# data[].attributes.body
At nearly 3000 meters above sea level with no roads leading to my location one could not feel further from the urban. Yet me reaching this location of nature required of me to transport myself through various urban environments, along a network of interconnected roads that never quite make you feel you have reached nature properly. Although the sound is one of natures most powerful forces, I was only able to indulge in it after using various forms of mechanised transportation. Without the connections between the various urban locations, this would have been much more challenging.

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Börsenstrasse 13, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland

# data[].attributes.headline
Börsenstrasse 13, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland

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Börsenstrasse 13, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland

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This sound is something I would more closely associate with something non-urban. As we can hear however, sounds have no barriers in terms of mixing between natural and urban. They overlap and at times overpower the other. Artificially recreated natural noise of the fountain mimicking the rivers that run through the city, these rivers I barely ever hear.

# data[].attributes.location_name
Katholische Pfarrei St. Peter und Paul, Werdstrasse, Zürich

# data[].attributes.headline
Katholische Pfarrei St. Peter und Paul, Werdstrasse, Zürich

# data[].attributes.subject
Katholische Pfarrei St. Peter und Paul, Werdstrasse, Zürich

# data[].attributes.location_name
Grossmünsterplatz 4-8, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland

# data[].attributes.headline
Grossmünsterplatz 4-8, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland

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Grossmünsterplatz 4-8, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland

# data[].attributes.body
Grossmünster

# data[].attributes.location_name
Kirche Fraumünster, Münsterhof 2, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland

# data[].attributes.headline
Kirche Fraumünster, Münsterhof 2, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland

# data[].attributes.subject
Kirche Fraumünster, Münsterhof 2, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland

# data[].attributes.body
Fraumünster

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Although this recording was captured around Stauffacher, I wanted to place the pin here to let you hear how this dominant sound in the city of Zurich travels. During this recording, the main chimes come from the Offener St. Jakob Church. The 'background' bells emerge from the Fraumünster, Grossmünster and the St. Peter und Paul Church. This is why I found it even more surprising having not heard any bells at Bürkliplatz.

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Have to keep more than one eye open! These trams don't stop!

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Along with the bells, this is what I would consider to be the 'background noise' of the city of Zurich. Trams and cars moving about, moving people about. I would argue quite the standard for many cities, especially in Europe. What would the 'background' noise be if we were to remove some of this noise?

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Offener St. Jakob, Stauffacherstrasse, Zürich

# data[].attributes.headline
Offener St. Jakob, Stauffacherstrasse, Zürich

# data[].attributes.subject
Offener St. Jakob, Stauffacherstrasse, Zürich

# data[].attributes.body
At 7am the first proper bell chimes emerge, to awaken the city. However, as we can hear, the city is more than awake already, bustling with the sound of commuters rushing to work. Are these bells even waking someone up anymore? For sure not the ones that are awake (and not myself! I rarely hear them during my sleep!)

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Still Idle Birds

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I was trying to explore the way the churches around the city are heard in different locations since it is something I hear extremely clearly from where I live. To my surprise, I did not hear the church bells at noon in an open space in the city, not too far from the Grossmünster or Frauenmünster, two of the largest churches in the city. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised by a group of teenagers walking past and throwing pieces of bread around themselves, encouraging an entire flock of various birds that were more or less 'idle' up until then, causing a large commotion of noises, natural, human and human-made.

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70 Prestwich Street, De Waterkant, Cape Town, South Africa

# data[].attributes.headline
70 Prestwich Street, De Waterkant, Cape Town, South Africa

# data[].attributes.subject
70 Prestwich Street, De Waterkant, Cape Town, South Africa

# data[].attributes.body
Audio recording of me entering my vehicle in Cape Town for my morning commute to class. I chose the car not only because I wanted to compare my morning commute sonics from here (Cape Town) to back home in Zurich. In Zurich my usual mode of transportation consists of either public (tram) or using my bicycle or one of the many e-scooter rides sharing companies. Listening to the audio recording again of entering the car, that moment of brief silence once the door slams shut is something I cherish oddly enough.

