Exploratory research of strategies used to create acoustic experiences of commemoration, remembrance, mourning and memory

Doctoral Thesis

2019

Full text here:

https://www.db-thueringen.de/receive/dbt_mods_00060964

DOI

This research seeks to make an exploratory study of the strategies used by the creators of monuments, memorials, and commemorative places located in the public spaces that use sound as one of the primary raw material in their design. The term acoustic monu-memorials was coined in this research to encircle these structures and places. In order to achieve the goal of this research, it was necessary to compile a number of samples, primarily after the digital recording era of captured sound around 1971 to the present. The compilation was relevant because such a compendium was not found in the literature, and to the author's knowledge, a comprehensive investigation of the strategies used in planning acoustic monu-memorials in the urban spaces does not exist.

The method used to create such compendium was to send a question to people with different background identities, such as visual and sound artists, musicians, art curators, and heritage scholars among others. This question produced a selection of 51 examples of acoustic monu-memorials located in public spaces. Subsequently, the examples were classified into four major categories according to their form and nature. Additionally, two examples from the main categories were chosen as case studies: The Sinti and Roma Memorial in Berlin, Germany and the Niche monument in Cali, Colombia. These study cases were presented, described, and analysed in detail as they represent the type of what could be defined as an acoustic monu-memorial in general.

Lynch’s (1960) five elements that help individuals build the image of the city were transferred and used as a tool to help to build this image into acoustic terms. A thorough analysis of the acquired data yielded found the strategies used by the designers to shape, modify, transform, and structure public space. These strategies are entitled Sound Spaces. Moreover, a list entitled Urban Acoustic Commemoration Code was compiled. This list of suggestions addresses urban planners, architects, artists, designers, and general public interested in the aspects involved when creating acoustic commemoration phenomena in public spaces.

Sound Intervention

in situ

2015

La Ruta aims to play children's songs on tours through the squares and streets of Madrid, with the purpose of stimulating the collective sound memory of Spanish-speakers citizens, especially those from Spain and Colombia.

 To this end, Carrito Kultural used its speakers, playing melodies and inviting passers-by to remember them, singing them and sharing the differences in the versions that they have learned.

@LaParceria

La Ruta is a sound intervention carried out within the framework of the call Desplazamientos, a project of the Carrito Kultural, whose team coordinator was La Parcería in the city of Madrid – Spain; between 25 February to 01 March 2015.

Rounds such as Aserrín Aserrán or Un Elefante se Balanceaba are recognizable both in Colombia and Spain; Playing them is intended to create a space for public socialization of those sound memories that will wonder about the origin, migration, displacement and the cultural heritage of the participants.

Regardless of culture, children's rounds are part of sound heritage from our places of origin. As rounds are known for several generations, is possible to integrate audiences of different ages and appropriate them as a part of the intangible heritage, allowing also to connect and interact with the community and change the usual experience of the urban environment.

The rounds are sound texts that are open to change, to collective creation and its evolution can be traced to allow spaces of communication between citizens.

The amount known is wide so here I selected some examples:

Aserrín Aserran Los Maderos de San Juan – toycantando

Los Elefantes – Prof. David Barraza

Arroz con leche - SueNiñosAngulo

Bartolo tenia una flauta – VideoKidsTV Dibujos

Debajo un botón - MusicalBlogies

Había una vez un barquito chiquitito - ArantxaRiera

La Gallina Turuleca - KidsConcept

Tengo una vaca lechera – Gaby, Fofó, Milike y Fofito

                                    Película Los Padrinos 1973 Dir. Enrique Carreras -

La serpiente de tierra Caliente - maricielom

El puente esta quebrado – Isabellasalazar1‘s channel

Más rimas en: mamalisa

History of the evolution of the round: Ronda Arroz con Leche o La viudita del Conde Laurel.

Tomado de Esquenazi Pérez Martha - Acerca de las rondas infantiles tradicionales

[http://www.perfiles.cult.cu/article.php?article_id=222]

 La viudita del Conde Laurel puede encontrarse en España, Chile, Nuevo México y Uruguay (Cadilla, 1940:185). Boggs añade Italia, Inglaterra (Poor widow), Argentina, Perú, Venezuela, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, Cuba y Santo Domingo. En la isla de El Hierro (Canarias) se conoce como Conde de Cabra (Boggs, 1955:233). Platt agrega Guatemala y Paraguay (Platt, 2000:28).

