commonly shared and the past that is collectively commemorated, that enacts and gives substance to that group's identity its present conditions and its vision of the future (Järviluoma, 2009, p. 140)."

These theoretical premises influenced the ethno-graphic material that assisted us in shaping the research questions regarding sound memories, perceptions, and recollections in a specific location, namely Loška Valley.

## Research questions

*What constitutes a soundscape at a specific location and time? What role do sounds play in the lives of local people? How do they perceive various natural or 'man-made' sounds? Which ones are considered pleasant, and which ones are not?*

Soundscape refers to the connection between humans and their auditory surroundings, encompassing both objective realities and subjective perceptions. For the purposes of this research and with the objective and subjective, physical and symbolic, external and internal acoustic assemblages in mind, we'll use the definition of soundscapes as the "totality of all sounds within a location with an

emphasis in the relationship between individual's or society's perception of, understanding of and interaction with the sonic environment" (Payne et al., 2009; Grinfeder et al., 2022, p. 2).

The perception and interaction with the sonic world are heavily influenced by the environmental surroundings that help to shape social, collective and individual sound memories.

Loška Valley is situated near the Croatian border in the southwest of Slovenia. The municipality of Loška Valley, covered with dense forests and karst fields that flood during the rainy season due to its porous limestone geology, encompasses an area of 166 km². It has approximately 3,770 inhabitants and a population density of 23 people per km², which is significantly below the country's average population density

<figure><img src="image_681.png" /><figcaption>Recording of the documentary-feature radio play "The Whisper of Memories". Photo by Saška Rakef</figcaption></figure>

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of 102 people/km². The area is rich in water, forests, fields, and wildlife, all of which contribute to shaping the soundscape. Additionally, the soundscape includes industrial elements such as a metal factory, wood processing plants, and sawmills located in the valley.

Qualitative research has shown that individuals tend to differentiate between pleasant and unpleasant sounds, as well as their most and least favourite nature and human-produced sounds. Moreover, they distinguish between sounds associated with everyday routines and work and those connected to leisure time. These parameters play a significant role in organizing their soundscape.

Most favourite sounds are primarily associated with the sounds of nature, childhood, and leisure time, though not exclusively. The perception and interpretation of sound are correlated with the pleasant or unpleasant external contexts surrounding the sound experiences, including experiences within family, community, and school systems. Similar to Uimonen's research on sound preferences among school children from Strathdevon Primary School in a Scottish village called Dolar, the most pleasant sounds in all three surveys conducted in 1975, 2000, and 2011 were consistently identified as bird singing, stream sounds, rustling leaves, as well as (human) voices and (mostly domestic) animals (Uimonen, 2017, p. 126).

Our interlocutors and collaborators, whose names will be changed to protect their identities, also describe the sounds of nature as predominantly pleasant. Birdsong (larks, swallows, cuckoos, owls, goshawks etc.), ranks very high, as does the sound of water, especially in connection to children's play, and the sounds of domestic animals, mainly cows and horses.

For example, Mila cites birdsong, rustling leaves, and small sounds of nature as her favourite sounds. Alenka's favourite summer sounds were and remain the croaking of frogs by the lake, the flight of birds nesting near Lake Cerknica, and the sound of tractors driving hay from the mowed meadows or the lake bed.

Majda is also very fond of the sound of the wind, bird singing and frogs croaking. "Birds could be heard singing near our childhood home in Jer-mendol. Later, when we lived in the village of Igavas, we were lulled to sleep every night by the chorus of frogs. The frogs croaked, and we drifted off to sleep." The sounds of wild animals from the forest did not frighten her and were not perceived as unpleasant. "When we lived in Jer-mendol, those sounds never scared us because there was a forest around us, and we heard many sounds from it. An owl hooting, a deer grunting; in the winter, we heard wolves howling in our mead-ow. In the fall, when deer mated, they bellowed. The hawk often flew silently over our house and preyed on our chickens. Often, it would take one of them away."

