Artist Statement

Since my involvement in the automotive industry as a sound designer (from 2010, with the work for Renault Zoé’s external sound signature), I have been interested in one of the problems investigated by ReSilence: the degradation of urban soundscapes, considered from the perspective of understanding and analyzing it, in order to produce new sounds without further damaging the sonic background of cities. Zoé’s sound was designed trying to find an acoustic niche of the urban soundscape in which a new timbre could be added without competing with other sounds. Since then, the urban soundscape has already started to change for the better, but we are far from reversing the negative effects of intrusive sounds in everyday life. 

As a “pure” audio artist, from the beginning of my career I have been interested in some of the fields of research investigated by ReSilence’s partners: relations between body movement, emotional states and sound; the importance of background sound to “nudge” users towards a certain movement quality; distracted modes of listening as the state of being of urban life; ambient and background music.  I consider the ReSilence project an exceptional opportunity to sum up the knowledge I gathered during the last 10+ years as a sound designer, and to imagine new ways of using sound in experiences which go beyond what is commonly intended as music, sound art, or sound design.

Project : Moving Soundscapes

Our project will deploy creative, non-orthodox sound design techniques to explore new counter-measures to soundscape intrusiveness and annoyance. 
To measure the efficacy of our prototypes, we will analyze their influence on human movement. 
The best designs will inhabit a sensitive space, where visitors’ bodies modulate the degradation/healing of a virtual urban soundscape.

Andrea Cera works