<< Present: Preserving the Urban Sensorium >>
As the place who will represent the city’s present as the future’s past, how then can city museums contribute to recording, and preserving, the present urban sensorium – especially with regard to the more ephemeral sensations? Evoking noises and smells is a relatively old museum or heritage site tool, e.g at the Museum of London Docklands one can smell different spices that would have been imported into London, while in the Victorian Walk at London Wall the sound of horses and carriages are present. But often these tools are artificial ‘recreations’ of sensory features of the past, rather than actual traces. As sensory experience is important for understanding the lived present of the city not only in relation to personal feelings, but also with regard to citizenship, migration, welfare and sense of place, it is timely to think about how these sensations can be recorded and preserved to enable dialogue about changes in the city. The data can be used in different ways for debates or incorporation into exhibitions.
i. Recording the Senses:
The methods that can be used to record the present sensorium include qualitative observational, interactive, textual methods as well as the collection of quantitative data. Some sensory features can be more directly recorded than others – e.g sounds or temperature can be electronically measured and recorded, but like more ephemeral sensations such as smell, they are also filtered (and a recording device does not necessarily render the same impressions). While technology helps to capture ‘objective’ qualities (such as sound levels, or temperature), interviews, observations, texts and art works can give insights into their interpretation.
> Methods:
Sound Recordings:
Cities have rhythms, sound changes within 24 hours but also with seasons. Sound sources mix and create their own symphony. In winter inside and outside sounds are more separated; in summer they mix a lot more due to open windows and doors. Although sound levels can be measured and assessed – sound perception is subjective depending on the role of the listeners and their occupation. Sound categorisation can already evoke feelings of bad or good sound such as noise, music, and ambience. The perception of loudness also depends on emotional reactions and experiences, whilst traffic noise is often associated with negative feelings (added health concerns), laughter and music seem to evoke positive reactions. Familiarity of sounds to a ‘visitor/listener’ are similarly important for orientation, and attentiveness.
Example 1: Cologne workshop - city of sound
Specific auditory information of a city might also form part of signature sounds such as the bells of the Cologne Cathedral. The team looked at a particular part of the street first and recorded different sound sources to present a soundtrack of that spot.
Researching the soundscapes of the city in Cologne:
Recording provides researchers with references – copies of specific sensory information (temporary sound/image) removed from their actual context. Technological recordings isolate information but humans also look at sound sources and process other information from the environment. By moving sensory information out of space and time, vital contextual sensory information is lost that has to be substituted for. We took images of sound sources as additional sound references to present later. Recording is usually a conscious process – a reflective process in itself requiring decisions over what is worth recording and what is not, for how long, and who is receiving it. When analysing a city’s auditory sensorium we concluded one has to look at a variety of factors – time (day, year), differing subjective experiences including a variety of different human ‘listeners’ (their sensory reflections in and out of context) – but also objective readings, interactions between the materiality of the build environment, humans, transport and environmental factors (e.g. wind) – extending the idea of the thermal maps (presented in Carolina Vasilikou’s talk during the first day).
Example 2: Workshop Barcelona - Research and Representation for Museum Curators
A group of museum curators, sound artist and sociologist explore the soundscapes of el Raval in Barcelona. This group recorded sounds in different areas of el Raval focusing on thresholds to analyse how power-relations might be framed within ephemeral moments of public life.
Physical thresholds implied dramatic changes in soundscape, switching from noisy to quiet environments (lo-fi vs. hi-fi), allowing us to appreciate sounds and acoustics of different spaces; crossing thresholds also conveyed differences in light, temperature and tactile experiences. The concept of thresholds allowed us to investigate the interfaces of public spaces as articulated by streets, courtyards, squares and alleyways. It offered us the opportunity to heighten our awareness of the different qualities of public space embodied in sensorial experience.
Soundscape experiments in Barcelona (collection of recorded sounds)
Example 3: Kolumba Museum
Incorporating past sounds into a new museum site: As part of the transformation of a memorial church destroyed during the second world war into the Diocesan Museum of Cologne (Peter Zumthor), the sounds in the chapel ruin were recorded and are now part of a sensory exploration which gives insight into the temporal layers of the buildings through architecture, lights and sound.
> Links to talks/literature:
Ilaria Sartori (Director at Barcelona Sonora)
Barcelona through Sound
Arno Steffen (Musician and ARSCH HUH E.V)
Music and the mobilisation of the city against racism
ii. Collaborative Explorations:
In addition to research by ‘classic research’ teams – a range of participatory approaches can be chosen in the process of mapping from workshops exploring social media to in the street mapping of sensory spaces with teenagers.
> Methods:
Social media analysis
A considerable part of the perception and representation of the city is now happening digitally. An analysis of how places are represented in different social media platforms can give insight into ‘analogue’ uses of the city. How do people represent the city in social media and how do these images influence people’s uses and expectations of a city? In turn, collaborative digital project can help to make the hidden aspects of sensing visible and to create a shared space for the experience of the city.
Example: London workshop - Social Media and the making of place
The Social Media Research Group London examined the ways in which people use Instagram/Twitter to represent themselves in and in front of buildings. The main questions were: What types of filters are used (and what filters are provided by the particular technology?). What kind of sensory atmosphere is displayed through social media? What are important buildings in social media? How are emotional connections to places represented through people’s photographs? The approach provides a visual-emotional account of a site.
Walking, Talking & Chalk-marking a Street
Different social groups use space in cities in different ways and have different needs. These uses and needs can clash, but dialogue, the willingness to listen and thoughtful design can help create public spaces that are inclusive.
Example: Barcelona workshop - Research and Representing for Children (13-16 year olds)
A workshop for young people to map the uses of the city by their age group could ask about their experience of public space and how they would like to change it by giving them:
1. Unstructured / observing tasks: give them a camera / recorder and tell them to move around capturing whatever interests them personally. The data comes from their current physical use of the space and their movement through it.
2. Structured / game playing tasks: give them an imagined scenario, eg a global fashion brand wants to create a new perfume based on the ‘authentic’ smells and feel of el Raval: the task is to analyse the smells and pitch the results to the client. The data comes from their take on what the smells of the space mean to them.
3. Structured / analytical task: Analysing and marking pleasant and unpleasant sensory experiences in space using different coloured chalk – e.g. circling areas of particular smells or obstacles to or assets for use.
> Links to talks/literature:
Katherine McLean (artist, Royal College of Art)
Invisible, Erratic, Ephemeral: Lives of Urban Smells
Ilaria Sartori (Director at Barcelona Sonora)
Barcelona through Sound
Anna Terra (Director of Foment Ciutat, SA) and Carmen Gual
Planning el Raval and the Senses
Reading suggestions:
Hochman, N. & Manovich, L. (2013) Zooming into an Instagram City: Reading the local through social media. First Monday, Volume 18, Number 7 - 1 July 2013 http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4711/3698
‘You Can’t Move History. You Can Secure The Future’: Award winning film asking young people conceptualise their cultural heritage, http://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_499997_en.html