The stories of sounds become alive when described in a sonically detailed, thick narrative such as Francka's story of the goshawk, in connection to the chores in the fields: "Where it was mowed and then raked, the plane was smooth, and you could see from the top whether there was something inside... not you, but the birds could. There were goshawks, but mostly buzzards. They made sounds like "piu piu" all day long. The best part was when they got their balance, they trembled, fluttered with wings, and then plunged downwards when they saw a bug or something. Sometimes, they also grabbed a slowworm because they had a great view from up there. This was going on all day while you were

raking. This image is still in my head. ... This sound never bothered us. You lived in it."

Sensorial specificities – sometimes also encouraged by the ethnographer as the sound memories are not always instantly available to us – also contributed to more vivid sonic memories in people's narratives.

Francka describes the sound of a beech tree she admired during a raking pause. "When you lie back for a bit, it was so terribly beautiful for me when we sat under a beech tree. Even if it's hot, there's always a breath of fresh air. Beech trees have thick, waxy leaves. When a beech tree rustles, it shakes. You tend to forget it, but then you start to remember, and it comes back – the memory."

Marija remembered how she loved the babbling sound of dunking a bottle into the water. In her opinion, the most beautiful sounds are those of water – not at the beach where everyone is splashing and screaming, but the slow running of water, which brings back memories.

For a retired forester like Ivan, the sounds of the forest are the most favourable. He describes them as the "harmony of living things and trees, because trees are also living things." His preferred sound in the forest is the time when it starts to snow. "It's so quiet in the forest; not even a bird chirps. That expectation of something new is interesting."

Surprisingly, quite a few people mentioned the falling of a spruce tree, cut down by loggers, as one of their most favourite sounds:

"I don't know if you've ever been around when a spruce is falling? It is like the sea when a ship sails, and it

<figure><img src="image_683.png" /></figure>
spreads out. ... We usually went in the morning... I also went to cut down trees because my brother was much younger, and I had to go along when that big spruce was cut down. When it fell, so much of that air was compressed that it felt like it was going to suffocate you. The air pressure just piled up, and when the spruce plunged to the ground, it returned to normal again. A beautiful sight. It was the same with beech, but the spruce is more elegant." (Francka)

Rozka often goes with her husband to cut down trees or listens to others cutting down trees. "The most beautiful sound is when a spruce falls to the ground, and you know that it fell properly – it wasn't left hanging, and it does not pose a danger. ... 'Shoop,' and you feel it fall to the ground." For her, this is the most beautiful sound because it makes her feel safe.

People also described the 'unsafe' sounds – those that posed imminent danger or threat to them, some in connection to the wars their ancestors lived through (their parents and grandparents being afraid of planes because of bomb raids during the Second World War – the sounds of WWII are still in the living memory of some older locals), sounds of ambulance cars, but mostly the sounds of natural disasters and changes in weather patterns that have intensified in the last decade or so.

The dreadful sounds of the ice storm in the winter of 2014, which destroyed thousands of acres of forest land and left people without electricity for days, are very much alive in the memory of the locals. The language they used to describe the sound of devastation was very metaphorical ("trees crying", "hearts breaking", "front line").

<figure><img src="image_684.png" /><figcaption>Recording of the documentary-feature radio play "The Whisper of Memories". Photo by Saška Rakef</figcaption></figure>

"Every now and then, the tree would creak, and when it finally broke, your heart would ache because you knew – you could see how much it was broken. But now, everything has overgrown." (Iva)

"It sounded like the battlefield front line; it was so loud and terrifying." (Silva)

"During the night, it began to rain, and the rain kept freezing; then it felt like being on the front line. Trees snapping, cracking, creaking – trees giving

way under the weight of the ice. Terrible sounds echoed from the forest. There were also loud noises as the ice began to melt, and pieces of ice fell to the ground." (Gašper)

"Now I know what it means when the trees are crying. From Racna mountain, you could hear the trees cracking. It was terrible, powerful; they cracked, they creaked – truly, the trees were crying." (Rozka)

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Metaphors serve as powerful tools for communication, interpretation, and conceptualization of people's embodied experience as these sounds undoubtedly are. Metaphors aid in sense-making by offering imaginative and evocative ways to represent complex cultural dynamics or emotions. Metaphors are frequently employed to convey emotions. When individuals describe their feelings, they may use metaphors to paint a more nuanced picture of their emotional state.

