The audio walk “Cityphonic Walks: 9 scores to unveil the sonic performativity of Athenian Streets was the outcome of a participatory experiment (taking place during the artistic research project: Cityphonic Walks: Unveiling the sonic performativity of everyday life in the urban landscape, MA Performing Public Space) entitled: “Streets Democracy's Greatest Arena."
This walk occured in central streets of Athens at night and the aim was to explore how sound creates and shapes democratic spaces and how the body interacts with these. As Schaffer discusses, soundwalk is “an exploration of the soundscape of a given area using a score as a guide” (Schaffer, 1977: 4).) The scores given to participants were related to the collective memory, to the observation of different rhythms and to the importance of soundmaking as a way to rewrite and reoccupy the city. The participants in every score recorded the sounds and their observations of each location, and all the collected materials were then processed to create an audio walk in the same place.The intention of this practice was to make people able to hear the possibilities of the sonic environment and develop words for what appears impossible. Through attentive listening, participants were able to challenge established norms, question power structures, and imagine alternative narratives and social realities.
Conception/audio creation: Irini Kalogeropoulou
Video Editing: Nazli Meric Cukurova, Irini Kalogerropoulou
Field recordings from participants: Dominik Mosser, Melina Kabouroglou, Marianna Papaioanou, Marianna Lampadaki, Lydia Lampadaki, Nikoletta Karavani
Video Participation in the Forum of the 2nd Participatory Design Conference: “Transforming the City”,
Plyfa Athens, 2023
