“Sound in the Networked City: Investigating the Role of Sonic Experience in the Informational Society” presented by O’Dwyer
Symposium:
Session Title:
- Sonic Strategies
Presentation Title:
- Sound in the Networked City: Investigating the Role of Sonic Experience in the Informational Society
Presenter(s):
Venue(s):
Abstract:
Current discourses in urban computing explore the possibilities for new forms of sociality and aesthetic experience over networked media platforms, referencing practices that utilise the potential for geo-location, wifi coverage, and inter-device connectivity in urban space in order to consume, produce, and distribute diverse media content. The convergence of urban space, mobile actors and dynamic network topologies provoke new sociotechnical possibilities for the city dweller. While research in urban computing is frequently biased towards urban screens and visual interfacing, it can be argued that such an enquiry is particularly relevant to contemporary auditory experience. Increasingly, our everyday sonic experiences are interleaved with new mobilities, spatialities and networked infrastructure. It is relevant therefore to investigate how mobile sound and its exploration through media art and design practices could provide a platform for engaging with networked space, both in terms of possibilities for new cultural practices, but furthermore with regard to its critical engagement with network topology, often sonifying the complex interplay of social and informational networks that occurs with mobile media distribution in urban space.
