‘BEAM and MAOS’: Two approaches to urban listenings

In this presentation I will introduce two works which have resulted from collaborative sonic investigations of aspect of the urban and which invite an audience to contemplate listening to the city with a different perspective. Both highlight an aspect of city life which we may be less familiar with, which is local and particular but connects the city with the world and with wider global issues.

Beam takes as its starting point the fact that although 90% of everything travels by sea, we know or see very little of the world that surrounds it and focuses this as a sonic investigation of the maritime life of the city of Kochi, South India, a port famous for the global trade in spices. MAOS (Mobile Aural Observation Station) results from a collaborative investigation with textile artist Tessa Brown into how we can make spaces to help us better contemplate the sounds of the city.

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