Thousands of protesters in the city of Bogota, Colombia, on 21 Nov. 2019. Daniel Garzon Herazo—NurPhoto/Getty ImagesOriginal fieldrecording:
Part of C40 Top: http://c40summit.org/
Project page: https://citiesandmemory.com/wellbeing-cities/
Podcast with the 31 participants, my contribution starts from :
47.54-49.40: Bogotá, Colombia – manifestants’ protest denouncing corruption, 2019
(reimagined composition by Wijnand Bredewold)
Imagen de archivo. Por segundo año consecutivo Bogotá fue reconocida como una de las "Ciudades Arboladas del Mundo". Foto: Secretaría de Ambiente
Colombian protest reimagined by me:
Noise to Noise
2022Processed auidio, 8 min
Once there was nothing, maybe just white noise, a random signal of equal intensity at different frequencies. Due to the origin of the earth, nature, animals and people, variations in this white noise arose, there was no overcrowding or disturbance, it was in harmony with each other.
Due to the increase in the world population and the urban development of the major world cities in particular, the harmony of these cities can be disrupted. These cities are crossed by flows of people, traffic and goods. Parts of these cities are constantly being expanded, demolished and rebuilt, in a way that aspects for a healthy city are not always taken for granted. You can see the city as an autonomous machine or an organism that generates a soundscape on its own, often resulting in disharmony.
Many cities are currently undergoing a transition, the city is being made more liveable, there is more room for pedestrians, cyclists and nature. The soundscape of the city regenerates into better harmony.
Noise2Noise uses a soundscape of a protest in Bogota by Colombians (2019) against economic inequality, corruption, violence, pollution and climate change. Good to mention in this, is that Bogota is also doing a lot to create more nature in the city lately.
The audio file consists of 11 parts, it starts with part of the original recording, raw and unedited, this part is replayed and re-recorded, this process is repeated 10 times. In addition, each part is lowered by 2 semitones compared to the previous part. The 11 parts are faded crosswise and mixed into 1 file. In this way, the sound is slowly but surely transformed into white noise, which is an imaginary starting point for a renewed city that again generates a harmonious soundscape.