Sound Map of Queretaro Link of the project: http://balamronan.wix.com/mapasonoroqueretaro "Man, sound and medium constitute a communication system." Barry Truax Objective The Sound Map of Queretaro project seeks to identify and record the soundscape of the city of Queretaro and its conurbated areas of the municipalities of Corregidora and El Marques, seeking to document the sounds produced by the multiple social interactions that occur in diverse places and moments, through surveys, sound records and the construction of a sound map, in order to show a reflection of the sound identity of each place, and as a whole of the sound identity of the city. However, the main objective of the project is to open up the possibility of understanding our surroundings by listening to the sound environment and thereby helping to contribute to generating a better knowledge of the different places that surround us. Soundscape? "The sound landscape is the acoustic manifestation of a place. The sound environment (or soundscape), is the sum of the totality of sounds within a defined area," [1] where all sounds have an interaction whether intentional or accidental with a specific logic in their interior and with referents of the social environment where it is produced, thus being an indicator of the conditions that generate it and of the trends and evolution of a society. I believe that the general acoustic environment of a society can be understood as an indicator of social relations, of which it is a consequence, and that through it we can know some things about the development direction of that society. "Changes in social relationships involve changes in the sound environment." [2] Sound identity? "Sound can fulfill informative, aesthetic and emotional functions. One of them is to help determine the identity of an object, place, context, constituting what we call sound identity." [3] The soundscape allows us to perceive, describe and interpret the sound environment," the sound identity can be defined as the set of characteristic sounds of a place, a neighborhood or even a city, that allow those who inhabit it, recognize it, name it, but also identify with that place, feel part of it," [4] that is, it is the whole of sounds that allow recognizing and identifying a place, differentiating it from others; it is about the ordinary sounds of daily life with which the inhabitant interacts. Development We can say that sound environments are social productions. The sounds of a city are linked to its urbanism, its architecture, its politics, its economy, its technology, population density, etc., and induce the production of different sound environments: the school, the market, the square, the park, the neighborhood, among many others. "Each of these environments determines a series of sounds, moments, situations or spaces that, insofar as they are typical of a city, give it a certain identity." [5] To this must be added that the sounds are changing according to the cycles, whether of the day, of the week and / or of the season of the year, in turn they are transformed throughout history. Thus, the sound identity is, by nature, dynamic. But this dynamic nature is not exclusive to sounds; "The way in which we perceive and interpret these sounds is equally dynamic. On the one hand, our sound experience conditions our perception. But on the other hand, this experience changes continuously and progressively as our environment changes." [6] "The subjective valuation of the sound environment depends on its intensity and, to a greater extent, on the information contained in it, the context in which it is perceived as well as the social and cultural meanings attributed to it by the subjects themselves." [ 7] Then, "to understand the identity of a place, you must first know how it is inhabited, traveled and practiced a space. In the same way, the identity of each person will be linked to a large extent to the spaces they inhabit." [8]
"We can not restrict the identity of a place to an exclusively patrimonial sense, nor fix it within a specific historical period; the identity is not of a universal and permanent nature, but relative and evolutionary; it is the result of a subjective consciousness, be it individual or collective." [9] "The sound identity of a city therefore depends on innumerable individual appreciations." [10] These are appreciations that we must identify, archive and use to reconstruct, little by little, the sound identity of the city. For this I will conduct a survey to as many people as possible, trying to make the social, educational and economic characteristics as diverse as possible. I will take as a basis the methodology proposed by Pascal Amphoux, researcher at the Centre de Recherches sur l'Espace Sonore et l'Environnement Urbain CRESSON (Center for Research on Sound Space and the Urban Environment) where he distinguishes three stages of work to investigate about the sound identity of a city: 1. Call the memory - to select representative lands on which to focus to deepen the investigation. 2. Call the perception - to "make speak" to the sound space and to constitute a material of analysis and interpretation as diverse as possible. 3. Call the interpretation - to formalize the operative concepts, typing and distinguishing different reading orders of the material. I will turn to points 1 and 2 to ask two questions: 1. What places do you remember and / or recognize by the sound they produce? 2. How the different soundscapes you inhabit sound (your street, your neighborhood, your school, your work, etc.)? Thus, with the information gathered through the surveys, I will proceed to make the sound and photographic record of the places mentioned in those surveys and to geolocalize them on a map, and so little by little, create a sound map of the city of Queretaro and its conurbated areas. A map with an accent on the daily context, considering the appreciation and subjectivity of the inhabitants. A map of the city described from the listening of its inhabitants. Sound record and sound map? "Sound records (or sound files) are an important source of cultural information, like books, documents or videos," [11] "is a document that can be analyzed, since it preserves part of the sound characteristics of each place and allows comparisons at different times and places." [12] "A map orders, processes and transmits information," [13] "rather than a catalog of objects or processes located in space, it is a tool of reasoning and communication." [14] "A sound map can inform us through sound about the physical and social characteristics of a place." [15] The geolocation of sound records on a map allows, for example, to approach the social and economic activities of a specific place. The main objective of the sound map is to generate knowledge through sounds. "However, both the record and the map, like all reality models, are a reduction of the world, both in form and content, it is an approximation and an interpretation of a place in a defined time, it is a reflection of our vision of the world. Although paradoxically, this process of information simplification is what gives the map and the registry all its usefulness." [16] "Like any artistic map, it is a map of simulation, of experimentation with reality, which is not intended to reproduce it, but to connect dimensions," [17] in this case, the sound and the visual medium, to generate knowledge.
