Sound Futures is one of the first cycle Polisfonia's workshop formats, developed in collaboration with the designer and artist Flora Mammana and the musician and sound artist Daniele Alessi. In this article you will find a summarised version of the format and some sound examples.
PURPOSE OF THE LAB
The aim of this workshop is to guide participants in the exploration of abandoned public spaces or buildings and imagining desirable futures for them through a collective sonic performance. The core concept is that the sonic imaginaries produced by participants could help to initiate or strengthen a dialogue on the future of the selected spaces between local inhabitants and the municipality. The format is designed to be performed in public space with voluntary, free and casual participation, but could also be performed involving selected groups of people that live close to the chosen location and/or have a connection with it.
WHY SHOULD THIS WORKSHOP EVEN TAKE PLACE?
Because we seldom focus our attention on abandoned spaces and even more seldom we are involved in their transformations. Immersing in these spaces and re-imagining their futures together can be an incredibly powerful way to both train our imagination and perception of space as well as to encourage us to initiate a dialogue towards desirable change.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
POLITICS?
By politics we mean all those conscious and unconscious practices and processes through which we shape our coexistence in society. All the practices and relationships that allow people to live together in groups such as tribes, cities or countries are therefore political. It is a broad definition but it allows us to understand that everything we do in a social context is political.
IDEAL LOCATION
The ideal location for this workshop is in proximity (close-to and/or within) abandoned spaces or building of the city. Conditions for better (political) participation should be taken into account to make participation as accessible as possible.
DURATION
1,5 hours
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS
~12
AGE
Any age
TYPE OF PARTICIPANTS
This workshop can be carried out with whoever wants to join. It works however especially well if participants live close to the selected location and/or have a connection with it.
KNOWLEDGE/ SKILLS NEEDED (participants)
No previous knowledge or skill is required to join this workshop
USEFUL KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS (participants)
- Understanding and speaking the local language
- Reading writing
- Drawing
- Basic motoric skills
KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS NEEDED (facilitators)
- All of the above
- Attention and empathy towards people
- Open, inclusive and non-discriminatory attitude
- Attentive listening skills
- Good rhetoric and synthesis skills
- Experience in moderating workshops
USEFUL KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS (facilitators)
- Knowledge of local architectural and urban legislation and policies
- Proficiency in other languages
MATERIALS (checklist)
REQUIRED
- Paper sheets
- Markers and/or pens
- A large printed map of the city
- A portable audio recorder or a smartphone with good audio recording capabilities
- A battery powered speaker
- A cable to connect the recorder to the speaker (if bluetooth connection is not possible)
OPTIONAL BUT RECOMMENDED
- Towels or pillows
- Food and drinks
RUNNING THE WORKSHOP
Musical Body is a format that includes 4 main phases following an introduction:
- Attentive immersed listening
- From history to future
- Generating sound futures
- Mapping spaces for action
PHASE 0 - INTRODUCTION [~10min]
The purpose of the introduction is to make participants feel comfortable, get to know each other a little better and explain the activity the workshop will consist of. The ideal introduction can vary much depending on the context and the type of participants.
Some useful aspects to consider:
- Efforts should be taken to make the setting as accessible, welcoming and comfortable as possible (the Conditions for better (political) participation guideline can be a great help in this)
- Participants should be greeted in a friendly way and efforts should be made to get to know them a little, in this context moderators might try to find out if participants have previous experience in music making
- If the workshop is enacted in a public space with open and spontaneous participation the introduction may begin with just a simple informal chat
- If people do not know each other mutual introduction should be encouraged
- If the workshop takes place in an institutional setting where participants already know each other then some warm-up exercise or icebreaker can be used to lighten up the mood
- Moderators should explain the purpose and structure of the workshop in a summarised and clear way
- In the case of open and spontaneous participation, moderators should take care to welcome participants who join mid-way and briefly introducing what is currently done and how they could join
- If participants decide to leave mid-way moderators should take care to greet and thank them
PHASE 1 - ATTENTIVE IMMERSED LISTENING [~15min]
The workshop begins with an attentive listening exercise that aims to connect participants to the sonic landscape of the chosen location. Participants are given a piece of paper and a marker and are invited to find unusual spots where they can position themselves for a while, attentively listening at which sounds they can hear from there. They can use the paper to take note of what they hear either in written or drawn form and change spot as many times as they like. The guiding question for this exercise is:
- 'Which sounds are part of the sonic landscape of this place?'
The moderator(s) should stress the importance of concentrating on the sonic landscape as much as possible inviting participants to take their time and eventually close their eyes. When the attentive listening is finished the group gathers in one place and a dialogue on the experience is facilitated. Some of the aspects to focus on include:
- Thoughts and feelings about the experience
- The type and quality of sounds heard
- The political implications and meanings those sounds have
- Interesting and/or unexpected discoveries
The ending of the dialogue concludes the first phase, after which the group should have a clear sonic picture of the place and be more connected to it.
PHASE 2 - FROM HISTORY TO FUTURE [~25min]
The second step begins with a brief introduction to the place's history in which it is clarified why it was built (in the case of a building), how it was used in the past, why it was abandoned, if there are plans to re-activate it, and what kind of activation is planned, highlighting the overall political background/backstory. The moderator(s) can support this stage by showing pictures, floor plans, municipality reports, news articles and/or any other document they could find about the place to provide a clearer and more tangible narration. Participants are encouraged to ask questions and comment on the information shared, and when the first activity comes to an end the next is introduced. Now each person is invited to take some time by themselves and think about how they would like to see the place become in the future. Notes can be taken to support this step. The guiding questions are:
- 'How would a desirable future for this place look like?'
