Sound Mapping: Cultural Houses

lecture

English

Sound Mapping: Cultural houses present the processes of aerial and sound mapping of the former house of culture Družba (currently abandoned), realised in 2021 in Levice, Slovakia. The object of Družba, despite the political and social conditions under which it was constructed, represented a place of common encounter and community formation, even outside of the official structures. Its current form is ignored precisely because of its relation to the time of the foundation, thus overlooking its architectural and cultural significance. When the free market overtook post-socialist countries, buildings that represented distinctive objects of modernity were covered by advertisements. This contributed to their trivialisation. The process of transforming cultural houses and changing the organisation of their operations has been justified by the attempt to exclude them from their political, economic and social origins. The impact of social and cultural significance has been lost under layers of billboards. These places are vehicles of collective memory, yet they often stand on the margin because of the ideological context of the time of their creation. If these places are radically transformed or destroyed, the memory they contain will also be taken. Architecture acts as a container of contents in which the passage of time between epochs and the development of the community can be traced. Through space, it shapes the identity and culture of the individual and the society. Historical objects serve as mnemonic devices for maintaining the memory of a current place. If I cannot relate to the past, I am doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again and continue to pass them from generation to generation. The objective of the mapping was two create two scenarios of possible futures which directly reflect the state of the place, its histories, ecological and resulting social changes in the years 2030 and 2050 (important milestones of strategic documents, e.g. on the reductions in carbon emissions). Through the contexts of Sound Studies (viewed through the prism of the Handbook for Acoustic Ecology), the talk presents the premises and design of the research, the stages of the fieldwork, and the application of methods typical of sociology and ethnography (as in-situ and desk research, qualitative and ethnographic research, in-depth interview, field data analysis, SWOT analysis, sound, spatial and performative mapping, spatial design, storytelling) to SoundStudies approaches.

Eastern Europe sound-art panel

SOLČÁNI, J.

3. 3. 2023

Copenhagen University, Copenhagen LMU Munich/U Zurich

http://www.soundstudieslab.org/events/soundeast-sonic-inquiries-into-cultures-from-central-and-eastern-europe-central-asia/