Listening to Madrid

Catalog description

In today's increasingly visual culture, the significance of listening is easily overlooked. Unlike vision, which is constrained by our field of view and can be intentionally interrupted by closing the eyes, hearing is immersive, three-dimensional, and continuous - there are no "earbrows" to shield us from sound. This aspect makes listening a powerful tool for perception and understanding. This course will reveal how attentive listening provides unique information about places and communities. Departing from acoustemology - a field that views sound not merely as a sensory experience but as a primary method for understanding environments, relationships, places, and histories - we will investigate Madrid through its diverse soundscapes by capturing field recordings across the city. Inspired by projects such as Locus Sonus, SONYC, and Favorite Sounds, the class will collaboratively create a public sound map of Madrid, shared via freesound.org - the world’s largest open repository for sound recordings. To further gain insight about sound as a conveyor of meaning, emotion, and narrative, students will compose musical works that will exclusively use Madrid’s sound as the musical material. This course is offered in NYU Madrid.