Terri Yau, Sonic Intersections [×]

In the context of the current global pandemic, technology has heavily mediated our social lives as we endure border closures, social distancing and city lockdowns. Our city may have become distanced to us since the sounds of daily life within public spaces has come to a silencing halt. Within Melbourne, we are confined within our 5KM radiuses thus the sounds of our public and private spaces are remixed and re-imagined.
The notion of sonic public spaces has emerged through the interest of investigating what opportunities sound can offer to facilitate social interactions and connections at a time when we have to be socially distanced. Through a series of explorations, the concept of a sonic public space has been investigated through mappings, sound recordings, compositions and drawings.
Sonic Intersections aims to propose an alternate typology to public spaces that is not limited to the existing infrastructure and the built environment.
Using sound as a medium to create a network of connected urban interiors through the immersive presence of others, this project aims to re-map our urban landscape by producing sonic communities within a distributed network. By building intimate relationships through the listening experience, individuals are able to interact form non-physical connections within these new sonic public spaces.
The translation of physical environments into sonic spaces offers up alternate methods for us to design for the future of social, cultural and political connections within our urban interior. Sonic Intersections speculates on the potentials for these methods to encourage a greater sense of belonging and collectivity.