AUDIBLE CARTOGRAPHIES OF POWER
Gascia Ouzounian

This article examines the complex relationship between sound and mapping, focusing on the tensions and possibilities that emerge when dynamic, ephemeral sonic environments—especially those of cities—are represented cartographically. Tracing the evolution of sound mapping from early 20th-century noise maps to contemporary interactive and AI-driven models, the article explores how sound maps have shifted from being tools of bureaucratic noise control to instruments that expose the uneven distribution of urban noise and its socio-political implications. It highlights recent projects that use sound mapping as a form of critical cartography—such as Allie Martin’s Mapping Go-Go Music in Washington, DC, A.J. Holmes’s The Social Housing Sonic Archive, and Lawrence Abu Hamdan and Earshot’s Air Pressure—to reveal how sonic environments are shaped by and implicated in histories of racialized, classed, and gendered power. These projects reframe sound maps not simply as representations of acoustic phenomena but also as tools that render audible the pressures, violences, and contestations embedded in urban atmospheres. Ultimately, it proposes that such ‘audible cartographies of power’ make visible the politics of sonic space and reconfigure mapping itself as a way to apprehend the immaterial dimensions of governance, resistance, and everyday life in cities.

With thanks to Karen M’Closkey and the entire team at LA+: Interdisciplinary Journal of Landscape Architecture for their work on LA+ SENSE.

To cite this article:
Ouzounian, Gascia. “Audible Cartographies of Power.” LA+: Interdisciplinary Journal of Landscape Architecture 21 (2025): 94–99.