# data[].attributes.location_name
St. Paul's Guest House, Bree Street, Cape Town City Centre, Le Cap, Afrique du Sud

# data[].attributes.headline
St. Paul's Guest House, Bree Street, Cape Town City Centre, Le Cap, Afrique du Sud

# data[].attributes.subject
St. Paul's Guest House, Bree Street, Cape Town City Centre, Le Cap, Afrique du Sud

# data[].attributes.body
Thursday, 4th of November 2021. First Thursday.

We went to First Thursday for the first time, expecting to stumble upon open galleries and people holding wine glasses, but what we saw instead was a huge queue into a closed off street. We got in, thiking maybe because of COVID, they put everything in that street?
Bree Street was completely different than usually. There was a stage with a DJ, multiple stalls with Gin&Tonic, beers, cocktails, food. But no galleries, and no wine. In the audio clip, there is something about the general mood of the space: the light conversation chatter, and the background low beats music. The specific conversations cannot really be heard, as in when you move in those spaces.

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Military Rd, Schotsche Kloof, Cape Town, 8001, Afrique du Sud

# data[].attributes.headline
Military Rd, Schotsche Kloof, Cape Town, 8001, Afrique du Sud

# data[].attributes.subject
Military Rd, Schotsche Kloof, Cape Town, 8001, Afrique du Sud

# data[].attributes.body
Tuesday, 2nd of November, 2021. Noon Gun.

In addition to Phil's video, here is another clip of the Noon Gun. There was an expectation to it, looking at our watches and watiting for midday. I particularly like the gasp that does not make sense here, but makes sense when watching the video - the visual aspect of seeing the smoke before hearing the sound.

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Monday, 1st of November 2021. Wind and rain.

Once when we met I had talked about the reassuring sound of the wind. Because it is a background sound, that you hear through the sound of the trees moving for example. I remember when I spoke to the others about it, it was linked to how it becomes a keynote sound, especially in Cape Town (so even maybe a soundmark then ?) Here, I was at Signal Hill, watching the city. There was a lot of wind and rain at that moment, and I heard specifically the drops on the cap of my k-way. I wanted to capture that, and hearing back on it,  I associate sensations to the sound: being cold, wet, a fresh humidity that sticks to your clothes.

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Victoria Rd, Salt River, Cape Town, 7925, Afrique du Sud

# data[].attributes.headline
Victoria Rd, Salt River, Cape Town, 7925, Afrique du Sud

# data[].attributes.subject
Victoria Rd, Salt River, Cape Town, 7925, Afrique du Sud

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Wednesday, 3rd of November 2021 - a minibus taxi trip - sonic mobilities

On this day, I took the minibus taxi for the first time. Funnily, what pushed me to jump on the taxi was an assignement for our research studio class in Basel - the task was to take a public transport.

There is music on the taxi, without ads, loud and the speakers are next to me and it's easy to just listen, watch through the window. Sounds of the whistles to tell the passengers to climb, cape town direction. "Don't go in an empty taxi", Rosca my housemate told me. It's definitely not empty and getting more and more packed along the way. The taxi is going really fast on the road and it's interesting and feels good to be the fastest on the road ; to be in the transport that you usually try to be careful of when on the road. It's driving all the way to the city centre through salt river, and only on main roads not on the highway as I've been used to and still it feels and maybe is so much faster than my usual ride to town. A passenger asks to be dropped off at the university and not at the parade. There were discussions around why or where specifically. People tried to convince her to jump off at the parade like everyone else because we were so close already but she insisted. When she was gone, people made jokes, or just continued to chat about what university she wanted to be dropped at or something like that.
I always thought since being here of the safety aspect but being surrounded by people and women actually feels safe and nice to have a feel to be part of the mobility and not in your own or delimited  'acoustic territory' (Atkinso, 2007), like in your car or in an uber. For the way back home I wait at the taxi station. I think about the pulse of the city. There are huge queues of people going back to Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Mitchell Plains, the townships. To Mowbray, it's empty and difficult to gather people in. I'm looking at my watch and for people to come inside. 'We wait till 5 past or 10 past so people go out of work, its peak hour you know just relax.'   Effectively it's not before 5.20 that we're on our way.
On the way back home after having waited for 20 to 30min they put the volume of the music up again, off we go, no matter the red lights or the traffic there's an efficiency to the taxi that makes me understand more. There's definitely more traffic and it's slower that way but Mowbray also feels way closer to the city centre by taking that route and that transport. The radio talks about an accident on the M3- a truck has been overturned. A few minutes after the driver points to the left and people gasp - I gasp as well.

