For two days on Tuesday 23 September and Wednesday 1 October, the city will offer its daily soundtrack – the roll of the trolley on the stones, the buzz of the groups, the sound of the engines, the calls of the guides in different languages - to a collective path that has made it evident that the Overurism is not only a matter of numbers and spaces, but also of acoustic vibrations that modify the perception of the places.
The project, conceived by Lab Village – Tourism, Culture and Creative Industries of Ca ‘Foscari Venice University and led by the sound artist and researcher Nicola di Croce, has given birth to a unique experiment in Italy: a university descends among citizens, tourists and students to investigate the impact of tourism with the language of sound art.
During the workshop on Tuesday 23 September, the participants followed an introductory lesson and then immersed themselves in a soundwalk in the heart of Venice. Armed with recorders and notebooks, they have collected fragments of sound and short texts, noting emotions and reflections born from active listening. On Wednesday 1 October, collective elaboration will be moved on: sound materials and words will intertwine to build a choral story, destined to become an audio track capable of returning the complexity of the Venetian acoustic landscape.
The project manager, Professor Maurizio Busacca, recalled how the nature of tourism is inevitably noisy and how the sounds it produces tells much of the forms with which it crosses the city. Putting together residents and visitors, students and operators, has meant opening a new, rare comparison space for a city used to living tourism as an ineluctable figure, rather than as a subject to question.
The urgency to reflect on the loveourism and the fragility of Venice
Overseound He is not limiting himself to collecting noises: he has opened a gap of awareness. He showed how the sound landscape of the lagoon risks losing his roots, covered by the acoustic plot of tourist flows, and gave voice to those who live in Venice, even for a day.
The theme of the Cestourism in Venice has been at the center of the public debate for years: millions of visitors have passed through calls and Campielli every year, they crowd squares and boats, affect the livability of the city and the quality of life of the residents. Usually, there is talk of numbers, flows, economic impacts. More rarely, we wonder about the less visible but not less decisive effects: those that concern the sensory and more intimate dimension.
The roll of the trolley, groups, the calls of the guides, the boat engines: this acoustic overlap produces a deafening effect, so as to make it almost impossible to distinguish the original voice of the city. In other words, Venice risks not only losing inhabitants and essential functions, but also its own sound identity, that immaterial heritage that contributes to defining its soul.
The experience conducted with oversound shows that tourism is not only a visual or numerical fact, but also a hearing and perceptive fact. The result will not be only a final audio track, but a choral experience that invites you to rethink Venice through listening. An invitation to slow down, to remind us that the fragility of a city is also measured in the ability to preserve the sounds that make it unique.
In short, if Overurism is a structural problem that involves economics, transport, environment and heritage, it is also a cultural question: it concerns the way in which the city is perceived and lived, both by its inhabitants and by those who visit it.
In this sense, an artistic laboratory like Overseound highlights an often ignored reality: Venice is not only an open -air museum to be photographed, but a living organism to listen to.
Learning to listen to Venice then means learning to respect it. Returning to her the possibility of bringing out her voice again, beyond the frastuon that risks suffocating it. And to understand that the fragility of this city is not an abstract concept, but a reality that is also measured in the sound waves that go through it every day.
How to participate in the laboratory on Wednesday 1 October?
Admission is free (maximum number of participants 10 people).
Information and registration:
Hours: from 14:30 to 17:30
where: itinerant laboratory in the historic center of Venice with participatory activities in the Biral classroom, Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, Palazzo Malcanton Marcorà
e-mail. projects@piccionaia.org
Tel. 0444.235486
Whatsapp 331.6350679
