Hit Record: Mapping Acoustic Sympathies

How does a sound have the ability to stop someone in their tracks? Sound only has to be linked to a memory to affect someone. We all have acoustic sympathies held within: sounds tuned into strings of memories, waiting to be struck. This workshop is foregrounded by the phenomenon of sympathetic resonance wherein an unstruck object starts vibrating when another nearby object produces the same pitch or frequency. 

The task of mapping begins with a conversation on soundscapes. Every place holds a multitude of sounds, layered and all at once. It is within that layering that soundmarks surface: specific to one place or one community; inimitable anywhere else. Together, participants walk through the neighbourhood, listening to its layered soundscape. Each participant records soundmarks on the spot, keeping score of whatever strikes a chord within them at that moment. 

During this walk, acoustic sympathies also rise to the surface. The sound of a bus passing, for some, is simply the rolling mechanical shudder of a large vehicle. For others, the same sound is so constant that it goes unheard until it's gone – then it stops arriving in the ear, and starts arriving in memory instead: a childhood, a crossing, a homeland, a journey, or a somewhere they can never return to. It is in that moment that two places in time are suddenly audible at once. 

Participants return from the soundwalk and share the acoustic sympathies that they surfaced. The recordings are gathered into a sound collage; meanwhile, the acoustic sympathies are archived through the making of a shared zine. This process of mapping and archiving treats recording not as simply a means of capturing, but as an act of recovering resonant sympathies. The workshop unfolds as a collective record of an environment turned shared instrument that plays a chorus of memories.

SHARMADA SUNDAR  is an arts and culture practitioner, born in India and currently based in Lyon, where she is undertaking a Master's in Development of Artistic and Cultural Projects at the University of Lyon. She has supported exhibitions and cultural initiatives at organisations such as Chennai Photo Biennale and Lalit Kala Akademi.

Her cultural work sits at the intersection of contemporary art, music, and sound, with a particular interest in how listening shapes memory, place, and belonging. Mapping Acoustic Sympathies debuts her workshop facilitation as an extension of her cultural practice into a collective, participatory format that reflects her interest in listening as a way to uncover personal and collective experiences amid the sounds of everyday life.