Sound of Democracy: How everyday sound environments support, reflect and deflect democratic values - Theme Pufendorf IAS

Through the use of sound this project investigates democratic values, and their manifestation in sound environments. Research on democracy investigates questions such as: How is power allocated between different actors? or How is expert knowledge democratized? The Theme will examine everyday examples of how this allocation and democratization works. Sound is an inevitable consequence of actions and relations in our world, and all spaces have an acoustic element to them. At the same time, questions of democracy in relation to everyday life—inclusion in, access to, equality of— play out across society in legislation, sustainable development, higher education and academic freedom. In terms of actual results of democratic goals, sound has a particularly disobedient quality—it does not obey visual, legal or ownership borders. The theme’s main research question is how everyday sound environments support, reflect and deflect democratic values. In this project, sound is both involved as the key theoretical component and as a methodological element that crosses boundaries through experimental and collective perception of sound environments, this will contribute to the discussion and visibility of structures of equality, justice and inclusion.

This project investigates democratic values through everyday sound environments. All spaces and actions have an acoustic element to them. At the same time, questions of democracy in relation to everyday life - inclusion in, access to, equality of - play out across society. Sound has, in this context, a particularly disobedient quality - it does not obey visual, legal or ownership borders, and will be used as an element that crosses boundaries. This will for example be done through experimental and collective perception of sound in order to contribute to the discussion and visibility of structures of equality, justice and inclusion.