The international residency and exchange project Sonotopia – the Sonic Explorers will turn former Bonn prize winners into traveling researchers and sound art ambassadors. To open up the world for one’s self or to open up one’s self to the world – both processes commence with listening. Our perception of the world “out there” begins with listening, long before we are born.

The act of listening is the foundation for every type of communication and social interaction. Both of the latter have to be learned. 6 young European sound artists will go for one month on project - and research residencies to Tehran/Iran, Dakar/Senegal and Valparaiso/Chile (2 to each place) to work there together as a group with 2 young local artists and a local mentor. These groups will explore the cities from the position of listening. How do cities sound today? How different is listening in other cultures? In the focus of the project lays the artistic examination of urban phenomena from the sonic perspective, their interpretation and transformation with multiple artistic methods. In 2021 (initially planned for 2020 Beethoven anniversary year) all participants come together for a second residence in Bonn/Germany to meet the other groups, exchange their experiences and explore together a different city context.

A final exhibition at Künstlerforum Bonn will present the results

To open the world for one’s selfor to open one’s self tothe world– both processes commence with listening. Our perception of the world “out there” begins with listening, long before we are born. The act of listening is the foundation for every type of communication and social interaction, both of which have to be learned. This is no different today than it was in Beethoven’s time – but the contemporary world is a much larger and more differentiated listening space.

How do cities on distant continents sound? How do individuals in other cultural spheres listen? Can we, with our European-trained perception, learn something from them and perhaps come to understand an increasingly globalised listening world better in its local expression as a consequence? What does Bonn really sound like nowadays?

In stereophony, as natural a reproduction of reality as possible is created through the spatial shifting of two sound sources. sonotopia – the sonic explorers aims to interpret this shift in perspective metaphorically in the scope of a multi-lateral residency project.

http://sonicexplorers.net/