Next May 15 I will be presenting the project Augmented Spatiality as part of the symposium Curating Sound Art held in Goldsmiths University of London. For more information and the agenda of the symposium visit the web http://ocradst.org/soundartcurating/
Following you can read the abstract of my paper:
Augmented Spatiality was a one-week exhibition on public space and sound creation curated by the author in 2013 in Hökarängen, a Southern suburb of Stockholm.
The project was inspired in the concept of ‘spatiality’ coined in 1980 by the geographer and urban planner Edward Soja who devised this term to refer to the attributes of a space that is essentially social. Although having other terms in language related to the spatial, Soja elaborated around the ‘spatiality’ the notion of a space which is produced as a result of the social life, a space whose organization and meaning is subject to multiple transformations and contingencies. A space, thus, where temporality and social relations are in its core.
Augmented Spatiality was conceived as a process in which the artworks, performances and other comprised events were integrated into the social and spatial processes taking place in the public sphere. The decision of working with sound creation was however taken prior to all these conceptions, and it was precisely the study of sound creation in public space which led to the specific project Augmented Spatiality.
Since its diffuse beginnings around the 60’s sound creation in the public realm has been closely linked to the notion of social space. Having the city – and the urban, as scenery, laboratory and source for inspiration, Public Sound Art practices aroused as an outcome of formal discussions by artists and musicians on the role of art in everyday life and, furthermore, as a consequence of acting in response to political and social matters. Half century later, whereas the role of art in public space is substantially different, some of these premises continue to be valid.
Bearing this in mind, the exhibition Augmented Spatiality integrated the discourses of sound art into social and sociological debates on the specific public space of Hökarängen. Eight projects worked out approaches and reflections on specific spaces and issues of the district, while a section with 17 listening pieces worked on the politics of listening, the aural memory and the displacement of sound in urban contexts.
Participating artists: Trond Lossius, Hong-Kai Wang, Mattin, Jacek Smolicki, Cecilia Jonsson, Iván Argote, Playing the Space, Konsthall 323. Listening Section: Acoustic Mirror, Pablo Sanz, Katrinem, O+A, Peter Cusack, Anna Raimondo, Younes Baba-Ali, Simohammed Fettaka, Mohamed Laouli, Mustapha Akrim, Edu Comelles, Juanjo Palacios, Chinowski Garachana, Camilo Cantor, Albert Murillo, Raúl Hinojosa
Augmented Spatiality 