Displaced Listening

Taito Fushimi (Keio University)*

Displaced Listening
Image credit: Taito Fushimi (Keio University)*
  • Installation
  • Paper PDF link
  • Presence: remote
  • Room Location: Rich Mix in "The Mix"

Abstract:

This project takes place in Shibuya, where two strangers wearing binaural microphones and earphones navigate the city by exchanging and relying on each other’s surrounding sounds in real time. As the heart of consumer society, cities where many people gather have diverse sounds such as advertisements on digital signage, street speeches, and public transportation announcements. While these are often treated as a kind of noise in daily life, in this work, they function as triggers for the two users to draw closer and meet. At that moment, the city is experienced not as a space heading toward a predetermined destination, but as a place where events continually emerge. In the process of moving sound as a guidepost, distance is not grasped through numbers or maps, but is physically perceived as the overlapping and shifting of sounds. This work attempts to reconsider, through the ever-changing sounds of the city, the fluid and relational nature of the city that lies behind the fixed image of the city established by visual images and maps.