Notes [1] Westerkamp, Hildegard. “Bauhaus y estudios sobre el paisaje sonoro – Explorando conexiones y diferencias”. Anthologie: Multisensuelles Design, ed. Peter Luckner, Hochschule für Kunst und Design, Halle, Alemania. 2002. Obtained in the link: https://www.eumus.edu.uy/eme/ps/txt/westerkamp.html (Consulted the 19/11/17). [2] Idem. [3] Carles, José Luis / Palmese, Cristina. Identidad sonora urbana. Obtained in the link: http://www.eumus.edu.uy/eme/ps/txt/carles.html (Consulted the 19/11/17) [4] Atienza, Ricardo. Identidad sonora urbana: tiempo, sonido y proyecto urbano. In: Les 4èmes Journées Européennes de la Recherche Architecturale et Urbaine EURAU’08: Paysage Culturel, 16-19 Janvier 2008, Madrid, Espagne. Obtained in the link: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00379907/document (Consulted the 19/11/17). [5] Carles, José Luis / Palmese, Cristina. Identidad sonora urbana. Obtained in the link: http://www.eumus.edu.uy/eme/ps/txt/carles.html (Consulted the 19/11/17) [6] Atienza, Ricardo. Identidad sonora urbana: tiempo, sonido y proyecto urbano. In: Les 4èmes Journées Européennes de la Recherche Architecturale et Urbaine EURAU’08: Paysage Culturel, 16-19 Janvier 2008, Madrid, Espagne. Obtained in the link: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00379907/document (Consulted the 19/11/17). [7] Carles, José Luis / Palmese, Cristina. Identidad sonora urbana. Obtained in the link: http://www.eumus.edu.uy/eme/ps/txt/carles.html (Consulted the 19/11/17) [8] Atienza, Ricardo. Ambientes sonoros urbanos: la identidad sonora. Modos de Permanencia y Variación de una configuración urbana. I Encuentro Iberoamericano sobre Paisajes Sonoros. 12-15 Junio 2007, Madrid, España. Obtained in the link: http://doc.cresson.grenoble.archi.fr/doc_num.php?explnum_id=93 (Consulted the 19/11/17). [9] Idem. [10] Carles, José Luis / Palmese, Cristina. Identidad sonora urbana. Obtained in the link: http://www.eumus.edu.uy/eme/ps/txt/carles.html (Consulted the 19/11/17) [11] Escoitar.org. Mapas Sonoros. Obtained in the link: https://issuu.com/escoitando/docs/mapas-sonoros (Consulted the 19/11/17). [12] Cerdà, Josep. “Observatorio de la transformación urbana del sonido. La ciudad como texto, derivas, mapas y cartografía sonora”. Arte y políticas de identidad, vol 7 / Dic. 2012. Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia, España. Obtained in the link: http://revistas.um.es/api/article/view/174011 (Consulted the 19/11/17). [13] Idem. [14] Chételat, Joël. “La figuration cartographique de l’espace sonore.” Images Re-vues [En ligne], 7 | 2009, document 8, mis en ligne le 21 avril 2011, consulté le 19 novembre 2017. URL: http://imagesrevues.revues.org/437 (Consulted the 19/11/17). [15] Idem. [16] Idem.
