Audibility, visibility and social inclusion through geo-locative sound art

Abstract

In this article, I will explore the role of field recordings that emerge from the culturally characteristic soundscapes of different communities and the narratives of the people that comprise them. These soundscapes will be hereafter called socialscapes, and I will outline the different ways in which they can be combined with geo-locative sound artworks as a genre of political art and act, functioning as a means of endorsing the politics of inclusion and empowerment within the wider context of activist and political art. The target of such politics is to promote visibility – here audibility – for communities, minorities and other marginalized social groups, such as refugees, immigrants, and other socially excluded groups that are denied involvement in social, political, cultural and economic life, or in educational activities, or are deprived of citizenship due to their ethnicity, age, class, and cognitive, psychological and physical diversities.The sound art forms that will be studied here are mainly the geo-locative artworks, whose sound materials are extracted from the field to be repositioned onto the map through GPS technologies, geo-locative platforms, locative media, and site-specific methods, though the latter is not necessary. Geo-locative platforms and locative artworks use the map of specific areas as a board to attach, inscribe and assign audio or visual material onto them. This procedure is made possible through browser-based platforms such as Echoes, GeoComposer and CGeomap. After the assignment and attachment of the material onto the map, the material is freely accessible to everyone via mobile applications. The case study examined here is the work Dwelling Stories by the artistic team Akoo.o, which explores the dislocation and everyday life of Greek non-native residents during the refugee crisis and the simultaneous touristification of Athens.