i’m sound

The invisible global attack of the COVID-19 virus triggered a terrifying impact on human society and economy. We learned that Intangible actors can generate measurable outcomes in the most solid foundations of our structures. Sound waves are an important matter in the manufacturing of the perceptual feeling of our cities, and a key indicator of pollution, quality of life and speed/reach of transformations. 

i’m sound is a series of projects that explore the relationships between humans and the world as they are made tangible through sound.

In The Sound Outside more than one hundred designers, sound designers, field recordists, radio producers, creative technologists, film makers and scholars got together to create a world map of urban soundscapes recorded “from their windows'“ during the COVID-19 lockdown.

A project curated by Sara Lenzi and Valeria Caputo, The Sound Outside is now engaging the authors in a collective reflection on what sound means for humans and for the non-human actors we share the space with, what the act of listening represents and how designers could use the lockdown experience to actively re-design the urban soundscape of the future. in In a second phase, currently ongoing, contributors are reflecting on the importance of the sound layer in our daily lives and how, if, the urban soundscape could and should redesigned to rethink the city. A qualitative research analysis of the answers is currently ongoing: results will be shared soon.

We started recording the soundscape outside our studio window on Day 1 of lockdown in Spain, as spontaneous way of documenting the changes in our lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, capturing a tangible print of the intangible movements in a soundscape we used to know.

After 61 days of recordings, we are now in the process of analysing the dataset through both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, to evaluate if the perceived change in the urban soundscape (allegedly, a decrease in anthropic sounds at the benefit of natural sounds - birds, especially) is sustained by data.

Results will be published soon.

Follow the recordings here.