Listen to the space and inhabit the sound

publicaciones / arte sonoro

Mathias Klenner y Sofía Balbontín, 2021

Article published in Revista NODO Vol. 15 Núm. 31

The dimension of soundspace emerges from the interaction between sound and space. This research Project and its series of artworks focuse on the aesthetic and social aspects of soundspace as a means to créate alternative and subjective narratives, to resignify and deconstruct the memory of space and the architecture that sustains it. The paper revises the concepts of space and sound in architecture, social sciences and Sonic arts of the 20th century, trying to create a link between these diverse practices and theories, understanding that a major shift in all these disciplines ocurre when sound and space coalesce. From this revision, the research methodological tools are proposed: compositions, installations and performances of soundspace, which are used to explore and create new narratives through listening. This tools are applied to a series of case studies: abandoned infrastructures on the margins of memory and the urban, uninhabitable spaces with exacerbated and unique acoustics, industrial and war monuments that, in their acoustics, preserve the origin of the contemporary city.

Keywords • architecture, sound space, performance, critical spatial practice.