Según Trapero se trata de un romance ritualizado como juego de ronda infantil en que existe un diálogo entre dos grupos de niñas en forma estrófica (Trapero y Esquenazi, 2002:301); lo hemos observado como ronda cantada al unísono en la que se agachaban al decir “rin ran”.

Versión cubana de La viudita del Conde Laurel:

      

      Arroz con leche                         se quiere casar

2    Con un viudita                           de la capital                    rin ran

      Que sepa coser                          que sepa bordar,

4    Que ponga la aguja                    en su canevá                   rin, ran

      Aurora de mayo                         al campo salía

6    En busca de flores                      de mayo y abril

      Yo soy la viudita                        que mando en la ley

8    Quisiera casarme                        y no encuentro con quien.

       —Tan linda y tan mona,             no encuentras con quien,

10   Elige a tu gusto                          que aquí tienes quien

       —Contigo sí, contigo no,            contigo me caso yo.

En las versiones encontradas en otros países generalmente se conservan los primeros versos y cambian los finales.

Versión chilena:

Arroz con leche,                  me quiero casar,

con una señorita                  de Portugal,

que sepa coser,                    que sepa bordar,

que sepa las tablas               de multiplicar.

Con ésta, sí, con ésta, no.    Con ésta, sí que me caso yo.

En Guatemala es el niño el que quiere casarse:

—Papá, mamá, me quiero casar,

con una muchacha que sepa bailar.

—Cásate, cásate, que yo te daré,

zapatos y medias color del café.

—Arroz con leche, me quiero casar.

Si me caso con la negrita,

se me enoja la blanquita.

Versión argentina:

Arroz con leche,               me quiero casar,

con una señorita               de San Nicolás,

que sepa coser,                que sepa bordar,

que sepa abrir la puerta    para ir a jugar.

Versión uruguaya:

Arroz con leche                  me quiero casar,

con una niñita                    del barrio oriental,

que sepa coser,                  que sepa bordar,

que sepa hacer medias       para un general.

Versión de República Dominicana:

Arroz con leche                se quiere casar

con una viudita                de la capital,

que sepa coser,                que sepa bordar

que ponga la aguja           en su mismo lugar.

Tin, tan,                          sopita de pan,

si no me dan                    café con pan,

le saco la leva                  al sacristán.

Versión venezolana:

Arroz con leche;                          me quiero casar

con una mocita de la capital,      que sepa coser,

que sepa bordar,                         que ponga la mesa

en su santo lugar.

—Yo soy la viudita,                      la hija del rey,

me quiero casar                          y no encuentro con quien.

—Pues siendo tan bella                y no hallas con quien,

elige a tu gusto                           que aquí tienes cien.

(Platt, 200:23-28).

Sound Installation

in situ

2014

They are not cut yet but their luck is already sentenced.
About 60 trees leave their home in the north wing of the Weimarhallenpark to make room for the new residence of the Neues Bauhaus-Museum.

Birds, bats, banks and the others trees will say goodbye to this group of future outcasts.

adieu is an interactive sound-installation that wants to offer the opportunity to Weimarers and other habitants of the city that usually dwell this park to join this mourning’s chorus and begin to say goodbye to the each other.
If the plan is accurate, only five trees located on the other side of the road will survive in its current position and they will be the witnesses of the announced arrival of the new neighbour of 30 meters.

 

Weimar in Germany has currently nine big parks and the Weimarhallenpark is the only one in the centre of the city. This park was and is a very popular venue for adults and children.

On the other hand Weimar is very well know for be the first quarter of Bauhaus, the school of art founded by Walter Gropius in 1919. Since 1995 a temporary building houses the Bauhaus Museum Weimar that shows a small part of the collection that represent the architectural style of Bauhaus.

Around 2008 the city began planning the construction of a new Bauhaus Museum to replace the existing today, which is too small to host the complete actual collection.

After a huge competition and the redesign of the district planning law the winner was chose in 2012.

Around April 2014 Mr. Röhrich an inhabitant of the city, who grew up and has lived most of his life in the surroundings of the Weimarhallenpark area, contact me with the aim to create a strategy that allowed him to make duel with his memories an the new changes.

