Paper for the ECHOPOLIS-DAYS OF SOUND 2013
We consider visual noise an additional sound layer of the soundscape of the city. With this study we investigate mostly the echo dimension of the printed images in the City of Athens. Having a Graphic Design background we focus on commercial roads of the city of Athens as well as on some neighborhoods where we are making an eye-level investigation of the printed information of those areas.
Our routes in the city have a soundtrack. Those âvisualâ sounds we try to map, ârecordâ and produce. Bringing to âconsciousâ the sounds of the information images we aim to explore what we mean by âvisual noiseâ. What kind of information those soundscapes give us for the character of the neighborhood [1].
âObviously we need to be able to rest from sound just as we do from visual stimulation, we need aural as well as visual privacy, but silencing our public environment is the acoustic equivalent of painting it black. Certainly just as our eyes are for seeing, our ears are for hearing.â Max Neuhaus [2]
The urban space in which we live, walk, interact and communicate is characterized by acceleration of information images, as natural consequence of the spatial overabundance as Mark AugĂ© [3] described. This accumulation of printed images has fabricated a new multi-layered urban skin, which is as much architectonic (façade) as much readable. Every city has its own tune, consisting of variable parameters [4]. Even if one extracts all the aural stimuli, the city still holds a visual echo. Printed images give the city certain âloudnessâ, depending on the colour palette, the text, the repetition and the accumulation, the âsoundâ varies. Absence of printed images gives a different quality of sound. Athens is one of the most âvisual overloadedâ cities of Europe. Stavros Stavridis [5] writes regarding Athens: âAdvertising intruded on public life and established itself at its heart, appropriating the role of the public monument-landmark. Its presence in public places not only modified their form but, more importantly, also contributed to the creation of a new experience of the public domain.â The printed information in public space produce, besides a visual haze, an echo haze as well. Printed images are dominant elements of the public terrain we read them consciously or unconsciously. All of us, the inhabitants of this city, are exposed to an overwhelming echo landscape that is produced by our interaction with public visual information. Graphic designers are conscious of this echo dimension and intentionally use type and design tools to increase the volume of the communication, by this we imply the impact. Following our previous research work âthe-walk-in-the-cityâ [6] we aim to place the research one step further by âtranslatingâ the totality of printed material which is in public view into sound, giving to the visual an acoustic content, a reflection of the complexity of our sonic environments. We consider visual noise an additional sound layer of the soundscape of the city. With this study we investigate mostly the echo dimension of the printed images in the City of Athens. Having a graphic design background we focus on commercial roads of the city of Athens as well as on some neighborhoods where we are making an eye-level investigation of the printed information of those areas. Our routes in the city have a soundtrack. Those âvisualâ sounds we try to map, ârecordâ and produce. In that context we propose an alternative reading from images to sounds and we are trying to built an application that creates sounds from the printed images. Bringing to âconsciousâ the sounds of the printed images we aim to explore what we mean by âvisual noiseâ. What kind of information those sound-scapes give us for the character of the neighborhood and possibly create a manual of fine-tuning the city, a âtoolkitâ that could facilitate communication.
2. Case study: city of Athens
Going 100 years back when, âSergei Eisenstein first encountered NY in 1920s, he was astonished by the cityâ s, dematerialization at dusk. As he recalled in the film Sense, all sense of perspective and realistic depth is washed away by a nocturnal sea of electric advertising. Far and near, small (in the foreground) and large (in the background), soaring aloft and dying away, racing and circling, bursting and vanishing â these lights tend to abolish all sense of real space, finally melting into a single plane of colored light points and neon lines moving over a surface of black velvet skyâ [7] A depiction that holds true today, not only for NY city but for a plethora of other mega cities as well.
In Athens the scene is different. The public space of the city is characterized by an overabundance of printed information (commercial, political, cultural) and along with street art, murals and graffiti dominates main streets of the city, which could easily be described as a city with a printed facade.
What is the value âpolitical, social and cultural â of the public space to the inhabitants of Athens? Could we trace here a cultural phenomenon that creates frozen âmuralsâ of printed information? Just like the marble traces of the ancient city that coexists?
Glinou E., Antonaki K., "Listen to the Printed Image of the Cityâ, in the proceedings of the ECHOPOLIS 2013 International Conference, Panteion University, 2013
