Stadsklanken XIX: De auditieve ecologie van een metropool
Presentation
by David Vergauwen, Jan Dewilde
In 1913, the Italian artist Luigi Russolo wrote that noise was the main contribution of the developing metropolises in the field of music.The modern metropolis is a nineteenth century invention. Industrialization, mechanization, migration, new means of transport and an unprecedented increase in scale of economic activity created a culture of noise. Yet music was also part of this great noise. This is a story about the chants of market singers, the melodies of buskers, the noises coming out of bars, ballrooms, and café chantants.
Based on paintings and knowledge of the music, technology, and the social fabric of Antwerp in the 19th century, it is possible to bring back to life the urban environment of that time. Painted images can be "sonorized", creating small acoustic time capsules that provide a highly sensory experience of the vibrations of nineteenth-century urban life.
A project by research group LABO XIX-XX.