Polyphonic landscapes explores how sound can bring us closer to nature
- Research
The climate crisis requires us to revisit how we as humans relate to nature, our environment and the landscape: nature is not merely a backdrop against which our lives enfold, but we are entangled with nature and the landscape. Polyphonic Landscapes, a research project led by The ArtEZ Professorship Theory in Arts, received funding from NWA (Nationale Wetenschapsagenda) to explore if and how sound can bring us closer to landscapes, and alter our understanding and relation to landscapes altogether.
The murmuring of the landscapes
We are currently living in the Anthropocene: a geological era in which humankind has become a major force in shaping the Earth. As a result, the concept of landscape has acquired a renewed urgency in contemporary philosophy and art. Polyphonic Landscapes brings together sound artists and scientists to explore how sound can contribute to more sustainable ways of life. What happens we can not only see a landscape, but also hear it? Can sound and the act of listening to landscape’s ‘murmuring’ foster a more embodied, inclusive, relational, and reciprocal connectivity to our environment?
The sound of Amstelpark
Polyphonic Landscapes will work in close collaboration with the Amsterdam platform for art, nature, and technology Zone2Source, the research activities are to take place in the fifty-year-old Amstelpark: a hybrid environment in which nature and city are closely intertwined. The participants will be given a year to explore the sonic environment of the location. During this period of investigation, public seminars are organized at to discuss the research and the methodologies used.
In Polyphonic Landscapes, the public is a source of valuable knowledge, without whom the research cannot develop.”
Peter Sonderen, Professor Theory in the Arts and co-chair of Polyphonic Landscapes
Polyphonic Landscapes and participation of the public
Peter Sonderen, professor Theory in the Arts and chair of the project, and Joep Christenhusz, project leader, explain why participation of the public is so important in Polyphonic Landscapes. “The research into the role of sound in relation to urgent ecological matters, as well as exploring and experiencing sound in a multisensory spectrum makes public participation not only desirable but also necessary. The public is in this sense also a source of valuable knowledge, without whom the research cannot develop.”
Besides public seminars, Polyphonic Landscapes will also share the results of their research in a special, multi-media publication, published on ArtEZ’s own platform for artistic research: APRIA (ArtEZ Platform for Research Interventions of the Arts).
Want to stay up to date and visit the public seminars?
Polyphonic Landscapes posts regular updates on their website. On their website, you can also find all the dates of the public seminars. So grab your diary, and visit the website via the button below.
Visit the website of Polyphonic Landscapes
About the professorship Theory in the Arts
The Theory in the Arts professorship investigates the role, nature and meaning of theory in contemporary arts. Central are the ecology of the arts, the intriguing links between theory and practice, and the effects thereof in art education – plus the relationship of this with the world around us.
Curious about the NWA and the Art Route?
The Nationale Wetenschapsagenda (National Science Agenda) connects researchers to questions formulated by – and arising from – society. NWA/NWO awards funding to projects that aim to unravel and explore these questions. Polyphonic Landscapes receives a grant (as part of the project Bit by Bit, or not at all) from ‘Art Route’, a specific route within NWA that stimulates collaboration between researchers and artists, theory, and arts.Find everything you need and want to know on their website, or their information flyer (in Dutch): routekunstnwa.nl
