Grundtvig - Cmepius

Workshop Reference number: 2012-1-BE3-GRU13-06061
Venue: Sint-Niklaas Date of the Workshop: 03/05/2013 – 10/05/2013
A listening book, the living memory of a city
Subject area: other
Working language(s): EN
Target Group + Translation:
minimum 50 % adults of + 50 years old
Main activities Programme + Programme translation:
A knocking bird / A listening book of the city
May 3 to May 10 – City Museum Sint-Niklaas (Belgium)
Participants will learn to use the techniques and technologies of sound recording and explore the
possibilities of locative media (smart phones, tablets) in an alternative exploration of the
contemporary European city. Our point of departure is the memories and the emotions of the
inhabitants and visitors of the city, stimulating as well alternative ways of moving on through the
everyday area and everyday life. Walking is perceived as an essential part of the workshop and as a
way to learn, focusing on themes as the presence and absence of nature in the city and the presence
of and the memory about various cultures in the city.
The workshop offers surprising, enriching and unexpected encounters with the city of Sint-Niklaas,
its history and its inhabitants and incites to reflect upon European urban realities and the
contemporary human condition in a broader sense. The workshop reflects explicitly about the
presence and absence of nature in European cities and about human aspects of the city as a place of
living together. The workshop connects with the International Art Biennial Coup de Ville in Sint-
Niklaas.
We aim to realize together with the participants ‘a listening book of the city’, a collective sound
walk, conceived as an alternative and non-touristic gps-audio-guide for the visitors of Sint-Niklaas
with narratives about the city, about nature in the city and about living together, with soundscapes
and personal stories of the participants.
Our aim is to have people communicate about their immediate surroundings in a non-verbal way by
using sounds taken from those surroundings.
We will study the experience of listening and all the complexities that have affected the
development of sound in the history and focus on the practical configuration of a digital sonic
cartography of the city, materialized in the composition of a GPS-sound walk.
No previous knowledge of or experience with contemporary technology or locative media is
needed. The workshop is accessible for everybody with an interest in the poetic and communicative
potential of sound linked with memories, regardless educational background, knowledge, etc. The
workshop is based on exchange of experiences out of the daily life of the participants, with
experiential learning and collective creating as point of departure.
Applying is especially encouraged to participants +50 years.
Workshop Organiser:
Private Stichting Van Biesen-Mestdagh
30