The polluted soundscape as music. Reflections on soundwalks
Abstract
If composers of mixed, concrete or electroacoustic music as well as sound artists struggle to eliminate from field recordings as much acoustic pollution as possible (Mâche, 2007), this research-creation in music consists, on the contrary, in identifying certain noise nuisances-low intensity and mainly stationary sounds-that our urban ears filter. The purpose is to isolate them in order to archive and map them on a participative website-https://anthropophony.org/-, and focus on their singular substance, in a materialistic way-inspired by the noise music (Russolo, 2001). This gives these waste sounds an ontological status, and places creation in the lineage of an aesthetic of rejection (Bourriaud, 2017 ; Dagognet, 1997). This collaborative website has a double function: the elaboration of a collective geolocalized sound palette to compose spatialized soundscapes, and the preparation of soundwalks oriented on the music of noises. This article focuses on the individual perception of soundscapes and the social relationship produced by walking and listening to a common space.