Sonic Heritage

Sonic Heritage is a project initiated by Cities and Memory, with the idea of preserving the ambient sounds of UNESCO World Heritage sites, as well as sounds that represent intangible heritage also protected by UNESCO. Two of my recordings were included in the collection, one from both categories: the ambient sound of Piazza San Pietro in the Vatican, and a recording of an Orthodox liturgy from the Church of St. Nicholas in Melenci, Serbia. Below is a copy of the text from the project’s website:

Sonic Heritage is the first collection of the sounds of the world’s most famous sights.The project presents the sounds of 270 UNESCO World Heritage sites and items of intangible heritage – all reimagined by artists from around the world to create a brand new way of experiencing these spaces. Sound is usually the poor relation when it comes to tourism – in our visually-dominated culture, everything seems to be about where you take the Instagram photo or the video clip for TikTok. As overtourism becomes a crisis for many cities around the world and Insta-tourism increases the pressure on tourist destinations and the focus on how things look, sound can help us to throw new light on these issues and how we might address them. Rarely does sound enter the equation when we think about tourism or what makes a place great – and this holds true for preservation too. There are no “blue plaque” schemes marking out sonic sites of interest, and even UNESCO’s Intangible Heritage lists serve sound poorly. In our view, this needs to change – so in this project we take a sonic tour to examine the role sound plays in these spaces deemed to be the world’s most culturally significant. We consider how sound affects our experience of new cultures and tourism, and why sound often assumes lesser importance when it comes to recognising and celebrating heritage. Sonic Heritage aims to address these fundamental questions:

What role does sound have to play in enriching our experience of the world’s most incredible places?

What are the soundscapes that accompany the world’s most culturally-important sites and spaces?

How should we identify, celebrate and preserve soundscapes around the world that are culturally or socially significant – before it’s too late?

While we acknowledge that no classification system or list can ever be perfect or complete, the UNESCO World Heritage list offers the most comprehensive and authoritative global overview of culturally-significant sites. This gives us a globally-recognised set of parameters for the spaces (and activities) of cultural, social and natural importance, upon which we can layer the depth and richness of sound to make Sonic Heritage a unique undertaking. This project is not affiliated or connected with UNESCO in any way – it simply uses the UNESCO classification system as a basis for establishing which sites, practices and activities we would examine.

 

https://citiesandmemory.com/heritage/