City & Sound

Discussion about sound in the city frequently returns us to the question of noise, without giving us space to explore the ways in which this term is slippery to define, and intimately connected to personal experience and our relationship to our surroundings. Beyond the technocratic definition of noise, according to the measurement of decibels, perhaps noise is what we hear when we refuse listening. a full-stop of sonic experience. Listening is a process of composing and ordering the ways we attend to what we hear, perhaps noise is what we edit out of this meaning making, that which violates a specific order of listening.

City & Sound participants were invited to bring a wider world of sound into their attention, and perhaps discover new perspectives on the city via a Listening Tour of Khirkhee and surrounds; followed by an open discussion of questions about the city and sound including topics such as: listening, sound, noise control, bio-acoustics, sound in public space, shared listening, sonic art and acoustic ecology. Alongside this event we exhibited work in progress in the Khoj courtyard and studios.