Changes in climate patterns also reflect in the soundscape and pose a certain threat or unease, unpleasantness.

Rozka also claims that she didn't use to be, but now is afraid of the sounds of thunder and lightning storms. She also observes the decline in the health of trees. She loves to collect chestnuts, but "almost all chestnuts are now diseased, and therefore, they lose their leaves already at the end of July, not only here, but also in many other places."

"The wind used to be different than it is today. Nowadays, it instils fear; it is scary", says Silva. In her youth, it was gentle when it was getting ready to rain. The rustling was not harsh; the walnut trees rustled lightly. Three years ago, a linden tree fell on their house. Back in the day she remembers the wind as being soothing, dreamy. She listened to it in the evenings when she and her mother sat outside on a bench, winding down at the end of the day.

Lea observes a disturbed migratory pattern of swallows she loves so much. She usually rushes to work in the morning, and her everyday sound is the children's commotion in the elementary school. Additionally, there are swallows that always return and chirp in June. When she returns

to school again in August, she expects the chirping; sometimes, a swallow even wanders into the library. However, this year there were none, even though they are usually still around in the first and second weeks of September when they gather for the journey south. She talked to the cleaning lady, expecting to have to clean the windows again because of the swallows, but they left early. "The first time you open the window, everything is still quiet in the library; even the book heroes are still sleeping. When I open the window, there is usually a lot of chirping, flying over, sometimes a swallow crashes into the window with its beak. That's why we see that the windows are covered up, so that it doesn't happen. But this year there were no more. I ask myself: Is this some kind of sign, no? Why did the swallows fly back so early? Will it be winter so soon, or will it be cold so soon? Because, in my opinion, there was enough vermin for them to eat."

While some wild animal sounds are pleasant to some, they are annoying or frightening to others. The bellowing of deer is a sound that some find non-disturbing, while others find it annoying. Perhaps the reason this particular sound was mentioned by so many is that we were in the valley during the deer mating season, and the bellowing was a predominant wild animal sound at that particular time, making it an important part of the soundscape at that time of the year.

Mila also emphasizes that our perception of the same sounds as pleasant, unpleasant, or fearful depends on the context of whether it is daytime or night time. "The secret of the forests here lies in the absence of daytime sounds. Together with the darkness, the intensity of the night's voices increases, causing our eyes to widen, and fear to set in. During the day, birdsong is soothing, but at night, it becomes terrifying. The forests of Notran-

jska are inhabited by large beasts, such as bears, wolves, and lynx."

For the majority of the interlocutors, their favourite sounds are connected to their childhood and haven't changed much in their adult years. Sound memories are particularly pleasant, especially when they are connected to relational memories—being somewhere and experiencing something with people you felt safe with, even if the situation itself did not feel safe at the time.

If pleasant sounds are linked to the feeling of safety and well-being, unpleasant sounds are connected to feelings of danger, threat, insecurity, and annoyance. According to Uimonen's previously mentioned research, the most disliked sounds among primary school pupils in all three studies were the sounds of traffic. However, in recent years, human voices (54%) —such as teacher shouting, mother's voice, people screaming, and crying babies— have also become prominent (Uimonen, 2017, p. 128).

The sounds of traffic and industrial, mechanical noises are often cited as unpleasant by the local people in Loška Valley, but even the level of unpleasantness of these sounds varies. Silva finds the sound of motocross bikes and four-wheelers highly unpleasant. They "go through the ears". On the other hand, the sound of traffic and transport from people's youth brings fond memories.

Majda remembers the sound of a car as a novelty and, therefore, something exciting, as she describes the embodiment of that sound: "The roads were not asphalted. At that time, very few cars drove towards Jermendol. We knew what kind of car was coming by the sound of the engine working its way up that hill toward us. It was a special sound that has been

<figure><img src="image_686.png" /></figure>
ingrained somewhere inside me, and I can still hear it today.” Sounds of horse carts and carriages were also perceived as pleasant. “The first ones were hobnailed, they creaked and rumbled as they drove over the sand,” Marija remembers.