The construction of the Neues Bauhaus Museum will remove Mr. Rörich’s preferred wood bench in the Weimarhallenpark as well as the sixty trees that are behind of it. When we began to talk bout his feeling was clear that the result of our actions would be therapeutic art.

The first strategy was to visit the park regularly every Sunday between 11 and 14 hrs. In those sessions, we interviewed locals about their memories in the park as well as their opinion about the site chosen to the construction of the new museum.

I taught to Mr. Röhrich how to manage a Blog and between April and May 2014 he wrote the texts and I was in charge to the sound recordings. The title chosen by him was: Bauhaus oder Hausbau?.

On this process I noticed how the opinions about the places were more frequent than the memories of the place, also because many of the interviewees not grew in Weimar, they arrived in the city after.
Despite the difficulties was possible to collect some of the recollections and create an album, named Bürger zum Weimarhallenpark.   

Our fieldwork led me to a few insights that have implications for design an interactive installation and the potential ways of using sound in public spaces and creates an intersection between memory and time.

As the future of the trees is that they will be cut in the autumn of 2014 I choose the Sunday 28 of September as the day to install the piece.

adieu consisted in nine audio tracks of branches being cut with mowers an the sound of trees falling on the grass.

The original idea consisted that at different distances, different audios will be activated with the pass of the pedestrians, but the constant overlapping of tracks showed that it was better to use a single composed track.

The audios were reproduced in the site, and a red and white construction tape was installed around the area of the trees that will be cut, pretended to foresee the future outlook of the area and evoke in the citizens a spirit of solidarity with the trees as well as a moment of mourning and farewell.

Also I provided some yellow labels where people could write messages and leave them hanging in the trees.

Technical Aspects:

To the Audio Installation I used one board of Arduino Duemilanove with a WaveAudio Shield, the use of the Arduino AF_Wave library and a SD card, nine uncompressed 22KHz, 12 bit, mono Wave (.wav) and a pair of head speakers, also a PING))) Ultrasonic Distance Sensor.

For the Audio edition I use the programs Cubase LE AI Elements 6 and Audacity.

 

Intervention

in situ

2012 

Palindrome engages with the current uncertainty about Greece's national currency and broader global economic systems. The word palindrome refers to a state of eternal return, of perpetual cyclical movement. It also refers to the cyclical motion of history, nations in crisis, and the potential re-introduction of the Drachma as Greece's national currency.

What symbol expresses uncertainty in a measurement?

Typically it's the plus-minus symbol ±, e.g. ₯, ∆ρ ± €

The Greek lower case sigma is used in mathematical notation to represent uncertainty: σ

Palindrome invites people to stamp their 5 € banknotes with the lower case sigma, in order to reference the uncertainty of this historical moment.

The 5 € is 120 by 62 mm, grey, and shows Classical architectural style. One side shows a gateway that represents the "European spirit of openness and co-operation" and the reverse side shows a bridge that represents "co-operation and communication between Europe and the rest of the world."

This action invites people to reflect about this moment of uncertainty and the potential consequences of the June 17th 2012 election for the future of Greece and the Eurozone.

Palindrome was part of Austausch/Exchange, an art project, produced by the Goethe-Institut Athens, organised in collaboration with the MFA-Program "Public Art and New and Desing, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. 
Curated by MFA Sofía Dona

More information about exchange:
Broadway: Austausch/Exchange (Athens 2012)

Catalogue online

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Παλινδρόμηση

Το project παλινδρόμηση ασχολείται με τη σημερινή αβεβαιότητα που χαρακτηρίζει το εθνικό νόμισμα της Ελλάδας αλλά και ευρύτερα τα οικονομικά συστήματα σε όλο τον κόσμο. Η λέξη παλινδρόμηση αναφέρεται σε μια κατάσταση αέναης επιστροφής, επαναλαμβανόμενης κυκλικής κίνησης. Επίσης, αναφέρεται και στην κυκλική πορεία της ιστορίας και των εθνών σε περιόδους κρίσης καθώς και στην πιθανότητα να γυρίσει η Ελλάδα στη δραχμή.

