July 18 is the birth date of renowned Canadian composer, music educator, and author, R. Murray Schafer. With the World Soundscape Project he developed the fundamental ideas and practices of acoustic ecology in the 1970s. These inform the current, burgeoning interest in our changing acoustic environment. For several years, sound artist and documentary filmaker Raquel Castro recorded interviews with many sound artists, soundwalkers and sound theorists about the role of sound and listening in human life, about the education towards improving of aural literacy. The SOA film was premiered last year and now for the first time in the Czech Republic.
SOA, director: Raquel Castro, 71 min, 2020, with English subtitles
The theme for 2021 “The Unquiet Earth” is an invitation to reflect on and engage with the constant murmur of the Earth, sounds beyond the threshold of human hearing, to remind ourselves that we share this mysterious and awesome planet. Small, hidden, subterranean, aerial, underwater, infra and ultrasonic sounds, inaudible to the naked ear, can bring a new, potentially hopeful, perspective on the future of the planet and humanity. Listening as activism encourages us to question our attitudes as listeners as we aim to construct a more inclusive and empathetic new world. Join the unquiet revolution!
We invite you to join a sound walk through the urban landscape after the screening.
The event is part of the World Listening Day, organized in cooperation with CENSE – Central European Network for Sonic Ecologies and Offcity.