Comparing the mechanical sounds of the past (pleasant) with the ones in the present (unpleasant) is a recurring topic in conversations.

"It's hard to recall those times. At that time, there were no tractors, engines, or lawnmowers. Today, lawnmowers, saws, and circular saws keep humming. In the past, log sawing was done by hand – thick trees were sawed by two people, and if the logs were small, a shorter saw was used and sawed by one person," Majda claims.

While some locals complain about the sound of a sawmill as “being sick with the noise”, others, who might not live in a direct vicinity of industrial complexes, describe a more nuanced attitude towards the modern machinery.

Rozka, for example, describes the sounds of a sawmill as a 24-hour disturbance for locals, especially if the mechanism is not properly lubricated. Sometimes, she describes the sounds coming from a sawmill during the day as pleasant – sounds of vehicles, excavators, loaders, logs moving, and boards falling to the ground. “Machines help us a lot. Their sound is benevolent when you know it’s real, that the device is working well.” She gets disturbed if the sound changes, as she immediately knows that the device has broken. However, she dislikes the sound of a chainsaw in the forest.

Gašper also states that the night shifts at the sawmill can be heard, yet they don't disturb him, as one can adopt these sounds like the sound of a train in

Ljubljana, he claims. The sawmill has been there since his childhood. The first sawmill was already built near the manor of the mountain Snežnik, and these sounds have been a part of Loška Valley for quite some time. “The industrial aspect, with sawing and chopping down trees – this somehow belongs to the Loška Valley.”

Mechanical sounds appear to contest and challenge people's perceptions of the pleasantness or unpleasantness of the soundscape the most.

*How did our interlocutors describe sounds and acoustic environments? What other sounds are closely*

<figure><img src="image_687.png" /><figcaption>Recording of the documentary-feature radio play “The Whisper of Memories”. Photo by Saška Rakef</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_688.png" /></figure>
*linked to people's memories? Are there additional common topics that sounds express, dispute, or confront? Do shared sonic memories and experiences form any kind of acoustic communities, and if so, how did researchers contribute to shaping them?*

Here we delved deeper into how people listen and construct their sonic environments and create acoustic communities. “Acoustic community is any soundscape in which acoustic information plays a pervasive role in the lives of the inhabitants (Truax, 2001; Uimonen 2017, p. 118)”. Acoustic community therefore refers to a group of individuals who share a common soundscape or auditory environment. This term is often used to describe a community or group of people who experience and engage with similar or shared acoustic elements, such as sounds, noises, and environmental audio. The concept highlights the communal aspect of the auditory experience, emphasizing the role of sound in shaping the shared experiences and perceptions within a specific group or community.

The shared sounds of work chores, rituals, gatherings, and play construct people's acoustic community. Our interlocutors speak about the embodied memories of such events, which resonate sonically in their memory.

In this region, dormouse meat, once popular in ancient Rome, remains a local delicacy, defying its disappearance in much of modern Europe. The traditional dormouse hunt, called “polharija”, continues in early autumn. Hunters employ wooden traps, avoiding dormouse hollows to maintain fairness. The event has evolved into a familial and communal affair, resembling a village fete, fostering bonds through shared hunting stories.

The hunt's associated sounds vividly embed themselves in people's auditory recollections, especially the sounds the dormouse creates in the forest.

“The sound of dormice includes screeching voices as they climb from their nest to the tree; these rodents communicate with each other. If the owl, their natural enemy, is heard, they fall silent”, said Rozka.

Although traditionally, dormouse hunting was not considered a female activity, fathers used to take their daughters into the forest after the nightfall to lay traps and later to see if any dormouse got caught. Rozka and Mila have fond memories of spending such quality (and mostly silent or whistling) time with their fathers.

