LOCKDOWN SONICS: A CONVERSATION
Gascia Ouzounian and Matilde Meireles

In this conversation, published in the third instalment of the ‘Crafting a Sonic Urbanism’ book series by Theatrum Mundi with &beyond Collective, SONCITIES PI Professor Gascia Ouzounian and research fellow Dr Matilde Meireles discuss Meireles’s Sunnyside, a composition that was recorded entirely in Meireles’s home in Belfast during the initial Covid-19 lockdowns. Sunnyside is a reflection both on the under-appreciated sounds of domestic spaces, and on the relationship of domestic spaces to wider urban infrastructures. Ouzounian and Meireles further reflect on issues related to listening and sound-making during lockdown, and what it means to hear the ‘Phonocene’, a term proposed by Donna Haraway to describe listening in a post-Anthropocene context.

With thanks to our collaborators at Theatrum Mundi for their invitation to contribute to this publication, with particular thanks to John Bingham-Hall and George Kafka for their support and editorial guidance.