Yesterday (8th of December 2021) I gave a Guestlecture on #Curating #SoundWalks, for the seminar “Mapping Berlin: A Geography of Sound” at Humboldt University
Led by Samuel Perea-Díaz, Arquitect, curator and sound researcher
I departed from my last project “DESVIARIOS: Walks in Humboldthain Park” as case study. A project realized with artists Pilar Millán (Spain), Ela Spalding (Panama), Manuela García Aldana (Colombia), Julia Mensch (Argentina), Marco Montiel Soto (Venezuela/Colombia), Marcela Moraga (Chile)It was truly enjoyable to trace back the genealogy of walking as an aesthetic practice…. nomadic space, errand space, dada views, urban readymade, surrealist wandering, the city as amniotic fluid, the banal city, the unconscious city, dérive, the ludic city, the bourgeoise archipelago or the nomadic labyrinth. And in all this, our series of walks in Humboldthain park: DESVIARIOS, which is an invented word (to detour, to divert, to stray; one self, because it is a reflective action). And through invention is that we wanted to welcome the public to learn possible histories of Humboldthain through the work of 6 artists based in Berlin. Together we compose an alternative affective cartography of first person travel chronicles in relation / in reaction to modern & contemporary scientific expeditions from Europe to Latin America, filling some gaps in dominant narratives, that unveil, along the way, the voices, knowledge and cosmogonies buried by the presence of European science on colonial soil, with the awareness that walking is a form of urban intervention, setting in motion the whole body – individual, social – that simultaneously reads, writes and manifests the inner boundaries of a city.
Learn more in the project website of DESVIARIOS: Walks in Humboldthain Park
Some research references shared for the participants
Desviarios: Walks in Humboldthain Park | https://neuehaeute.org/Collaborative-Labs
Inspiration for walks as collective editing exercise https://oficinadeideaslibres.blogspot.com/search/label/Revista%20Caminada
https://oficinadeideaslibres.blogspot.com/
Inspiration flaneurism
One way street (1925), Walter Benjamin | Link
A Berlin Childhood Around the Turn of the Century (1932-1938), Walter Benjamin
Berlin Chronicle, Walter Benjamin
Inspiration geopoetics, theories of the derive
Walkscapes: walking as an aesthetic practice. Francesco Careri, 2017
Artists DESVIARIOS relevant for this seminar
Manuela García Aldana
https://manuelagarcialdana.com/portfolio/gardenia-routes/
https://thfradio.de/
Inspiration Sonic River by Manuela García Aldana / Río Sónico
Marco Montiel Soto
Other projects with sound in my practice
#Recent
Museo de la democracia / Audioguide of the museum (sound dimension and the sound iconography of the protest)
https://archiv.ngbk.de/projekte/museo-de-la-democracia/
Reference for the protest audioguide
Burak Üzümkesici
#Old /
Sound archive of dreams
https://thedreamersplatform.wordpress.com/
Useful tools
https://freemusicarchive.org/home
Where to go in Berlin
More about “Mapping Berlin: A Geography Of Sound”
Seminar at HU Berlin
The course focuses on mapping and listening to acoustic territories in Berlin. It allows academic research for exploring and understanding the city by sensing aural environments. Structured in theory and practice, the central questions of the course are: which sonic elements can we encounter in navigating historical and contemporary maps? Which methods of research and practices exist in the act of mapping with sound? How can we generate sound maps? The course reflects the city’s cultural, social, and political dimensions from a transdisciplinary approach through analyzing and creating maps by listening. It allows students to explore auditory territories, gain strength, and develop knowledge and individual perspectives on cultural and urban studies. The mapping methods are practice-based on field recordings, soundwalk, and sound diagramming exercises. The academic readings and discussions will introduce the student to the field of sound studies.
Link to seminar
More about Samuel Perea-Díaz
Samuel Perea-Díaz is a sound artist, exhibition designer, and curator based in Berlin. He holds a degree in Architecture from the University of Seville and a MA in Sound Studies and Sonic Arts from the Berlin University of the Arts.
His installations explore spaces of mixed realities while focusing on sound. His artwork blends and moves between sonic activism, architecture, and virtual sonic landscapes, creating installations and sound-focused objects which engage with sonification, relocation of sound, field recording, and VR. Recent exhibitions include shows at Instinct (2023), GlogauAIR (2022), Tieranatomisches Theater (2022), 48H Neukölln (2021), SoundsAbout (2020-2022), CLB Gallery (2020), and the Akademie der Künste (2019).
Perea-Díaz’s creative practice also intertwines artistic and academic research focusing on mapping sonic environments. Since 2019, Samuel has been a lecturer at Humboldt University, teaching different seminars about sound and curating. Samuel’s independent research has evolved into various curatorial projects, which include exhibitions such as ‘Listening to Listening’ at 48 Hours Neukölln and ‘Ocaña. Der Engel, der in der Qual singt’ at the Schwules Museum in Berlin.
PAZ PONCE _ PORTFOLIO 