CITYPHONIC WALKS: UNVEILING THE SONIC PERFORMATIVITY OF EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE URBAN LANDSCAPE
Have you ever stopped, paid attention, and taken action by listening to the hidden voice of the city?
As John Levack Drever highlights, one of the key objectives of soundwalking “is about circum-navigating habituation, in a process of de-sensitization and consequently re-sensitization in order to catch a glimpse of the ‘invisible, silent, and unspoken’ of the everyday.” The artistic research project Cityphonic Walks nurtures a process of re-sensitization to the sonosphere through a score-based method of walking, intentional listening, soundmaking, and augmented soundwalks in urban spaces of Athens.
These practices create an open space for communal sonic engagement, where language, embodiment, and spatiality converge to foster a shared acoustic community. The objective is to bring to the forefront the often disregarded sonic aspects of our habitual lived experiences, making them visible and audible through a poetics of noticing, providing opportunities for action towards the realization of transformation. This type of transformation aligns with Lefebvre's concept of everyday life as an art of living, which serves not only as a context for sociological investigation but above all as a context for action.
SPECIAL THANKS
to Hari Marini, Dimitra Nikolopoulou for introducing me to the world of performance in public space
To participants and collaborators of my experiments for thinking and listening together: Sofia Kyriakidou, Pinelopi Papagianakopoulou, Ioanna Bathrelou, Pavlina Bathrelou, Athanasia Houpa, Antonina Papagianni, Iro Gallou, Irini Michopoulou, Athanasia Papageorgiou, Marianna Papaioannou, Melina Kampouroglou, Dominik Moser, Nikoletta Karavani, Marianna Lampadaki, Lydia Lampadaki, Toula Bistina, Aris Zotos, Martha Mavri
To coaches: Danae Theodoridou and David Limaverde for the guidance, support, and inspiration.
