with Cara Michell (s l o w p r a c t i c e), Sonic Insurgency Research Group, Robert Sember (Ultra-red)

Cars honking, people shouting, jackhammers on the sidewalk, the subway screeching on tracks – there are so many ways that city noises impact us. But who gets to make noise, and whose noises are silenced both structurally and physically? We kicked off a year of programs exploring the Sonic Commons by focusing on noise in the city, and the creative ways to intervene in and transform city soundmaking. Robert Sember of Ultra-red shared the group’s methodologies of Militant Sound Investigation through a collaboration with students from PS140 for the project “Listening to the Lower East Side.” Sonic Insurgency Research Group presented an audio essay interrogating noise policing and noise ordinances. We ended with a participatory psycho-geography workshop led by artist and urban planner Cara Michell, unpacking how cities plan for noise through laws and public space design, and how to refuse restrictions through public space intervention.