‘Cityphonic Walks’
A long durational walk/a city-symphony in four movements, taking place in different spaces and times in Eindhoven.
Verbal Score: Irini Kalogeropoulou
Yellow Vest Conductors: Irini Kalogeropoulou, Mees Siderius, Rianne Wilbers
1st movement: Grave: “A sound, A table. Shoes. A Dog. A White Hunter. A Leave. Suppose An Eyes”
Cityphonic Walks
Allan Kaprow once said: The line between art and life should be kept as fluid, and perhaps indistinct, as possible. Our intent is to show walking and listening not only as everyday practices from one place to another but also as transformative experiences that blur the boundaries between art and life. Let’s invent together a new walking and listening culture towards tenderness, care, solidarity. Are you ready?
Hello!
This walk is an invitation, a gift to be unwrapped with your feet.
You are part of a symphony, the city’s symphony. You are a performer and a composer at the same time now. Feel free to listen, play, experiment. In this symphony there will be also some conductors. They are the yellow vest conductors. They are here for you. Please follow them.
Overture
Start walking slowly. What’s the first sound you can hear in this city-symphony?
Traffic Lights
Traffic lights.
They establish a rhythm, like mechanical heartbeats. Listen to their phrases: birth, growth, peak, then decline and end.
Move with these sounds and listen as you move.
Mechanical and Human Heartbeats
Close your eyes.
Put your hand on your neck and find your own rhythm. Listen for a while. Play your pulse.
Include your body’s rhythm in the city’s polyrhythm by clapping your hands.
Let the traffic lights play: Tak Tak.
Play in between.
Play along with others.
Mind the Road!
Imagine a day when you won’t have to say this. Keep walking.
Outside-Inside
You’re in front of cemetery railings. Put one ear inside and the other outside. Listen to these two worlds beating together.
Full of Vibrations
Schools are like small cities. They are full of vibrations. Put your ear to these railings. Can you listen to them?
Can you Listen with your memory: in the here and now in the there and then?
Peace and Quite
You are entering a small, quiet neighborhood What are the lowest and highest sounds you can hear? Which sounds feel like home, and which ones are unsettling? Which sounds feel like home, and which ones are unsettling?
Keys
Almost everyone carries a set of keys. Some people hold them in their hands while walking for safety reasons, especially women
Take them out and play with them as you walk.
Interrupt this peace and quiet.
Colorful Boxes
Someone is going to draw a house for you
Stay there for a minute.
Collect as many sounds as possible. Try to remember them!
Walking and Murmuring
Walk while murmuring a song you love
Imagine everyone walking like this. Don’t be afraid of being heard.
City as An Instrument
Play with the railings as you walk or run
Can you hear the threshold between private and public space?
Beneath the Pavement, the Beach
with your imagination
What does it sound like? instead?
ment with chalk
Keep Walking
Keep walking!
Walk as silly as you want!
Big Green Area
Step in
Cut a leaf and pass it as slowly as you can from person to person in absolute silence. Is this possible?
Can you hear the pianissimo brushing of the leaf as it is passed from hand to hand?
Music as Propaganda
TA TA TA TAA
music for their political purposes
-
Can you bring in your mind a public place where music was employed to manipulate public opinion?
Play with the Leaves
Play the leaves with your hands creating different patterns. Give voice to the existing nature. Play as silly as you want!
Next Stop: Common Wealth War Cemetery
A strange and familiar place. Would you describe it as silent? What is silence to you?
Silence, for me, is a white hunter
Pause and Listen
Inaudible and Audible Breaths
Enter. Focus on your breath
What’s your current tempo?
After a while make your breath audible
4 sound dimensions
Listen to the four dimensions of sound in the space:
1 Your body and others’ bodies
2. Existing nature.
3. The city.
4. The unheard sounds. If you want, mimic one of these sounds
Tombs as sounding boards
As you are walking read the names of the tombs aloud
In any way you want: sing, whisper, shout, staccato, sus - tained, rhythmically, or fragmented.
People are not just numbers they have names that produce a certain sound.
Leaving the space
Grab someone’s hand.
If you feel a tap on your shoulder, close your eyes
The other person will lead you towards the exit
Collect your favorite sounds as you walk blindfolded.
Sonic memories
Close your eyes for a while
Think of one sound that you want to take with you.
Share your sonic memory with the others.
Return
Walk back to the starting point in silence.
Focus on the rhythmicity of walking, on this “place – ballet”
Look for ordinary-extraordinary sonic events
Ride your bike
Listen to the soundscape as you are moving
Next Stop: Vonderweg 1
Groundmusic
The ground is a vibrant surface. Follow someone else’s sonic footprints, human or non-human.
Try not to make any sound. Walk in different ways. Leave footprints.
What’s the most distant sound you can hear?
Rebirth
When you come to life, people give you a name. Write your name in the ground with your foot. If you want, spell it, whisper it, or sing it as you bring it to life. This is your identity, your own mark in a space that is going to be reborn.
Ride Your Bike
Listen to the soundscape as you move.
2nd Movement: Allegro: Metropolis of Eindhoven, spatial sound platform
Collective Listening
Draw a small circle in the center of Eindhoven and stay inside for one minute.
Then run to someone else’s circle. Listen to the Piazza Center from different angles. Repeat it 3 times.
Shopping Malls: Muzak Music
Set a timer for 3 minutes.
Step in and out of shops. Listen to their music.
John Cage once said: “I intend to compose a piece of uninterrupted silence and sell it to Muzak Co. Its title will be Silent Prayer.
It will open with a single idea which I will attempt to make as seductive as the color and shape and fragrance of a flower.”
Imagine the sound of that flower. When the 3 minutes are up, return to your circle. If you want, share your imagined sound with someone else.
Burst Your Bubble
Let’s burst our bubbles. Let’s burst these capitalistic sounds. Just follow the yellow vest conductors.
Leave the Space
Grab someone’s hand.
If you feel a tap on your shoulder, close your eyes. The other person will lead you to your bike. Listen.
What has changed in your perspective now? Share it with the group.
Ride Your Bike
Listen to the soundscape as you are moving.
Next stop: NUL ZES (exhibition space)
3rd movement Andante: “The whole universe wants to be touched! Listen with me!”