Sounding Underground

Sounding Underground is a virtual environment that invites users to interact with the soundscapes of three underground public transport systems: London, Paris and México City. Commuters’ memories and imaginations are represented in sounds and images that have been selected by volunteer commuters through an ethnographic process. These sounds are assembled in a sound score that acts as a multimedia user’s interface. The score contains sonic features unique to each metro, as well as some shared sonic spaces. Sounding Underground also invites you to write memories in text, produced by listening. These memories are being published randomly in the "Listening and Remembering" page. This is an interdisciplinary practice-based research nourished by an ethnographic method. Volunteer commuters in each city have recorded their journeys, selected sounds and images, and (in Paris and Mexico) participated in a networked improvisation. They have uploaded contributions, to the projects' database, nourishing the Sounding Underground virtual environment and the Networked Improvisation. Both these artworks consider the individual profound experiences and open space for the sharing of memories of commuting underground. This research was funded by The Leverhulme Trust - Early Career Fellowship 2007 - 2009, and took place in the Institute of Creative Technologies - De Montfort University.