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Newlands Forest, Table Mountain (Nature Reserve), Le Cap, Afrique du Sud

# data[].attributes.headline
Newlands Forest, Table Mountain (Nature Reserve), Le Cap, Afrique du Sud

# data[].attributes.subject
Newlands Forest, Table Mountain (Nature Reserve), Le Cap, Afrique du Sud

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Thursday, 4th of November 2021. Water sounds.
As I was hiking and wandering amidst the trees of the Newlands forest, I paid attention to a stream that was crossing the path. I sat down and listened to the water sounds, the lapping, splashing and burbling. There is something very calming about listening to these sounds, and even how you can listen to it online, and some apps to help you sleep at night for example. at the moment, I was just thinking about the movement of the water, the way it streams, and how there is also a source at the Newlands forest where people can come and fill their bottles. Now, I am reflecting back and thinking about where does this water come from, which source is it, and who are the people coming to gather it? Is it a common practice, or something special? The forest is so close to the city, but listening closely and proximately to the streams seems like you are in the middle of nature. the sound represents also this very natural idea and wild image of what sounds are expected in nature, sounds that are exempt of human 'pollution'. According to Schafer, this would be a sound more worthy of attention precisely because of that.. As I stand up and continue walking, the stream becomes less and less loud, and we hear a more general background sound of wind in the trees.

# data[].attributes.location_name
Parliament Lane, Cape Town City Centre, Le Cap, Afrique du Sud

# data[].attributes.headline
Parliament Lane, Cape Town City Centre, Le Cap, Afrique du Sud

# data[].attributes.subject
Parliament Lane, Cape Town City Centre, Le Cap, Afrique du Sud

# data[].attributes.body
Tuesday, 21st of October 2021. Walking and listening.

Something I paid attention to while walking in the city with Bradley, Nora, Phil and Sibonelo, was my own sounds versus the proximate sounds of people around me. When walking, you use those proximate sounds instinctively to situate yourself and locate people and things around you. I thought about when you are on the phone or try to record a voice message for a friend, and you are walking - sometimes it happens that i am self-conscious of my own sounds to not disturb the reception of the message by the person at the end of the line - not breathing too loud into the microphone for example. When I recorded this clip while walking, I was trying not to breathe too heavily so that it won't appear in the recording. It's almost trying to erase yourself from the clip, when you actually very part of it. Without my hand,  my intention and the technological device I wouldn't be able to record this. It goes back also to questions of positionality or how as a researcher you are very much part of the 'field', and my intention of trying not to appear too much made me think about that aspect. Similarly, when walking in the city or surrounded by people, you calibrate to them, using a lot of sound dynamics. footsteps, breathing, voices, movement, speed, slowness all have different rhythms and represent different sonic experiences. it can also be linked to emotional / feelings reactions, such as vigilance or fear. f

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The sounds of suburbs
Ice cream, garden labour and barking dogs.  These are the ambient sounds of Mowbray on a warm spring day.  The ice cream vendor does not shout their presence, but rather plays an endless piano rendition of 'Music box dancer' that has one of two effects on listeners: attraction (to the ice cream) or repulsion. The gardener continues his garden trimming unfazed; a chorus of dogs responds as the ice cream truck trundles down the street.

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Ambient suburban sounds 17 Strubens Road

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Ambient suburban sounds 17 Strubens Road

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Safe to walk?
The 'little green man' that signals pedestrians to cross is also sonic.  Like cars, pedestrians are channeled along certain routes and their mobilities controlled.  The city sometimes acts like a giant sorting machine, determining who moves, where they move and how.  Starting with a slow cadence of single beeps, a sharp note interrupts and the tone becomes urgent, hastening us to move.

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Military Rd, Schotsche Kloof, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa

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Noon Gun
The Noon Gun has announced the stroke of mid-day in Cape Town since 1806.  From our position we see it before we hear it. Video by Philippe Widmer.

# data[].attributes.location_name
Observatory, Cape Town, 7925, South Africa

# data[].attributes.headline
Observatory, Cape Town, 7925, South Africa

# data[].attributes.subject
Observatory, Cape Town, 7925, South Africa

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Light conviviality on the bus
Whispers of conversation fade in- and out of a soundscape dominated by the rumble of the bus engine. We are on our journey into town.

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Sound, mobility and friction
Sound is itself a form of mobility, as waves of energy travel across space. The sounds that accompany mobility are not simply about movement, but also about friction and slowing, as the soundscape from Mowbray station demonstrates.

# data[].attributes.location_name
160 Bree St, Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa

# data[].attributes.headline
160 Bree St, Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa

# data[].attributes.subject
160 Bree St, Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa

# data[].attributes.body
Recycle, Reduce, Reuse
A scramble is on for glass.  Discarded glass--in the form of empty bottles of wine, beer, gin and other spirits that fuelled the night life on Bree Street over the previous weekend.  Now this valuable 'waste' is being fought-over by informal waste pickers and a private 'recycling' company.  Bottles are tossed from bin to truck, and bin to trolley.   A motorcyclist swerves to avoid the shattered bits.

