The aim of this competition is to encourage students specializing in space design to collaborate with students specializing in sound by developing thoughts on the sound design of our living spaces, beyond the question of noise control to imagine the soundscapes of tomorrow
Calendar
• January the 23rd 2020 : launch of the competition in Unesco.
• December the 1st 2020 : team registration deadline
• January the 1st 2020 : submitting films deadline
• january the 13rd 2021 : jury in Paris La semaine du son,
• January the 21st 2021 : winners announced and awards presented at UNESCO during the Urbanisme sonore evening of La Semaine du Son UNESCO 2021.
If the team’s application is accepted, the organizers assign a team number for competing.
Awards
• 1st prize for project sound creativity : 3000 euros
• 2d prize for urban innovation : 2000 euros
• 3rd prize for sound intelligence of the location : 1000 euros
• 4th prize for audio-visual realisation (image-sound relationship) : 1 audio-digital recorder
• 5th prize for technical quality : 1 pair of speakers
Defining the competition
Sound fragility and phonic resistance of public spaces, 2020-2068
The atmospheres of public squares, places of living together, of gatherings and of popular protest are changing regarding their uses. What sounds will they have in 40 years ? What materialities will take on and what forms will they take in a world profoundly affected by climate change and a growing demand for physical and social interactions, in response to the widespread use of connected technologies and objects, supposed to better connect us ?
In this context of "atmospheric" change, will the squares still be places of oral expression, encounter, common desire, festive gathering and the intersection of differences ?
The competition invites candidates to project themselves into one of the aspects of the following fictional scenario :
"In 2068, the sound dimension of inhabited spaces becomes a major concern for stakeholders of the manufacture of cities. Mobility artifacts have adopted new sound designs : autonomous vehicles, assisted bicycles, scooters, permanently connected pedestrians equipped with virtual helmets and travel assistants, are changing streetscape, building underpasses, urban promenades, parks and gardens. Mobile or motionless, the city’s intelligent objects are involved in the production of unheard-of atmospheres ; all produce sounds and pick them up. New forms of audiovisual markers are used to regulate these acoustic flows. In this atmospheric magma, the city-dweller struggles to distinguish his voice : how to encourage discussion and alert citizens’ ears of potential dangers ?
However, the public square remains a gathering place, unconnected areas are created, marked on the ground in order to cross and exchange with others without problem. These areas can be extended in cases of mass gatherings. Sound quality is not only part of the planners’ specifications but also assumes an obligation of results that the legislator can measure over several years after completion. Architects-planners now have an obligation to integrate a sound designer into their team. They can summon an acoustician to simulate urban acoustics and call on sound engineers to develop sound broadcast zones. All think together of the neighbourhoods and draw the buildings and their surroundings (courtyards, streets, squares) while integrating the management of sound environments from the programming phase of the district activities. In the early sketches, the sound designer evaluates the influence of the implantation of masses, building heights, opening or closing of public spaces on the street and on the private courtyards. Projects must propose scenarios for managing soundscapes at different times of the day, week and season ; quiet areas are located and characterized on city maps.
Industrialists have developed new outdoor materials that absorb sound waves in well-defined frequency ranges, including controlling reverberation effects and modulating source diffusion. Advances in telecommunications technology offer space devices to control the saturation of sources from the sky, for example delivery drone channels are isolated in glass tubes above the passers-by.
Sound can also be synonymous with danger. It’s a new, pernicious control tool. Despite EU privacy legislation, digital snippets capture mobile phone conversations and scan RFID chips from passers-by’s clothes and tablets at store entrances to find out their tastes and anticipate their desires to buy. The State uses audio waves to track S, I, W or Y citizens. Our sound productions can be used in private spaces without our knowledge.
Sound is used in a wider spectrum than the only audible atmospheres. It has become a means of creating "Temporary Festive Zones" with concert-performances in the public space, using low frequencies to massage the dancers’ bodies and give them trance sensations. Urban and architectural spaces also see the development of transformable sound and light environments that adorn the city in the same way as gardens or games.
Through this barely fictitious projection, the possible future of connected or disconnected public spaces emerges. Whether informative or creative, disturbing or even harmful, sound is part of the toolkit that public space designers must know how to use to compose the new landscapes of the sensitive city that is looming by 2068.”
Jury Composition
• Nicolas Misdariis, president, will compose a jury among the members of the scientific comitee « Penser ensemble le son des villes » mentionned below :
• Pascal Amphoux (professeur, urbaniste), , Laurence Bouckaert (compositrice), Nicolas Dorval-Bory (Maitre de conférence, architecte), Carlota Daro (Maitre de conférence, historienne du sonore), Pablo Katz (architecte) , Nicolas Misdariis (chercheur en design sonore), Fanny Mietlicki (Bruit Parif), Ellisavet Kiourtsoglou (chercheure), Franck Faucheux (ingénieur-architecte, Eiffage), Frédéric Fradet (plasticien, Structures sonores Baschet), Christian Hugonnet (président de La semaine du son), Jiang Kang (Professeur acousticien), Nicolas Lounis (acousticien), Jean-Dominique Polack (professeur acousticien), Robert Normando, (compositeur), Nicolas Remy (Maitre de conférence, acousticien), Nathalie Mezureux (architecte, directrice de l’ENSALyon), Catherine Morin-Dessailly (Sénatrice), Gilles Paté (Maitre de conférence, vidéaste), Cécile Regnault (Professeure, conceptrice sonore), Eric Sutter (campanologue), Bruno Vincent (psychoacousticien, acoucité) …
Reference people :
• Cécile Regnault, Professeure, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Lyon.
• Gilles Paté, Maître de conférence, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Versailles.
• Laurence Bouckaert, professeur de la classe électroacoustique de l’Ecole de musique de Villeurbanne.
Contacts
For more informations, please contact
• Annick Bouvattier
La Semaine du Son
52, rue René Boulanger, 75010 Paris
Tél. 01 42 78 10 15 / 06 40 38 14 74
concoursplaceauson chez lasemaineduson.org
• www.lasemaineduson.org
Formulaire d’inscription
Then, after receiving your identification number submit your film here : https://www.lasemaineduson.org/depot-films-concours-international-etudiant-2068-place-au-son