“In the forest, one must walk in silence, attuned to the sounds of the wilderness – the calls of animals, the rustle of leaves. The most enchanting experience occurred when they extinguished the light and absorbed the calls of the owl and the dormouse, along with the gentle rattle of the wooden trap.” (Rozka)

“One had to listen; being loud meant nothing would be captured. The sounds of people whooping around would distract the dormice, making them susceptible to capture. If an owl happened to hoot, it was a known fact that nothing would be caught that night. The owl, being the natural enemy of the dormouse, ensured that they did not emerge from their holes.” (Mila)

However, Gašper vividly describes the hunting procedure and rituals in detail.

“The night is alive with crackling, screeching, and whistling as animals move through the forest. Even a small hedgehog creates such a clamour in

the woods that it resembles a wild man stomping about. The dormice themselves contribute to the forest symphony with their climbing and whistling up and down the trees, adding an intriguing aspect. Often, during dormouse hunting nights, the sound of a trap being activated can also be heard.”

“While some people may be dismayed by dormouse hunters, these individuals are ardent nature enthusiasts. They strictly adhere to hunting seasons, never pursuing dormice out of season, and take care to ensure that traps do not harm other animals. The trappers possess a deep understanding of dormice, harbouring a genuine affection for these creatures, and express gratitude towards them in their own way.”

He also mentions the importance of sociable sounds within this acoustic community.

“I would connect the sound of a crackling fire with the sizzle of a sausage cooking over the flames and the noise of a bottle being opened. When trapping, it's crucial to ensure hydration and prevent a dry mouth. ... The forest is filled with the sounds of walking, accompanied by snapping twigs, often in complete silence to avoid startling the dormice. Occasionally, there are bursts of joyful shouting by the fire when someone successfully captures a plump dormouse.”

Local folklore stories are also infused with sonic qualities. Gašper's associated the sound of sleet during the ice storm in 2014 with Valvasor's tale, which asserts that if you walk through the forest and hear the crack of a whip and the breaking of branches, it means that somewhere nearby a devil is driving dormice to graze. The coat of arms of the Loška Valley features St. George slaying the dragon, and for

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him, the most distinctive element is the sound of the dragon. "I'm sure that you can still hear it in the evenings if you listen carefully. If you go into the forest and look up, you can hear some sort of a dragon. Some people may think it's an owl, a bear, or some kind of deer, but in the end, we just agree that it's a dragon."

There are many rich sound experiences in connection with the indoor, and even more with the outdoor communal work.

Indoor sounds were mostly associated with the kitchen – the prominent indoor workspace that was perhaps the most acoustically abundant place in the house, filled with the clattering of plates, spoons, and the crackling and burning of fire in the stove. Mila also mentioned the sounds of a spinning wheel, once heard from people’s kitchens and chambers.

The outdoor sounds were often associated with communal field work, such as ploughing, mowing, raking, hoeing – chores in which our interlocutors participated from their childhood days.

"The sounds of our childhood are associated with animals and work. Roosters and hens roamed freely around the yard; when a hen laid eggs, she clucked. There were also the sounds of a horse neighing and a cow mooing. The boys who went to work bought Tomos mopeds; after two o'clock, the air was filled with this sound. Perhaps there was even the hum of a lawnmower and the screeching of a cart. Sounds from childhood are more beautiful than those that came later, such as lawnmowers and tractors," tells Silva.

A lot of people describe the sounds of roosters, hens, horses, cows, and dogs as the prominent

animal sounds of their youth. These sounds continue to be very much present in people's lives. Gašper, who moved to the rural valley from the nearby town of Cerknica about 15 years ago, recalls that these sounds prepared him for country life. "The best thing is to sit under a pear tree and listen to an old lady who goes to milk the cows while shouting: 'Be still, move, come on!'"

"I am woken up by roosters every morning in the village. At five in the morning, when the sun starts to rise, we already hear roosters; I think there are at least ten of them in our village." He also hears the sounds of tractors, as nearly every house in his village has a little farm.

Local people fondly recall the sound of mowers and harvesters and at the same time expressing

the loss of the traditional skill, communal spirit and sonic aliveness of such events.