# data[].attributes.location_name
Zonnebloem, Cape Town, 7925, South Africa

# data[].attributes.headline
Zonnebloem, Cape Town, 7925, South Africa

# data[].attributes.subject
Zonnebloem, Cape Town, 7925, South Africa

# data[].attributes.body
Inside the sonic envelope of the bus
As a passenger I am enveloped in the sonic interior of the bus--a mobile acoustic territory of its own.  We hear engine sounds, light conversation amongst a fleeting assemblage of passengers, a furtive request for the bus to stop (using the 'bell'), and the mechanical release from our shared mobile platform. Our shared mobilities are contingent upon- and signalled by the sounds heard here.

# data[].attributes.location_name
Robben Island Helicopter Flights, 1 E Pier Rd, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa

# data[].attributes.headline
Robben Island Helicopter Flights, 1 E Pier Rd, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa

# data[].attributes.subject
Robben Island Helicopter Flights, 1 E Pier Rd, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa

# data[].attributes.body
The aeromobile tourist gaze
The sound of verticality in the city.  A tourist helicopter takes-off from the V&A.  From the ground the distinctive sound of rotary-wings signifies the power of flight.  From inside the insulated cabin, the flying experience is an elegant and exclusive one, punctuated by chauffeured VIP transfers, a 'god-like' view of the city, and champagne-drenched landings.

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Diesel power
A goods train trundles along the Southern Line.  Carrying what? To where?

# data[].attributes.location_name
Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa

# data[].attributes.headline
Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa

# data[].attributes.subject
Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa

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Seals in the city
At the Waterfront the sea meets the city.  The non-human also meets the human with sonic markers.  As a maritime entrepôt, the quayside soundscape reminds me of the power of wind and sail that brought Europeans to the land of the Khoi. The sound of wind and sail remain.

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The sound of waste
[06: 58 Friday] Ping! The neighbourhood WhatsApp group comes alive..."the bin truck is in Malleson Road".  'Quick...get the bin out', I tell myself.  The sound of the solid waste removal truck is a temporal marker of a Thursday morning in this area of Cape Town.  But it was silent yesterday, and now has arrived one day late.  The whirl of the truck and a friendly reminder from one of the solid waste workers signals a farewell to our rubbish. But this is only one part of a larger-scale journey that our waste will take as it is expelled from our homes, our area, and the city. It will circulate through the hands of waste pickers, into the belly of the earth, and only the most valuable items into the circular economy.

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Woolworths V&A Waterfront, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Kapstadt, Südafrika

# data[].attributes.headline
Woolworths V&A Waterfront, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Kapstadt, Südafrika

# data[].attributes.subject
Woolworths V&A Waterfront, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Kapstadt, Südafrika

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Woolworths at the Victoria and Albert Waterfront, 2nd of November 2021, 11.40am.

When we entered the underground parking garage with my rental car, I made a comment on how the parking signaled for Woolworths customers surely will be nicer than the one for Pick n' Pay.

We later walk through the glass door into the clothing section of Woolworths. At the beginning of the recording you can hear two people who greet customers talk in a language that is not English but cannot be specified by my untrained ear. Our paths cross, we have an interaction through me entering the shop and them spraying disinfectant on my hands. Then our paths diverge again. I am wondering though, did they also arrive at their workplace with a car, via the underground parking garage that charges 10R/hr?

The screetching of clothing hangers against metallic rails. Mostly white hands splitting full rails, inspecting the newest collections for summer. Mostly black hands putting clothes back to where they belong.

The background music has a distinctly South African beat. Amapiano? It makes you feel relaxed, at ease and optimistic – desirable emotions from the perspective of a retail shop.

Muffeled voices of other shoppers – they all speak in English.

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18 Derwent Road, Gardens, Kapstadt, Südafrika

# data[].attributes.headline
Derwent Road, Gardens, Kapstadt, Südafrika

# data[].attributes.subject
Derwent Road, Gardens, Kapstadt, Südafrika

# data[].attributes.body
31st of October, 2021, mid-morning, It's Sunday and I am standing on my balcony from which I can see the CBD skyline. Far away beyond the almost-skyscrapers, I can see the sea glimmering in its shades of blue. But that's not what made me step out onto the wooden deck. It's the sound of home. The sound of Sunday. A sound I have never noticed in South Africa and definitely did not expect. Church bells. Christian church bells. For me, they signify home – Zurich with its huge and multiple churches has an impressive bell concert every Sunday. For me, it's an aesthetic experience that I always miss when I'm away.
I played the sound to Abigail, who does domestic work at our house. They tell me that the church they go to in Brooklyn close to Milnerton does not have bells. But they remember that the church they visited while growing up in the Zimbabwean countryside used to have a bell suspended from a tree somewhere. Someone always hit it to make sounds so that the people in the area knew when church was about to start. There the bells serve a very practical function, way beyond my westernized, modernized and atheist reading of the bells as an aesthetical sonic contribution to the cityscape.

