Photo credit: Matej Tomažin, Cona
Inaudible Cities: Here, Now, There and Then is a guided sonic experience created by Loeb/ArtLab Fellow Jacek Smolicki. Lasting approximately 35 minutes, the soundwalk forms a liminal space leading into the Composers Talk at ArtLab with Annea Lockwood (hosted by Claire Chase) and Teju Cole.
Participation is free but limited and requires registration. In case of rain, the soundwalk will be postponed.
If the soundwalk has reached capacity, please join us at 6 pm at ArtLab for the Conversation with Annea Lockwood and Teju Cole, curated by Claire Chase
About the Soundwalk
Inaudible Cities connects the most immediate with temporally and geographically distant soundscapes. Equipped with special audio receivers, participants will follow an itinerary that is both carefully designed and open to spontaneous encounters.
As everyday urban details—water fountains, switchboards, ventilation shafts, sewers, and cobblestones—are processed in real time, they transform into sonic manifestations of the classical elements: earth, water, air, and fire.
These familiar sounds gradually weave into an evolving composition that also opens portals to fragile environments documented by Smolicki during his fieldwork in the Pacific West Coast, Arctic Circle, Canaveral Seashore, and beyond.
Schedule
- 5:00 PM — Meet and audio orientation with Jacek Smolicki (outside Weld Boathouse)
- 5:15 PM — Soundwalk departs, crossing the Charles River to ArtLab (~1 mile, some stairs)
- 6:00 PM — A Conversation with Annea Lockwood and Teju Cole at Harvard ArtLab
Important Details
- Walking distance: approximately one mile, including stairs.
- Space is limited — advance registration is required.
- If your plans change, please cancel or notify us so another participant can join.
- Questions? Contact us at artlab@harvard.edu.
Jacek Smolicki (Loeb/ ArtLab Fellow)is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and researcher whose work explores the critical, existential, and technological dimensions of listening, recording, and archiving across human and more-than-human contexts. Jacek Smolicki practice encompasses soundwalks, soundscape compositions, experimental archives, and installations. Jacek co-founded the Walking Festival of Sound, a nomadic platform that connects artists, researchers, and local communities around the role of sound in shaping our environments.
Annea Lockwood (b. 1939), was recently described by The New York Times as “a composer of insatiable curiosity and a singular ear for the music of the natural world,”
Since 1970, composer Annea Lockwood has recorded rivers in many countries, not to document them, but rather for the special state of mind and body which the sounds of moving water create when one listens intently to the complex mesh of rhythms and pitches. Each stretch of a river has its own sonic texture, formed by the terrain, varying according to the weather, the season and, downstream, the human environment whose sounds are intimately woven into the river’s sounds.
This public program is produced by ArtLab in collaboration with the Department of Music and Loeb Fellowship at GSD, with support from the Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA), the Johnson-Kulukundis Family President’s Fund for Arts at Harvard University, Shelemay Sound Lab, and the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard.