Methods

Classical cartography, understood as the geographical model par excellence, does not represent such multiplicity of concepts and richness of meanings obtained by a critical re-reading of soundscapes, but serves as a starting point for proposing new analysis situations based on a critical perspective that contemplates the above mentioned multiplicity and transversality necessary to elaborate new discourses.

The great paradox of what could be defined as a sound culture is that it is not based on a written tradition, but on a constant experience (experimentation), individual and collective, that goes from the most intimate interiority to the most universal exteriority. Although many decades have passed since the development of the first theoretical framework on soundscapes, the field still perceives the absence of new theoretical and practical concepts applicable to expand this initial framework and enrich the knowledge applied to it. For this reason, what this workshop is really looking for is to investigate new analysis methods and new tools that can later be applied in other fields such as education, science and social and cultural studies.

The expected impact of the research results are related to the intervention and the development of an educational tool capable of: a) promoting actions of awareness-raising about the dimension of soundscapes with regard to the promotion of sound and active listening related life skills; b) raising awareness among pre service teachers about the use and the impact of silence/sound in the educational setting; c) promoting the potential of the soundscape for the advocacy of pathways for artistic and educational development, both in the musical area and in the physical theatre; d) raising awareness, disseminating and spreading good practices in the implementation of the educational tool related the soundscape; e) grouping and connecting the practices, tools and experiences developed with the international partners. After the implementation of the intervention followed by the development of the educational tool the research team aims at implement the toll in different educational settings (formal, informal and non-formal).

All along the research project and especially after the data analysis the result shall be published in different journals, also peer reviewed papers.

During the workshop dissemination events related to the newest research results will be organized in Locarno and surroundings, hosting and actively involving the international researchers of the project.

This collaboration brings strong implications for the students’ research education through the development of Bachelor and Master thesis, but is profitable also for junior doctoral candidates. In addition, the results will be disseminated through open access channels as well as by Swissuniversities guidelines. Conference participations and the presentation of the workshop’s results to the scientific community will also be ensured. Further on, a project proposal will be prepared during the following month after the workshop that will be submitted to the Swiss National Research Found with the aim of consolidating the built-in network and for capitalizing the exchanged expertise.

The international and intercultural research team collaborates on soundscapes coordinated on one hand by the Swiss principal investigator, which includes Swiss, French, Italian and Spanish researcher and on the other by the Brazilian principal investigator and her research staff. The participants’ heterogeneity (both in terms of discipline and research experience) guarantees the establishment of a learning community that actively dialogues and grows. In the Workshop’s context, institutional roles fall into the background leaving more space for the common action-oriented tasks. The soundscape becomes a place where to experience new ways of producing knowledge precisely thanks to the personal act of listening. The research and workshop idea matures from the notion that every landscape produces unique and unmistakable sounds, perceived in the extent and in the measure of each individual’s and group’s’ awareness. Hence, giving voice to these perceptions means trigger lines of reflection and active listening education able to amplify a sensory approach that western culture nowadays increasingly tends to marginalize even though its fundamental role for the individual’s learning process. From previous meetings, which were transversal to the research group the lack in the use of educational methodologies and pertinent research tools was highlighted, that could favour the transversal nature of the search in the context of the soundscape has been highlighted.

Hence the need to propose this workshop to the DFA of SPUSI as a place of experimentation of educational methodologies and a clear reference point in Switzerland in research on this topic. Comparison with internationally renowned researchers could be a boost and a growth wheel of enormous potential also in view of the implementation of new study plans in the Harmos framework that sees interdisciplinarity, transversality as focal points for the development of lifelong and transferable skills in a vertical curriculum context (from childhood school to tertiary education).