[17] Cerdà, Josep. “Observatorio de la transformación urbana del sonido. La ciudad como texto, derivas, mapas y cartografía sonora”. Arte y políticas de identidad, vol 7 / Dic. 2012. Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia, España. Obtained in the link: http://revistas.um.es/api/article/view/174011 (Consulted the 19/11/17). Bibliography – Amphoux, Pascal (2003). L’Identité sonore urbaine. Une aproche méthodologique croisée. In: G. Moser & K. Weiss (ed.) Espaces de vie: aspects de la relation hommeenvironnement. Paris: Armand Colin. P. – Atienza, Ricardo. Ambientes sonoros urbanos: la identidad sonora. Modos de Permanencia y Variación de una configuración urbana. I Encuentro Iberoamericano sobre Paisajes Sonoros. 12-15 Junio 2007, Madrid, España. Obtained in the link: http://doc.cresson.grenoble.archi.fr/doc_num.php?explnum_id=93 (Consulted the 19/11/17). – Atienza, Ricardo. Identidad sonora urbana: tiempo, sonido y proyecto urbano. In: Les 4èmes Journées Européennes de la Recherche Architecturale et Urbaine EURAU’08: Paysage Culturel, 16-19 Janvier 2008, Madrid, Espagne. Obtained in the link: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00379907/document (Consulted the 19/11/17). – Augoyard, Jean-François. Les pratiques d’habiter a travers les phénomènes sonores – Contribution a une critique de l’habitat. ESA Paris, 1978. Obtained in the link: http://doc.cresson.grenoble.archi.fr/doc_num.php?explnum_id=1108 (Consulted the 19/11/17). – Battesti, Vincent. “Ambiances sonores du Caire – Proposer une anthropologie des environnements sonores”. Les cahiers du Gerhico. 13, Accords et à cris, Études pluridisciplinaires sur la sonorité (Journée d’études, Poitiers, déc. (2009) 35-49. Obtained in the link: https://hal-mnhn.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00341934/document (Consulted the 19/11/17). – Beauchant, Chloë M. Paysages(s) sonore(s) – Perception et usages de l’espace urbain à Mexico. Obtained in the link: http://chloemorichaubeaucha.wix.com/archi#!recherches (Consulted the 19/11/17). – Carles, José Luis. El paisaje sonoro, una herramienta interdisciplinar: análisis, creación y pedagogía con el sonido. I Encuentro Iberoamericano sobre Paisajes Sonoros. 12-15 Junio 2007, Madrid, España. Obtained in the link: https://cvc.cervantes.es/artes/paisajes_sonoros/p_sonoros01/carles/carles_01.htm (Consulted the 19/11/17). – Carles, José Luis / Palmese, Cristina. Identidad sonora urbana. Obtained in the link: http://www.eumus.edu.uy/eme/ps/txt/carles.html (Consulted the 19/11/17). – Cerdà, Josep. “Observatorio de la transformación urbana del sonido. La ciudad como texto, derivas, mapas y cartografía sonora”. Arte y políticas de identidad, vol 7 / Dic. 2012. Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia, España. Obtained in the link: http://revistas.um.es/api/article/view/174011 (Consulted the 19/11/17). – Chételat, Joël. “La figuration cartographique de l’espace sonore.” Images Re-vues [En ligne], 7 | 2009, document 8, mis en ligne le 21 avril 2011, consulté le 19 novembre 2017. URL: http://imagesrevues.revues.org/437 (Consulted the 19/11/17). – Escoitar.org. Mapas Sonoros. Obtained in the link: https://issuu.com/escoitando/docs/mapas-sonoros (Consulted the 19/11/17). – Frédéric Roulier. “Pour une géographie des milieux sonores”, Cybergeo : European Journal of Geography [En ligne], Environnement, Nature, Paysage, document 71, mis en ligne le 21 janvier 1999, consulté le 19 novembre 2017. URL : http://cybergeo.revues.org/5034 ; DOI : 10.4000/cybergeo.5034. (Consulted the 19/11/17). – Westerkamp, Hildegard. “Bauhaus y estudios sobre el paisaje sonoro – Explorando conexiones y diferencias”. Anthologie: Multisensuelles Design, ed. Peter Luckner, Hochschule für Kunst und Design, Halle, Alemania. 2002. Obtained in the link: https://www.eumus.edu.uy/eme/ps/txt/westerkamp.html (Consulted the 19/11/17).