Paper short abstract:

Using two of my sound interventions in Sao Paulo as case studies, this paper analysis practices of place-making that involve inhabitants in the creation of collected oral narratives and their use in public space as a means for activating situated collective knowledge production and transfer.

Paper long abstract:

This paper analysis practices of place-making that involve inhabitants in the creation of collected oral narratives and their use in public space, as a means for activating situated collective knowledge production and transfer. Describing two of my sound interventions in Sao Paulo, it approaches listening as caring and the voice as a place of exploration of the urban environment while asking what influence citizens can have on it. Furthermore, it contributes to the innovation of sound based exploration of urban space and the use of phonographic medium as political text. In the first case, a bicycle with a loudspeaker traveled the roads of the multiethnic neighborhood of Bom Retiro amplifying a recorded montage of wishes to expand the conversation with passers-by. It is presented how the action even if co-designed and co-curated with a local collective, in the end was hijacked by the activists for their needs. Moreover, it is discussed how a dynamic process of co-authorship continued in the aftermath. In the second case, the use of fabulation provoked the listeners to imagine the city as a person, as someone who could act: a loudspeaker on the top of Edifício Copan broadcasted my voice reading the questions that various interviewed people would ask the city if she could answer them. Finally, this paper illustrates in both examples, the role that (urban) space and situation of listening play in the public production of critical knowledge as a dialogic reaction to what is listened.