Sound Topography of Göttingen (SOTO-Gö)

As an experimental practice merging sound art and social engagement, the Sound Topography of Göttingen (SOTO-Gö) project has been honored to be selected for the inaugural New York Virtual Performance Art Festival.

In the project’s title, “sound” refers to natural and artificial audio sources collected locally in Göttingen, while “topography”—originally a geographical term—is extended metaphorically to symbolize the distribution of sonic landscapes and the perceptual geography embedded in the urban map.

Centered around a core workshop, the project invites participants to explore local sound resources, conduct field recordings and sound identification, and then aggregate geotagged audio samples onto a digital map. By marking sound sources within a visualized urban landscape, we aim to reveal the linguistic features and sonic identities of Göttingen’s diverse neighborhoods (or communities), ultimately sketching an auditory portrait of the city’s social and cultural interweavings.

Beyond mapping spatial sound distributions, the project also guides participants to contemplate sound as an ontological phenomenon—from its physical production to auditory perception—analyzing how sound triggers emotions, memories, and a sense of place. The workshop further challenges participants to recognize that listening is not a passive act, but rather an active, political, and ethical stance. In listening to others and the environment, individuals simultaneously reconstruct their own identities.

A key focus lies on the latent power of the “relational self” and “collective self” within the sonic world: transcending the isolated “individual,” how might people discover connections with others and society through auditory resonance? The project seeks to inspire a conscious, engaged listening practice, empowering participants to become more empathetic and active members of their communities—not only as archivists of urban sound, but also as weavers of social bonds.

To explore the “SOTO-Gö” on the Radio Aporee sound map, please click the image or follow this link: https://aporee.org/maps/

Once on the site, you can search for “Göttingen” to discover various sound recordings from the area. These recordings capture the unique auditory environment of Göttingen, including natural sounds, urban noises, and cultural events. For example, you might find recordings like “Music from an apartment” on Weender Str. 60, where ambient music from a residence blends with the sounds of children playing outside, creating a layered urban soundscape.

This project allows you to experience the city’s atmosphere through its sounds, offering an immersive way to connect with Göttingen’s environment.

Workshop Structure & Philosophy

This workshop begins with rhythmic movement training, guiding participants to develop acute sensitivity to sound. Through corporeal exercises, participants not only sharpen auditory focus but also cultivate an intuitive understanding of rhythm, tension, and spatiality via the synergy between body and sound. This foundational training in listening prepares the perceptual groundwork for subsequent theatrical analysis and creation.

Next, participants will analyze performance recordings and dramatic texts to explore the aesthetic intentions and emotional strategies behind theatrical sound design. A focus on subtext will help uncover hidden currents of thought and emotion beneath dialogue, revealing how playwrights and directors employ sound as a tool to convey values, belief systems, and even ideology. Here, sound transcends mere information—it operates as a symbolic signifying mechanism, actively constructing power dynamics and emotional logic within the theatrical space.

Following these listening and analytical exercises, the workshop transitions to “sound mapping”, using digital tools to correlate sound sources with physical space. Participants will reflect on their own position within the urban fabric and interrogate the relationship between self and community. The map evolves beyond geography, becoming a woven field of emotion, sound, and social relations.

In the creative practice phase, participants will deconstruct selected theatrical scenes through artistic interventions—recombining, collaging, or overlaying sound and imagery to generate new works. This is both a formal experiment and a conceptual critique, challenging the original narrative framework to provoke alternative sonic languages and spatial imaginaries. The output is a set of critical reconfigurations that question dominant representations.

Guided by the principle that “process is the artwork”, the workshop adopts collaborative learning as its methodological core. Participants collectively identify problems, generate solutions, and realize interventions through co-creation. The Sound Topography of Göttingen (SOTO-Gö) project seeks to redefine dimension, liveness, and the boundaries of the virtual/real in theater: dissolving divisions between stage and reality, transforming listening into a critical methodology, and empowering individuals to reimagine art’s social role through communal interaction. We believe theater is not merely a space for performance—it is a site of public thinking and sensory resonance.