"When it was time to mow, the mowers first had to prepare their tools. They would grind their scythes, working until they achieved a nice, thin edge, but then the scythe still needed further sharpening. While having lunch, they would pause several times to grind. When five mowers were grinding their scythes simultaneously, the sounds were remarkable! Even the act of grinding itself produced a distinct noise." (Francka)

While researching the soundscape and social memory in a village called Skruv in Sweden, Helmi Järviluoma discovered that the reminiscence is full of a sense of a loss, as people were speaking "of sounds

<figure><img src="image_690.png" /><figcaption>Educational work for the recording of the documentary-feature radio play "The Whisper of Memories"
Photo by Saška Rakef</figcaption></figure>

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which have vanished, and of the fading away of
a vibrant village life. They indeed drew the map of
the past into the present, bringing their own bodi-
ly and localized past into the present experience"
(Järviluoma, 2009, p. 149). Our participants also
intricately mapped their personal and localized
history onto the present experience in which the
memory of the past played a more positive and
binding role, as seen from Francka's statement.
Informants constantly travel back and forth be-
tween the past and present (Järviluoma, 2009, p.
142), swiftly shifting perspectives. They navigate
their experiences in the moment with humour or
critique of today's way of life and the connected
soundscapes.

"When mowing starts today, all you hear is the hum of the tractors and nothing else. Sometimes, you can hear the exulted sounds of mowers and other voices. Now, there is a lot of clunking up and down." (Majda)

"Today, you don't hear hand mowing anymore because it's hard to find a person who still knows how to do it, given the prevalence of buzzing from all kinds of mowers. There is no longer suitable equipment for grinding. When I was little, I rarely heard the clatter of the scythe, but sometimes it could be heard continuously during mowing, as the scythe blunts quickly." (Mila)

"Now, the field can't be heard at all because no one works there. Back in the day, there was ploughing, digging, and mowing. Every task has its own sound – even a hoe has its distinct sound, as does someone digging with a pickaxe or sawing wood by hand. They used to saw, zzzzzzz (žiga-žaga) with a handsaw called 'amerikanka' (American woman, in translation). Today, all you hear is a chainsaw." (Francka)

Remembrance brings out the reflective knowledge
of the past, and when that which has passed is con-
trasted with today, critical reflection follows, claims
Misztal (in Järviluoma, 2009, p. 150). Järviluoma
also argues that we need productive remembering
far more than we need productive forgetting. Lo-
cal memory has the potential to confront the myths
perpetuated by cyber capitalism and globalization,
challenging the denial of time, space, and place.

There is no denying the importance of time and
the church bell culture in the social memory of the
villagers, resisting the out-of-place and out-of-time
perspectives imposed by cyber-driven modernity.

In Francka's words: "I grew up next door to a church. The chiming of the church bell created a sense of ritual. Humanity has gone through various cultures of order. At seven o'clock, the bells rang, signalling that everyone needed to get up and go to work or school. At noon, people waited in the woods or in the fields, anticipating the chiming of the bells. Aha, the bells will chime at noon. They managed the order so well. In the evening, when it was time to rest, the Ave Maria bell rang again, signalling that the day's work was done."

The humanly organized sounds, in the form of
church bells and alarm clocks, that divided time
into work/school and after-work/after-school activ-
ities were deeply embedded in communities and
are still ringing in people's ears.

Majda recalls: "Mom was going to work and was
afraid that we (her daughters) would fall asleep. I
remember the alarm clock rattled loudly, chattering
away. Mom put it on a plate to make it even louder.
That was terrible. That sound effect still echoes deep
in my brain. ... On the way to school, I could hear a
church bell if the wind blew in the right direction."

The sounds of communal singing in churches or
other choirs, as well as the sounds of accordions
and church organs, were also highlighted by a
few participants. Additionally, we recorded sever-
al local singers performing traditional ballads and
other folk songs, along with a choir comprising
retired local women, to explore the local folklore
repertoire.

Marija in particular expressed the love of the lo-
cal folk music as music that “drops into her heart”.
She identifies with it and feels that it is a part of
her. She also recalls village fete, and the sounds
of accordion, screaming boys, stomping on wood-
en dance floors, and spinning.

