Conference proceedings: Sound, Language and the Making of Urban Space

The conference centered on the city, the metropolis, and sound and language as key elements in the production of urban spaces and communities and included scholars from a wide range of fields including history, musicology, art, and cine­matography to discuss how sonic, aural and linguistic approaches to urban com­munities, lifestyles and practices can enrich one another.

Over the last three decades, sound and aural history studies have explored aspects of urban history at the intersection of music, the body, technology, medi­cine, disability, the environment, and everyday life. From the late Raymond Murray Schafer’s pioneering studies of the urban soundscape via Bruce Smith’s concept of “acoustic communities”, Karin Bijsterveld’s and Peter Payer’s explorations into the conceptualization and abatement of urban noise to Emily Thompson’s study of architectural acoustics, scholars have meticulously and ingeniously refined and expanded the methodologies, terminologies and research questions addressed within the sound studies field. Lately, new approaches focusing on social engi­neering, the sonic personae, auditory cultures, and sonic effects in the production of urban space have appeared and further increased our knowledge and curiosity about the interrelationship between sound and the city.

Although rarely treated in the context of historical sound studies, the diversity of languages forms a central part of urban soundscapes. Conversations, shouts and singing, in the marketplaces, busses, schoolyards etc. work as semiotic ele­ments in human constructions of and navigation in urban spaces. The study of dialects and sociolingustic research has circled back into urban studies. Investigat­ing and rediscovering how urban communities are both shaped by and shaping linguistic development on the national level and beyond has become a primary target of concern.

By merging studies of linguistic, aural and sonic elements of the metropolis with museological and artistic or practice-based research this conference aimed to break new ground within the booming field of sound studies. Most of the papers are now available online as proceedings each accessible from the links below.

The conference was organized within the Lyden af Hovedstaden/Sound of Co­penhagen Research and Dissemination Project funded by The Velux Foundation.