I conducted the ‘Sounding Gdansk’ workshop during the Soundplay festival in June of 2014. The Festival was curated by Krzysztof Topolski and organized by CSW Laznia of Gdansk.
‘Sounding Gdansk’ aimed to understand the role that sound plays within the social and architectural spaces of urban life. Through a continuous series of observations, exercises and artistic interventions, we worked with sound in a way that reveals the inherent interconnected relationship between a given context and the activities that take place. We used this as a frame to help define the “acoustic identity” of a place with our own observations, actions and use of materials. The dimensions of the sonic possibilities we discovered were as varied as the architectural and social contexts of today’s urban environments.
We spent much of the first two days concentrating on the act of listening, both in the passive and active sense. This was done through a series of exercises that ranged from an extended session of listening to field recordings, sound walks and a session of game play. All the while we were to think of locations to scout around the city, related to our personal experiences with what can be heard there. Following this we planned our visits to the locations and followed through with our analysis and interventions. Again, the creation of an acoustic identity of a city includes both passive reflection and active intervention.
The structure of the film is based on a comparative typology, looking at specific locations from different perspectives, either through materials, actions, proximity to sound sources and/or varying times of the day.
Here are some short documents about the workshop produced by CCA Laznia:
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Special thanks to the dedicated group of participants in the workshop and to CSW Laznia for hosting me for the festival.
Here’s a gallery of photos I took in Gdansk with a vintage Voigtländer Bessa 66 from the 1950s
