Savonarola Soundwalk

19/01/21 - 35min - Zoom H2N

1. I decided to give a large shape at this record to heard it since the street and to compare it with the second record. This record capture the night's falling on Savonarola. It's reserved to the inhabitants of this district like a sweet privilege. In the first plan, we can appreciate the birds flying and singing. At times, the neighbours open a window or a door, someone goes to his balcony to smoke one cigarette. In the background, we guess that the inhabitants and the children are going back to their home. They make a stop to the park. Drivers use and abuse to their klaxons. Scooters sneak between the obstacles of the street. A siren of the ambulance resonate. This is how a day of the week sounds. We can also perceive this Savonarola texture through his relative silence. Gradually, this kind of silent ambiance takes place until the ring of the Savonarola bells. Here we go, the night felt...

19/01/21 - 3min34 - ZOOM H2N

2. During the last summer, one of the hottest ever registred, a homeless lived here on the floor. In the other side of the street there is an catholic association with accomodation for the homeless. What was his perceptions of the street ? How he received all these sounds day after day ? Look at the differences between how the courtyard sounds and how the homeless place sounds. In this case, two kind of "sound effect" (J-F. Augoyard / N. Rémy) could help us to think the situation of vulnerability : the effect of intrusion and the effect of irruption...

20/01/21 - 1min - ZOOM H2N

At 6 p.m., the Savonarola church is ringing, ringing, ringing... It's kind of a sound signature of this area. Into this common situation, we can heard the special sound of this church. But also, see the priest Girolamo Savonarola, represented by the statue in the middle of the square, stands here in silent, and turn its back to the church. Why ? On this public bench, we're doing the same many centuries after him.

20/01/21 - 0.44 sec. - ZOOM H2N

After the school, children let their voices feel to the world, under the attentive supervision of the parents. These sounds let us understand the space around them. Here, it's a large open place. Thanks to this kind of informations we can understand in which kind of environment we live.

21/01/21 - 0.08sec. loop - ZOOM H2N

6. Here, there are two metallic box which give the possibility to the inhabitants to put inside some useful stuff for other who need it. This is a solidarity point among others, which is working for the public quality of hospitality of the city.

24/01/21 - 1'45min. soundwalk - ZOOM H2N

6. This soundwalk takes place during a sunday afternoon. This square gives to the inhabitants the opportunity to think freely, without the need to be careful or to pay attention at everything. So, their senses can have another activity, another way to perceive and to get in touch with their environment.

21/01/21 - 0.27sec - ZOOM H2N

7. At every moment of the day, people follow one after the other into the square and have a break : to read the newspaper, to have a break, to eat, to walk his dog, etc. They design their own soundscape with discussions, music, and other sounds from their activities. Playing some phone's music is an example of a temporary appropriation of a part of the square. There are many different ways to engage this kind of process in our everyday life.

21/01/21 - 0.10sec - ZOOM H2N

8. There are many ways to cross this square. Particularly, thanks to the floor surface which is flat and regular. Alone, as a group, with headphones, by bicycle, by trottinette, by running, with a dog... Among the way to cross the Savonarola square, we can observe lot of people who are doing two or three things in the same time. For instance, have a walk with their dog and in the same time have a call or doing some phone's activity.

19/01/21 - 0.07sec - ZOOM H2N

9. Car and scooter passing by. This place is open to the streets and to the traffic. It means that the motor vehicles are the elements which delimite the square inside the whole place. There are also some little bushes, and some areas of grass, in order to define the square to the sidewalks. The limit between square and the place is caracterised, maybe first of all, by the strength of the cars sounds. So, motor vehicles are the real limits of the space and design like a refuge in the heart of Savonarola's district.