Soundwalk-Inaudible Cities: Here, Now, There and Then

Inaudible Cities: Here, Now, There and Then is a guided sonic experience led by Loeb/ArtLab Fellow Jacek Smolicki. Lasting approximately 35 minutes, the soundwalk creates a liminal space that leads into the Composers Talk at ArtLab, featuring Annea Lockwood (hosted by Claire Chase) and Teju Cole.

Participation is free, but registration is required. Space is limited.

Join us after the conclusion of the soundwalk for a Composer Talk with Annea Lockwood and Teju Cole.

Schedule

• 4:45 PM — Meet and audio orientation with Jacek Smolicki (outside Weld Boathouse)
• 5:00 PM — Soundwalk departs, crossing the Charles River to ArtLab (~1 mile, some stairs)
• 6:00 PM — Composers Talk with Annea Lockwood and Teju Cole at Harvard ArtLab

From the artist about this soundwalk

In Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino, through the character of Marco Polo, introduces us to fifty-five poetic descriptions of city life. Despite the diversity of spaces, architectures, and everyday practices, this highly imaginative novel gives readers a peculiar sensation that all stories might actually pertain to a single city, Venice, Marco Polo’s hometown.

Inspired by Calvino’s multifaceted approach to storytelling, Inaudible Cities is Smolicki’s ongoing project in which mundane, taken-for-granted, and commonly imperceptible sonic aspects of a city are given a leading role in reshaping our perception of urban life. As sounds of everyday urban details—water fountains, switchboards, ventilation shafts, and sewers—are processed in real time, they transform into sonic manifestations of the larger phenomena that sustain our lived environments: earth, water, air, and fire. Gradually woven into an evolving composition as the soundwalk progresses, these sounds occasionally open portals to natural environments documented by Smolicki during his fieldwork on the Pacific West Coast, the Arctic Circle, the Canaveral Seashore, and beyond.

Important Details

• Walking distance: approximately one mile, including stairs.
• Space is limited — advance registration is required.
• If your plans change, please cancel or notify us so another participant can join.
• Questions? Contact us at artlab@harvard.edu.

This public program is produced by ArtLab in collaboration with the Department of Music and Loeb Fellowship at GSD, with support from the Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA), the Johnson-Kulukundis Family President’s Fund for Arts at Harvard University, and the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard.

Jacek Smolicki (Loeb/ ArtLab Fellow) is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and researcher whose work explores the critical, existential, and technological dimensions of listening, recording, and archiving across human and more-than-human contexts. Jacek Smolicki practice encompasses soundwalks, soundscape compositions, experimental archives, and installations. Jacek co-founded the Walking Festival of Sound, a nomadic platform that connects artists, researchers, and local communities around the role of sound in shaping our environments. 

Annea Lockwood (b. 1939), was recently described by The New York Times as “a composer of insatiable curiosity and a singular ear for the music of the natural world,” 

Since 1970, composer Annea Lockwood has recorded rivers in many countries, not to document them, but rather for the special state of mind and body which the sounds of moving water create when one listens intently to the complex mesh of rhythms and pitches. Each stretch of a river has its own sonic texture, formed by the terrain, varying according to the weather, the season and, downstream, the human environment whose sounds are intimately woven into the river’s sounds.