The Soundsslike Project
ISIK UNIVERSITY, 2015
The Soundsslike archive, which is created under a research project titled The Soundscape of Istanbul conducted by P?nar Çevikayak Yelmi during her doctoral studies, supervised by Assoc. Prof. Nina Ergin, Assoc. Prof. Sertaç Kak? and Assoc. Prof. As?m Evren Yantaç, is developed by Hüseyin Ku?cu.
The Soundscape of Istanbul project (https://soundscapeofistanbul.ku.edu.tr) approaches everyday traditions and daily urban life from a sonic perspective and aims to increase public awareness of cultural sounds. Sounds are inevitable parts of our daily lives and our cultures. Also, sounds are of great importance in terms of intangible cultural heritage. Sounds that are not protected or archived get lost forever. In a dynamic city such as Istanbul, daily life and urban sounds change rapidly. Therefore, it is significant and necessary to protect cultural soundmarks of the city to sustain cultural identity and cultural memory.
In The Soundscape of Istanbul project, sound symbols of Istanbul were determined according to an online survey and interviews that we conducted. These characteristic urban sounds were recorded with professional equipment throughout the year 2015. The collection of ?The Soundscape of Istanbul? is publicly accessible at Koç University Suna K?raç Library (http://digitalcollections.library.ku.edu.tr/cdm/landingpage/collection/SOI).
Soundsslike project is initiated in order to expand this sound collection. In this project, an interactive platform was developed in which anyone can record and upload sounds. The main aim of the project is to raise public awareness of urban and cultural sounds and to protect these sounds as a collective work. The project is initiated with the city of Istanbul and now there are urban sounds from over 15 cities including London, Paris and Le Havre.
The project became associate partners with Europeana Sounds and the collection can also be accessible under Europeana Sounds portal. The Soundsslike project was also presented as an interactive installation in Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (RCAC) and by means of an experiential exhibition at Studio-X Istanbul. In the interactive exhibition, visitors could form the soundscape of the exhibition space by playing 3 sounds of their choice at the same time. Moreover, sounds that were uploaded to Soundsslike archive by participants took place also in the exhibition area so that participants became a part of the exhibition. In the experiential exhibition, however, visitors had the chance to experience the cultural sounds that are lost in the chaos of the city by the clues in the installation.
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Authors
Project Partner
Koç University