An emotional cartography of resonance

Abstract

When we consider the relationship with the urban soundscape, this aural ’moment’ is intrinsically intertwined with the body as part of the making of place. How can attending to the making of place through sound unveil an emotional cartography or the city? This paper will address these questions by exploring the processes that bind sound, emotion and place together.Elaborating on Nancy’s (2007) concept of listening as methexis (participation) and LaBelle’s (2010) idea of the moment of sound as a participatory event, this paper presents two extended vignettes taken from empirical research in London’s East End, which used interviews and audio walks to examine sensory engagements with everyday urban spaces. It distinguishes an approach to the production of place that integrates aural perception, affect and emotion. It concludes outlining the importance of being re-acquainted with our ensounded body in order to explore geography from the sentient body to generate a fluid cartography that evolves at the same speed the soundscape does, making an argument for the importance of an embodied listening while strengthening the affective and emotional aspects of the urban soundscape.