There are also ambient, explorative, and playful
sounds from childhood deeply embedded in peo-
ple's memories, as illustrated by Barbara's story:
"My brother and I once discovered an echo. In
the house in Jermendol, where we lived (I was
5.5 years old when we moved out), one day, my
brother called me while facing the forest in Gornje
Poljane, and we heard that voice once more. At
that time, we were children, unable to fully grasp
the phenomenon, and we believed there was a
man mimicking our words. So, I decided to call my
brother's name, and this echo repeated it. Excited-
ly, we shouted various words – "house," "road" –
curious if the echo would mimic them as well. And
indeed, it did, because it was an echo. Now, that
old house of ours is long gone, and the echo has
disappeared too. It was our first childhood experi-
ence, something mysterious."

Children's play was often connected to work
chores and also to school. Silva remembers how
she used to hide in the big pile of raked leaves
that rustled as she recalls her sen-
sory experience.

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School sounds are closely associated with the sound of a school bell and will be elaborated further in the following chapters.

Children's off-school and off-work time was with filled with play. According to the locals, they particularly liked to play in or by the streams.

Mila preferred to listen to the brook babbling under the mountain Snežnik castle when she was a little girl. The sound of water was soothing. At the same time, it stirred her fears because she grew up with her grandmother, who was full of different stories. Her grandmother used to say that "water pulls", as there was not always an explanation for accidents in the water.

Francka remembers: "The water was ours. Where you live, you do all kinds of good things and stupid things. Kids are kids. The stream was full of fish, trout, but not the kind that are now fed with briquettes; rather, those that were fed with other fish, providing a completely different kind of food. Although it was forbidden, they were caught. We lived on fish. You also have to get used to the water, just like sailors have to. We've been wading in that water since we were little; no one caught a cold, even though the water was so cold. And there, we learned to swim."

In Marija's memory, catching tiny fish (called filke) involved the sound of bare feet splashing and scuddling as quietly and slowly as possible to surprise the little fish. She also recalls the sounds of swimming: "There was splashing, screaming, and bubbling. We also bathed in streams; there was always an older child in the company who had the command and looked after the younger ones - we formed a natural community. Everyone had their own role and their own duties in such situations." She also remembers

concrete communal washboards by the streams, before the washing machines were brought into the households (before 1968). "Washing had a *slop*, *slop*, *slop* sound - when you heard it you knew that someone was washing laundry and that the washing place was occupied." "And cows from all the farms used to go to communal watering places to drink water. The masters shouted, the cows mooed, their poo splashed. They drank the water and went on."

Communal places were filled with sounds that now echo only in people's memory; they are now silent.

*What role does silence play in the locals' perception of their soundscape?*

Silence was often mentioned in people's narratives – not a passive absence of sound but a dynamic and culturally mediated form of communication. Therefore, understanding the social context is crucial for interpreting the function of silence – how it is expressed, interpreted and valued.

Due to abundance of water, the silence in people's perceptions is often linked to quiet moving of the still water and floodings of the fields that are common in this region due to its porous limestone geology creating intermittent lakes, caves, sink holes, swallets, sinking streams and springs and other karst phenomena.

Gašper associates silence with the slowly moving water: "I always associate floods with tranquillity, peace, a slight murmuring of water, a drop dripping into water... I associate silence more with floods. It seems to me that when the valley floods, it quiets down a bit. No one works in the field anymore because the field is under water, so everyone stays at home more. If you maybe walk along this flooded field with a boat, you can really hear such silence, maybe some bird somewhere up there... There are no terrible sounds. I would rather say that, more than any other sound, I associate silence with floods. ... Water can be a threat, but it's the one thing we can't live without. There is a lot of water here. People here live with water and floods; in the spring and autumn, they know that it is necessary to prepare for water, to remove things. The water comes slowly, and they are used to it. ...

<figure><img src="image_693.png" /><figcaption>The crew at the entrance to Križna Cave
Photo by Saška Rakef</figcaption></figure>

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Here at our place, there is a blissful silence, which
can be quite scary for someone who is not used to it."

