metros cuadrados de sonido [Intermediae, Madrid]

Metros cuadrados de sonido is a project initiated by the platform AddSensor which proposes a collaborative sound mapping of Legazpi-Arganzuela, a neighborhood in the metropolitan area of Madrid. The project intends to generate awareness about the role of sound and listening in our everyday life, specially in urban contexts. It does so activating exploration and collaborative creative processes, firstly documenting the urban sounds and second, inviting to produce derived works which make use of the recordings posted in the online map of the project. All those materials are published under CC licenses. The activities of the project are hosted by Matadero Madrid and the initiative is supported by the contemporary creation program of Intermediae.

I participated on this project conducting a two-day intensive introductory workshop about phonography and field recording, which was oriented to work as a trigger for the sound mapping process. We were surprised with the amount of people interested as we got suddendly almost forty applications. However, space and resources were limited though it is a pity that a lot of people could not attend this time.

The group was enthusiastic and rich in backgrounds: architecture, media, tv, radio, journalism, electronic music, philosophy, engineering, archaeology, literature and what not. So we had all sorts of artists, technologists and scholars sharing common interests and curiosity for listening and sound practice, which provided from the very first moment a positive and creative atmosphere.

On the first day we shared ideas and experiences about the importance of listening in everyday life, went through a few examples of artworks based on urban sound and a basic intro to audio technology and recording techniques.

On the second day we explored three different locations divided in teams and in the afternoon we did some editing, collective listening and discussion of selection of the sounds recorded during the day.

more images here and here

A weekend felt such a short time but anyway I think it was a productive time and (I hope) everybody went back home with something new learnt and with refreshed ears.

Thanks to all the participants: Iñigo, Andrea, Sila, Ana, Sergio, David, Daniel, Guillermo, Ana, Ángeles, Carmen, Carolina, Noèmie, Milos, Déborah, Sergio and to the AddSensor team (Ana, Miguel, Ángel and Tono) and the guys working at Matadero for making possible the experience.

The online sound map started already to get populated with those very first recordings made during the workshop. Now it is time for the project to continue developing. So far there are a few events already scheduled: a meeting and presentations on Dec 3 and a concert series in January, check the program for detailed info.