Museum City: Improvisation and the narratives of space

Abstract

This paper provides four viewpoints on the narratives of space, allowing us to think about possible relations between sites and sounds, reflecting on how places might tell stories, or how practitioners embed themselves in a place in order to shape cultural, social and/or political narratives through the use of sound. I propose four viewpoints that investigate the relationship between sites and sounds, where narratives are shaped and made through the exploration of specific sonic activities. These are:• -sonic narrative of spacesonic participatory action I examine each of these ideas, initially focusing in more detail on the first viewpoint, which provides the context for discussing and analysing a recent site-specific music improvisation project, entitled "Museum City", a work that aligns most closely with my proposal for a 'sonic narrative of space', while also bearing aspects of each of the other proposed viewpoints. The work "Museum City" by Pedro Rebelo, Franziska Schroeder, Ricardo Jacinto and André Cepeda specifically enables me to reflect on how derelict and/or transitional spaces might be reexamined through the use of sound, particularly by means of live music improvisation. The spaces examined as part of "Museum City" constitute either deserted sites or sites about to undergo changes in their architectural layout, their use and sonic make-up. The practice in "Museum City" was born out of a performative engagement with[in] those sites, but specifically out of an intimate listening relationship by three improvisers situated within those spaces.The theoretical grounding for this paper is situated within a wider context of practising and cognising musical spatiality, as proposed by Georgina Born (2013), particularly her proposition for three distinct lineages that provide an understanding of space in/and music. Born's third lineage, which links more closely with practices of sound art and challenges a Euclidean orientation of pitch and timbre space, makes way for a heightened consideration of listening and 'the place' of sound. This lineage is particularly crucial for my discussion, since it positions music in relation to social experiences and the everyday, which the work "Museum City" endeavoured to embrace.

Sound installation art and the intervention of urban public space in Latin America

“…Sonic activism involves the use of space to convey a political message (Schroeder, 2016). Sonic participatory action makes the public aware of its own sonic environment through the process of listening or through direct involvement in the creation of the work (Schroeder, 2016, p. 257).…”

“…The artists appropriate a politically signifi cant building to create a sonic political discourse to diffuse their ideas to the surrounding community. According to Schroeder (2016), sonic activism entails the use of a "public site perceived to be politically or culturally meaningful being infi ltrated or appropriated by sonic activities" (p. 255). Sound is a signifi cant component of the work.…”

“…an overview of practices in the Latin American region, we decided to focus on the four countries with the largest population sizes and to provide examples from both North and South America, at the same time including Chile in the discussion in order to recognize the pioneering sound art that took place in public spaces in that country in the 1970s. Each of the narratives of space proposed by Schroeder (2016) provides starting points for further analysis of how sound installation art responds to and uses public space. As previously mentioned, Noya (2012) states that sound installation art in the Latin American context has not been adequately studied, and most of the sources available for the study of these works have been produced by the artists themselves.…”