PS:
While re-reading this Sound Journal on the 2.11.21, two things regarding bells come to my mind that deserve to be part of my reflections.

1) Kea tells me on a field trip about how the schools in poorer areas announce breaks and lunchtime with sirens, while fancy white schools have old fancy bells with a warm light sound.

2) Bradley reminded me of the violent connotation bells can have in the environment my body finds itself in. I am in an environment with legacies and histories of enslavement, violence and genocide. People regarded as non-human, as property, were called to work, oppressed and humiliated – with the sound of the so-called "Slave-Bell", as Nadjwa explained to us when we were walking on the grounds of Groot Constantia.

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Company Gardens View, Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town City Centre, Kapstadt, Südafrika

# data[].attributes.headline
Company Gardens, Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town City Centre, Kapstadt, Südafrika

# data[].attributes.subject
Company Gardens, Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town City Centre, Kapstadt, Südafrika

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19th of October, 2021, Company Gardens 11am, There's a monotone background sound. It seems indistinguishable whether it's the constant sound of traffic, a leaves-blower or a building's A/C. When I compare it to another recording of an A/C box attached to a building near by, it seems the same – but who knows for sure?
On top of this baseline., I listen to birds that signify the serenity and the silence of Company Gardens. Who's this serenity for? For the statues of colonizers towering on pedestals, obvious to everyone – whether tourist or policeofficer or person without a house. The statues are just as silent as the garden, but their silence is loud – not serene. I must listen closely, then I hear the names of the enslaved people – omitted even from the memorial dedicated to their memory a few streets down. Not every silence is serene.

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Thursday, 21st of October, 8am, Yoga Studio in Cape Town, changing room. The trickles of a shower – not filtered water like the one they offer. The voices from the reception area are audible but no content of the speech is detectable. The distant murmur was what's caught me ear's attention. Even tough I cannot hear what they say, it's very clear that the people are excited to be there. Yesterday, a friend of mine told me how they realized how white people dont actually have a community – they came to that conclusion when they attended the funeral of a close friend. Their Malawian community blew them away: "We don't even talk to our neighbours." Th sound of voices in the yoga studio made me think about whether white people create communities of privilege. Through paying for expensive yoga classes or trainings. Creating communities through expensive activities. We don't have to create communities the way people do whose survival depends on it.

# data[].attributes.location_name
Tamboers Winkel, De Lorentz Street, Gardens, Kapstadt, Südafrika

# data[].attributes.headline
Tamboers Winkel, De Lorentz Street, Gardens, Kapstadt, Südafrika

# data[].attributes.subject
Tamboers Winkel, De Lorentz Street, Gardens, Kapstadt, Südafrika

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13th of October, Cape Town City Center, 9am

I stop my steps in front of a coffee shop nestled between Kloof street with its bars and restaurant and Kloof Nek Road that crawls up towards the "neck" of table mountain before it descends to the rich Camps Bay.  The houses here are either apartment blocs or old victorian houses in which affluent young families live or students from rich families sharing a place. This is one part of Cape Town in which the coloniality manages to confuse you about your geographic location.

The outdoor sitting area of the café is equipped with small speakers from which patrons and passers-by are made to listen to French Chansons. An employee slams the car door shut after he off-loaded produce. Cars drive past me – some sound like they have a strong motor, those are the shiny ones. Other cars make a sound because they are transporting a metallic ladder slamming against the rails of the bakkie (pick-up truck). A huge truck's breaks screech like I have never heard before as it descends down the hill past the coffee shop. Someone claps their hands rhythmically while walking. A dog's paw-steps, faintly on the pavement. Whatever I try and listen to, my attention returns to the French chanson. It tries to bring the patrons' attention back to the "serenity" of the  Cafe's space - of the small sonic bubble away from the unnerving "city sounds". It's a "recreational" bubble for those people - like me- with enough money to spend 40 ZAR on a macadamia flat white, after which they can hop into their cars to go back to their airconditioned offices or their cozy home office where they work behind their laptops – secluded again from the screeching breaks and rattling ladders that make up the soundtrack of people spending their days in the streets without French chansons.

