Urban Sound Lab is our nomadic lab in which city residents themselves explore how attentive listening can contribute to greater personal well-being and better urban planning.
In Deuren naar een gedeelde dimensie, a municipal publication on eight years of art in Stadsdeel Zuid, Urban Sound Lab was chronicled as one of 23 exemplary projects. With Stadsdeel Zuid saying goodbye to Urban Sound Lab as of 1 January 2025, it is a good time to re-publish this text written by Edo Dijksterhuis.
We thank Stadsdeel Zuid for 7 years of support and its confidence.
Soundtrackcity
Shopfronts on Kalverstraat in front of which shutters hung in the middle of the day. A frighteningly empty Dam Square. And even in the Red Light District, not a single human being on the street. Those who went outside in April 2020 saw Amsterdam as never before. The first lockdown to stop the encroaching coronavirus had turned Mokum into a ghost town.
The city not only looked but also sounded different. Without the constant undertone of planes, traffic on the A10 and the subterranean rumble of the metro, city dwellers suddenly heard the wind through the trees and birds whose existence had not been suspected before. Soundtrackcity called on Amsterdammers to share what they all noticed and what it did to them. The dozens of responses on the foundation website speak of a new awareness.
Since 2009, Soundtrackcity has let city dwellers listen to their surroundings instead of the usual looking. In the early years, this was done through sound walks, but gradually the projects became more participatory. For Urban Sound Lab, supported by stadsdeel Zuid, residents of the Diamantbuurt took to the streets with recording equipment to collect sounds from their neighbourhood. The explicit focus on what is normally neglected worked as a real ‘ear opener’ for many. Everyday reality turned out to have unsuspected aural layers.
Urban Sound Lab moved to the Rivierenbuurt after this, but Soundtrackcity also became active outside city limits. In Rotterdam, the organisation records the audio profile of rapidly changing neighbourhoods. And Michiel Huijsman, one of the board members, was invited by Haus der Statistik in Berlin to have residents listen to the sounds of their living environment with the self-built Sonic Aggregator.
The latest achievement is a listening guide for Beatrixpark entitled Op expeditie naar de luisterhorizon, which allows coronaproof to test how a tree affects the sound of the park and allows you to hear Schiphol with your ear on the grass. Coming soon is a sequel *) to Homing Inside Out, an English-language guide that lets users go on a sound safari in their own homes. Very useful in the next lockdown.
*) Now available in our webshop
