Sounds of our Cities

Sounds of our Cities is an European project of Cultural Cooperation carried out between City of Roeselare, Dear Hunter, Aalborg Universitet and Idensitat and partly funded through the Interreg Creative Europe program. It aims to explore urban areas, focusing on the locality, including local audiences and reflecting on cultural identity in relationship with the community.

The central artistic activity of the project is the development of two locative sound art exhibitions, which will be embedded into specific sites in the urban environments of Roeselare, Belgium and Barcelona, Spain. Each exhibition will consist of ten sound pieces, one by each of ten artists chosen by an European open call. The production of the exhibitions will be preceded by social mapping of each of two selected areas by Dear Hunter, during which a collective residency for all artists and a curator will take place. The final results of each mapping process will be handed over to the artists and will highlight points shared by both localities.

The process of developing the artworks will focus on the locality, including the local audiences and reflecting on cultural identity in relationship with the community. The artworks will together create an aural melody that augments the cityscapes through personal experience,and will be delivered in a sound format accessible through a digital application on smartphone or other devices. The works will be site and time-specific and flexible in their interpretation to different audiences. An interactive ‘game’ version of the exhibitions will be created and embedded on the project’s website.

The process of creating the sound art installations, comprising a diverse cultural content, invites both professional artists and public participants to consider the aspects of their identity which reflect the intangible culture of the community they are a part of. The consideration of a local identity of the selected areas within the creation process of the exhibitions enhances respect for its inhabitants’ needs, promotes cultural diversity and stimulates public discussion.

SoOC demonstrates new methods of urban artistic intervention and hence broadens attitudes and awareness of how cultural operators can work within public spaces. Target groups can experience public art in an innovative way, and local audiences can contribute to its shaping. It is anticipated to foster a progressive attitude in how artists, cultural operators and audiences can produce and interact with cultural and creative content in public space through digital technology.
SoOC sees the cultural and creative sector (CCS) as having an intrinsic role in stimulating local communities, highlighting cultural diversity and instigating intercultural and transnational dialogue. This project works to leverage this capacity through the production of public artworks that will be delivered in a unique digital interface to wide and disparate audiences across five target groups.

Sounds of Our Cities takes place in duration of 20 months in October 2019-May 2021. It is a collaboration between four partners:

City of Roeselare – Belgium BE
Idensitat – Barcelona ES
Dear Hunter – Netherlands NL
Aalborg Universitet – Denmark DK

Other three associated partners are involved:
Impact VZW, Belgium
Struer Tracks / Struer Municipality, Denmark
Bohm Bohm Room, Sweden