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Baxter Theatre Centre, Cnr Main Road and, Burg Rd, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700, South Africa

# data[].attributes.headline
Baxter Theatre Centre, Cnr Main Road and, Burg Rd, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700, South Africa

# data[].attributes.subject
Baxter Theatre Centre, Cnr Main Road and, Burg Rd, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700, South Africa

# data[].attributes.body
Please leave the building: Sound as affect and embodiment
Sound casts long shadows over the city--both spatially and temporally.  The 'signal' sound [those acoustic sensations that demand our attention] of a fire alarm and a strangely polite request to 'please leave the building...' spreads across an acoustic territory without neat boundaries; it creates a 'sonic shadow' that is mediated by the materiality of the city.  Sounds such as this also create a temporal shadow, connecting to my memory of escaping a building fire more than 10 years ago. The sound of an alarm induces a panic response to flee even as we sit together for a seminar discussion at the Baxter Restaurant. Sonic geographies impact the body and our presence. Sound in this way initiates a dialogue between space, time and memory.

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Sonic urbanisms: Sound, mobilities, culture and identity

Convenor: Bradley Rink, University of the Western Cape

12 October – 11 November 2021

Sound is an everyday aspect of the urban fabric and experience.  Urbanists broadly, and mobilities scholars more specifically argue that cities develop and thrive on movements and circulations of humans, non-human animals, capital, objects and information.  Yet, the sounds that accompany these mobilities have received less attention.  The sonic dimensions of mobility signal movement, stillness, vector, intention and subjectivity—amongst others.  The sonic aspects of mobility are evident in everyday experience of the city, from the mundane to the extraordinary.  The banal sound of a hooting car can signal conflict, contestation or even sociability; while the chime produced by the bell on a bus signals a desire to stop.  In Cape Town, as well as other African cities, the unmistakable shouts of the taxi guardjies provide a sonic map of the city as the conductor touts for passengers and announces destinations.  Other sounds may be seemingly out-of-place such as the sounds of singing mobile congregants in trains or sermons from self-styled preachers on buses.  All of these sounds serve critical roles in movement and stillness, and help to shape our understanding not only of how mobilities are initiated, terminated, and more broadly sensed, but also our understanding of urban cultures and identities.  As markers of cityness, sound and its related soundscapes are individual, ephemeral and place-specific while also being imbued with meaning and purpose.  Sound contributes to our memories and imaginaries of mobility and eludes systems of representation.  The co-incidence of sound and mobilities must therefore be understood within their spatial, temporal and  cultural contexts.  In this Critical Urbanisms seminar we will explore the following questions as they relate to mobilities, sound and cities:

What is the role of sound in the urban experience and the life of cities?

How can soundscapes be usefully harnessed to understand:

Meaning-making

Subjectivity

Place?

How might soundscapes be visualised?

How can urban research methodologies embrace non-visual sensory perceptions

How might sound might contribute both to methods and practices of urban research?

More than simply hearing the city, we are attempting to listen to the city with a critical ear toward the urban fabric and experience.

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Hello!...Wynberg?
The unmistakable shouts of the taxi guardjies or kondis (guards or conductors) provide a sonic map of the city as they  tout for passengers and announce destinations.  Layered within this urban soundscape are the hoots of passing cars, the hum of tyres on the roadway, and the wind that provides an acoustic wallpaper. This is not simply ‘noise’, but elements of the aural cityscape that allow us to "...trace the affective relations and their impact on the constitution of place” (Boyd and Duffy, 2012).

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20 October 2021, 14:55
Mowbray

The weather is sunny and warm today, and the sound of a helicopter whirls overhead.  This is one of many helicopters that soar overhead, punctuating the soundscape with a 'thump-thump-thump' of their rotor blades.  Sometimes I can see them clearly: a red air ambulance, a camouflage SANDF Oryx, or a shiny white Airbus tourist helicopter.  Their sound reminds me of the verticality of the city.  The sound today is of an Airbus, likely carrying tourists on a 'flip' over the city where they experience the urban landscape detached from the materiality below. When an Oryx Helicopter that lumbers overhead it makes me think of war. Not that I have experienced it myself, but rather of media images and sounds of the same.  It makes me think of ‘insulation’ and ‘buffers’ that (for myself) have protected me from the impacts and affects of such sounds for much of my life.