Soundwalking

Bridging Disciplines and Cultures?

Abstract

A soundwalk opened this symposium, not a keynote address. Listening, not talking. Around 60-65 partici- pants walked between the Victoria College of the Arts (VCA) where the symposium was held, and the bridge leading across the Yarra River to Melbourne’s downtown core—not a quiet environment and yet full of contrasts and stimulating details (see map 1). One participant commented:

I lived in the area where we walked. I thought I knew it well. During the soundwalk, I heard new sounds, new layers of sounds. Some sounds were aggressive, others reassuring. Some sounds masked others... I had no idea how much I had closed my ears.

In this way, the city where we had all gathered for the symposium had a chance to introduce itself to all of us first. The environment ‘spoke’, we listened and remained silent during the one-hour dura- tion of the walk. Our presentations, our words, during the following days, occurred inevitably out of an experienced, listened-to con- text of this place, no matter whether we had come from far away or whether we lived in Melbourne itself. I believe that this had a significant influence in setting what I perceived to be a generously open-minded ‘tone’ for the symposium as a whole.