- 'What kind of activities would you like to see hosted in this place?'
When each participant has come up with one or more idea, the possible and desirable futures of the place are discussed in an open round. Each participant can share their scenario that can be discussed, integrated and expanded by the whole group. When the sharing is over, the moderator(s) facilitate(s) a dialogue in which the group has to select the most compelling scenarios that will be used in the next exercise. Depending on the time availability and the group size, the ideal number of scenarios may vary considerably, however, working with 4 to 6 scenarios is usually the most practical solution.
PHASE 3 - GENERATING SOUND FUTURES [~25min]
The third phase consists of the collective sonic enactment of the selected desirable scenarios. The guiding question here would be:
- 'How would this desirable scenario sound like?'
To begin with, one scenario is chosen and briefly described again so that everybody can imagine it. An example of a desirable scenario to re-activate an abandoned place or building could be 'public open kitchen', a freely accessible public kitchen where people from the neighbourhood can meet to cook together or just share convivial moments. Each participant will then have to briefly chose a role to play in such scenario coordinating with the other group members. This happens quite instinctively and should not take more than a few seconds.
Examples of possible roles related to the public open kitchen could be a person that is cooking a meal, a person that is helping to cook, a person just sitting there and talking to somebody, a person that just arrived with some extra food, a kid that is playing around, a dog that is greeting new coming people, kitchen tools and furniture that make noises, background music, etc.
Once ready, the group enacts the scenario using their voices and bodies to reproduce the desirable sonic landscape that the place would have. This process should take around 1 minute and the audio should be recorded with a portable recorder or a cellphone. After the first scenario has been recorded, the process is repeated until all selected scenarios have been enacted and recorded. A brief summary of the steps:
- A desirable scenario is chosen and briefly described (~20s)
- Each participant choses and communicates what their role in the scenario will be (~30s)
- The sonic scenario is collectively enacted using voices and bodies and the audio is recorded (~60s)
- The process is repeated until all the selected desirable scenarios are enacted and recorded
When all the selected scenarios have been enacted and recorded, the audio recordings are played back using a portable speaker and participants are invited to look at the abandoned place and imagine it in action. To conclude the phase a dialogue is facilitated focussing on sharing thoughts and feelings about the experience, and discussing possible strategies and ideas to make the desirable futures come to live.
PHASE 4 - MAPPING SPACES FOR ACTION [~15min]
The final activity is a collective mapping of abandoned spaces and buildings of the city or neighbourhood that could be activated again. The moderator(s) should prepare a big map of the city or neighbourhood where the whole group can locate abandoned spaces or buildings they know of. The map is then used to facilitate a dialogue on the issue of abandoned places and building and its political implications. Some topics to touch upon may include:
- Housing policies
- Desirable urban development
- Common housing issues (unaffordable housing, construction speculation, gentrification, homelessness)
POSSIBLE VARIATIONS
Involving local politicians/ municipalities
In the regular version of this format, the group of participants will be composed of random people that will be most likely citizens living close to the selected location and/or that have a connection with it. An interesting variation of this workshop would foresee the involvement of politicians or members of the municipality as part of the group, allowing them to be directly confronted with a sensible political theme through an unconventional approach, to be directly involved in the generation of desirable imaginaries together with other citizens and, perhaps more importantly, to be directly exposed to their honest thoughts and ideas. In order to enact the workshop this way however there is a fundamental aspects that needs to be considered without which it would not work. Namely, the politicians or members of the municipality should join in the role of regular citizens, making the effort to not dress, act and speak in ways that would signalise their role within local political institutions thus enforcing undesired hierarchies between them and the rest of the group. If this requirement is fulfilled however, the workshops would function as a concrete and tangible example of how citizens can be active part of a political dialogue and a potential decision making process on matters that matter.
Splitting groups
The workshop foresees a participation of ~12 people but there might be cases where larger groups could take part. In this case it would be best to have more moderators and to slightly modify the phase enactment by creating two or three smaller groups that would work separately on the same activities and would come together only during moments of open dialogue.
Focussing on specific communities
The standard version of this workshop focusses primarily on abandoned spaces or buildings. This does not necessarily have to be. It could also be enacted with the purpose of collectively imagining desirable futures for any given place, also those that are already active. It lends itself particularly well to be carried with selected communities that would like to transform their life spaces. Some examples could be the inhabitants of a buildings that want to transform a specific shared space, or the students and teachers of a school that want to transform a specific classroom.
Adopting non-human perspectives
Another interesting variation that could be applied to the format would be to adopt a non-human perspective in the scenario generation. Concretely this means to emphasise with non-human beings and express what they might perceive as desirable future scenarios. It is obviously impossible to think and feel from a non-human perspective but it is possible and desirable to develop an attentive and emphatic attitude towards the non-human world which could be practiced through this format. How could a given abandoned space be desirably transformed from the perspective of a tree, an insect, a bird, a river, etc.? Isn't what seems abandoned to us humans actually desirable from another perspective? How should we include non-human perspectives into the transformations we enact? Enacting the format by emphasising with possible non-human perspectives would naturally require a focus on such themes, and the moderator(s) should prepare accordingly.