Ποιο σύμβολο εκφράζει την αβεβαιότητα σε μία μέτρηση;
Συνήθως χρησιμοποιείται το σύμβολο συν-πλην ±, π.χ.: ₯, ∆ρ ± €

Στη μαθηματική σημειογραφία ως σύμβολο της αβεβαιότητας χρησιμοποιείτα το ελληνικό μικρό γράμμα σείγμα: σ

 Η δράση παλινδρόμηση προσκαλεί τους περαστικούς να βάλουν μία σφραγίδα με το μικρό γράμμα σ σε δικά τους χαρτονομίσματα των 5€, και μ’ αυτό τον τρόπο να μνημονεύσουν την αβεβαιότητα που χαρακτηρίζει την παρούσα ιστορική στιγμή.

Το χαρτονόμισμα των 5 ευρώ είναι γκρι χρώματος, έχει τις διαστάσεις 120*62 χιλιοστών και απεικονίζει τον κλασικό αρχιτεκτονικό ρυθμό. Στη μια μεριά αναπαριστάται μια πύλη που αντιπροσωπεύει το «ευρωπαϊκό πνεύμα ειλικρίνειας και συνεργασίας» και στην ανάποδη απεικονίζεται μία γέφυρα που συμβολίζει «τη συνεργασία και την επικοινωνία μεταξύ της Ευρώπης και του υπόλοιπου κόσμου.»

Αυτή η δράση προσκαλεί τον κόσμο να συλλογιστεί αυτή τη στιγμή αβεβαιότητας και τις πιθανές συνέπειες των εκλογών της 17ης 2012 του Ιουνίου για το μέλλον της Ελλάδας και της Ευρωζώνης.

°°°°°°°° 

Palíndromo reflexiona sobre la actual incertidumbre relacionada con la moneda nacional de Grecia y los amplios sistemas económicos mundiales. El palabra palíndromo se refiere a un estado de eterno retorno, de movimiento cíclico perpetuo. También se refiere al movimiento cíclico de la historia, las naciones en crisis y el posibilidad de reintroducción del Dracma como moneda nacional de Grecia.

¿Qué símbolo expresa incertidumbre en mediciones o sistemas numéricos?

Normalmente, es el símbolo más-menos ±, por ejemplo, ₯, Δρ ± €

La letra griega minúscula Sigma se utiliza en la notación matemática para representar la incertidumbre: σ

Palíndromo invita a la gente a sellar sus billetes de banco de 5 euros con la letra sigma en minúscula, para hacer referencia a la incertidumbre de este momento histórico y las posibles consecuencias en las elecciones del 17 de junio para el futuro de Grecia y la Eurozona.

El billete de 5 € mide 120mm por 62 mm, es de color gris y muestra el estilo arquitectónico clásico. El anverso exhibe una puerta que representa "el espíritu europeo de apertura y cooperación" y el reverso muestra un puente que representa "la cooperación y comunicación entre Europa y el resto del mundo".
Esta acción invita a la gente a reflejar sobre este momento de incertidumbre y las consecuencias potenciales en las elecciones del 17 de junio 2012 en la elección del futuro de Grecia y la Eurozona.

Palindrome fue parte de Austausch/Exchange, un proyecto artístico, producido por el Goethe-Institut Athens, organizado en colaboración con e programa de master "Arte Publico y Nuevas estrategias Artisticas de la Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. 
Proyecto curado por: MFA Sofia Dona

Mas información sobre Austausch/Exchange:
Broadway: Austausch/Exchange (Atenas 2012)

Catálogo en línea

Intervention appropriation

in situ

2013

The Pontifical Xavierian University in Bogotá – Colombia is one of the few universities that has as open campus that can be reached by anyone. Building 52, better known as the Faculty of Science, has a glass display case on each floor that serves as exhibition space, regularly showing instrumental objects related to physics, chemistry or biology.

Taking advantage of the familiarity that these people who pass through there every day have with the windows and seeing the kind of people they are −teachers, students, staff and security− the intervention under the microscope is a work that was designed to be shown in one of those display cases, altering the normal visual routines, removing layers of paint, plaster and cement to reveal the interior of the wall and therefore the building, and allow passersby to contemplate building’s insides like they usually do in their own areas, in class or at work.

The aim of the intervention was to allow the audience a “framed view” the interior of a structure in which they live most of the time and consider the relationships that we created with space and how we get closer to understand and manipulate and how is the same scheme we us e to address how we understand our surroundings and life.