In order to tackle the issue of social, environmental and spatial“vulnerabilities” due to the oversaturation of sounds, the architects of the B-AIR consortium decided not to differentiate between the addressed populations, considering that we all, permanently or temporarily, have found ourselves in vulnerable situations based on loudness and noise.Thus, more general forms of vulnerability through ordinary and everyday listening situations have inspired our work of theoretical reflection on the design of spaces and sounds.In this frame, an epistemological and ethical approach of the term sympathy attempts to investigate the obvious relations existing between vulnerability and sympathy of spaces and people. Designing spaces by creating ambiances through sympathy enables architects to channel empathetic identification and hold communion with the place.More specifically, in architecture, the notion of sympathy is perfectly used to express the aesthetic relations of the correspondence between spaces, the ambiances that activate them and the feelings they provide. So what interests us in this term is the fact that sympathy allows us to put ourselves in the place of others and tune in with the surrounding world, in infinite sensitive relationships.This presentation will showcase a methodological tool called 95,2FMSympathy Radio, which uses radio waves to explore attentive listening to sound environments, reveal situations of vulnerability and promote common sympathy practices in the public space. Two sound broadcasters record and transmit their sounds (composition) live on the FM92.5Sympathy Radio frequency to three listeners wearing bone conduction audio headsets. While walking, listeners simultaneously hear (naturally and by bone conduction) the surrounding sound environment and the compositions of the two broadcasters. FM92.5 Sympathy Radio is therefore a phenomenon between a sound installation and sound performance, like a musical counterpoint between individual and collective soundscapes.
Sympathy Radio for the vulnerabilities of listening
Evangelia Paxinou and Nicolas Rémy
