Usit - Into the Noise

Art Based musical, architectonic and acoustic investigations of contemporary urban spaces, Urban Sound Institute 2008-10, funded by the Swedish Research Council.

Summary
The project aims to critically challenge conceptions of noise as undifferentiated urban drones, and investigate it as a rich material with concealed details.

To understand sounds as hidden micro-events within noise, the project will extract sonic elements, model their relations to surroundings and elaborate their spatial subtleties through artistic experiments. The goal is to increase possibilities to articulate variations in noise, improve sound design and develop musical-architectonic-acoustic qualities of urban space, as spatial compositions.

Art experiments and theoretical reflection will also investigate how awareness of sound can contribute to more differentiated conceptions of public space, and affect architectural thinking. The research group Urban Sound Institute, uniting Chalmers Architecture, Konstfack and the Academy of Music and Drama, Goteborg, has competence in musical composition, architecture/urban design, soundart, sound design and technical acoustics.

Investigations combine art experiments on urban sites, acoustic measuring, explorative work at Konstfack sound laboratory and pedagogical workshops and courses. The project expects to render a rich material to be displayed and discussed successively in several forms of representation - sound productions, site specific installations, film, art exhibitions, workshops etc. Important new knowledge is also expected through development of theories, concepts and methods on sound environment and sound design.