"If Loka itself floods, the drumming is heard, and a thick layer of water falls over the stones. When there was more water, there was no more sound, only silence." (Marija)

"When there is pure silence at night, you can hear sounds from the Golobina sinkhole (near the village of Dane). The old people said that the water stays for three days and drains for three days." (Majda)

Silence is also connected to the deep time experi-
enced in the local Križna cave, a naturally pres-
served 8 km wide cave with 22 underground lakes
reachable by boat. The cave explorer and guide,
Janez, talks about the deafening silence as well as
the deafening noise that can both be experienced
at certain times in the cave, depending on the water
flow and the amount of precipitation. "The cave can
be so quiet that you can hear your heart beating,
your ears ringing... or it can be deafening. The water
can rise and roar so much that it takes a lot of ef-
fort to stand next to it. The least sounds occur when
there is a drought. That's when we say the cave is
dead - nothing is happening, no dripping. There are
more sounds during floodings. The most beautiful
thing is when there is a strong storm outside; it hits
hard through the cave ceiling, drips everywhere,
and you can hear the trickling, the murmur of the
drops. After a long drought, this is the most beautiful
sound you can hear - the water is coming."

Mila reckons that we often take sound for granted,
and we have to think hard to truly hear it. She is es-
pecially aware of this because she works as a guide
in the Križna cave, where the absence of sounds is
complete, except for human sounds and dripping

water. "That's when you start to realize how many
different sounds there are when you come out of
the cave or when you go into the cave, and how
that rare sound in the cave is so much more int-
tense. ... People are shocked when the lights go
out, experiencing how dark the darkness is, and
there is no pure silence because the cave is full of
water, and the sound of water is strong. Otherwise,
the cave can offer pure silence, an experience you
cannot find elsewhere. To me, pure silence is a
much worse experience than pure darkness."

*What kind of sound competence is being cultivat-
ed and who cultivates it? What is the role of re-
searchers in this process?*

"Random sounds of everyday life cannot be dis-
missed as having no cultural significance. Such
sounds, unknowingly, shape and punctuate our
social life. They instil a kind of auditory uncon-
scious that organizes our communications," claims
Kumar (2022, p. 139).

Enquiring about both random and more distinc-
tive sounds in a local community initially proved
to be a challenging task. People found it difficult to
recall their auditory memories, as the process of
making unconscious sensations conscious and ar-
ticulating them was not a common practice. Many
mentioned that sound is rarely a conscious con-
sideration and can be challenging to recall initially.
Interestingly, in Western culture, sight is often ele-
vated to a higher cultural value compared to other
sensory experiences.

Soundscape competence involves the ability to
comprehend environmental sounds as meaning-
ful. I would claim that researchers played an im-
portant role in stimulating people's interest in their
own – individual or communal – soundscapes.

Following the initial interviews, many older par-
ticipants returned with additional stories, sharing
further experiences related to sounds, recalling
more and more nuanced details about their sound
histories and memories.

The continuation of ethnographic fieldwork proves
vital in allowing individuals to assert their connec-
tion to the soundscape, providing a platform for
exploration and potential transformation. The Loš-
ka Valley holds immense significance for its local
inhabitants, and many consider it the most beauti-
ful. However, there are moments of melancholy as
people observes changes such as forest, pastures
and meadows overgrowth, the asphalting of prized
fields, and the intrusion of noise. These alterations,
along with the impact of major noise sources, have
compelled some residents to sell their homes
and relocate. Despite these and other challeng-
es, locals we encountered still praise the valley's
breath-taking sights, an abundance of nature and
a high quality of life. The ethnographic exploration
captures not only the evolving soundscape but
also the emotional attachment and environmental
changes that shape the community's identity.

Children actively cultivated sound competence not
only through formal education, including school
curriculum and extracurricular activities, but also
by engaging in hands-on experiences facilitated
by the research team and a school librarian. These
experiences encompassed interviewing older gen-
erations, visiting villages, exploring diverse sound-
scapes, listening to narratives, and exchanging
their own perspectives on sound. Additionally,
their involvement in radiophonic work, sound ed-
iting, and the creation of radio play screenwriting,
among other activities, played a pivotal role in
nurturing their comprehensive un-
derstanding of sound.

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