Sounds of the City

“Sounds of the City” is a large-scale community project and exhibition commissioned by the Metropolitan Arts Centre (MAC) and led by artists from the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC), Queen’s University Belfast. Over a four-month period, the artists worked together with two intergenerational groups in Belfast with the aim of addressing specific sound qualities of places, events and stories. Themes that surfaced from this process constitute the basis for the exhibition which promotes listening as a form of intersecting daily life, identity and memory. Five installations address aural contexts ranging from Belfast’s industrial heritage to the local family home. These are shaped by present and past experiences of workshop participants at Dee Street Community Centre in East Belfast and Tar Isteach in North Belfast. The themes and contents of these installations center upon the relationship between sound and memory, sound and place, and the documentation of everyday personal auditory experience.
All materials exhibited have emerged through workshops, interviews and field-recording sessions. Workshops acted as a basis from which to inform each group about the project’s aims, methods of listening, methods of documenting sound and the wider areas of soundscape studies and acoustic ecology. They also provided a central point allowing participants to organize outside activities and share material for exhibition.
“Sounds of the City” explores the relationship between sound and community through everyday life and presents a dynamic and ever-changing soundscape that shapes Belfast’s identity.

Sounds of the City has been exhibited at the MAC, Belfast 2012 and at Espaço Ecco, Brasilia 2013.