1. option
I began my walk already attuned to the world around me, no fixed path in mind, just an openness to follow the sounds and scents that guided me. The familiar hum of the city faded as I let the environment lead me, noticing small, unnoticed traces—tiny paths, the smell of decay, and the distant rhythm of the railway.
Each space had its own soundscape: the steady buzz of infrastructure, the quiet hum of pipes beneath the surface, the sudden rustle of insects in the warmth of the street. Time and sound became intertwined, and I found myself focusing on places of stillness rather than movement, allowing the sound to settle and reveal more.
Without sight, the space around me became clearer through what I heard—the crunch of gravel, the distant hum of machines, or the quiet activities behind fences. The sound layered, shifting, sometimes fading, sometimes growing, like an invisible landscape unfolding through my ears.
I used color to mark the different sounds—human, non-human—but soon realized the lines between them were not so clear. Sound cannot be neatly divided; it flows and mixes, and the challenge was to capture that fluidity. To truly listen, perhaps I need to let go of sight entirely, allowing the world to speak through sound alone.
2. option:
We applied Ján Solčáni’s sound walk methodology and the Krakow in 10 Lines approach to the Berlin Biogasanlage, exploring how sound mapping interacts with ruderal terrain.
Tuning In // I started listening on my way in the S-Bahn, letting my route unfold naturally. Avoiding sidewalks, I followed sounds, scents, and traces of non-human activity, leading me to unexpected spaces. Capturing sound in relation to time was challenging, so I focused on moments of stillness, where different places revealed unique sonic identities—steady hums, sudden bird whistles, or buzzing insects.
Spatial Hearing // Without sight, I could imagine space through sound—crackling branches, humming pipes, distant metal clanging. Sounds overlapped, fluidly shifting with the wind.
Mapping & Evaluation // I visualized sounds using colors but reconsidered the dualism of human vs. non-human distinctions. Capturing sound’s fluidity in static images proved difficult; a time-based medium could better convey its dynamics. Walking with obscured vision may enhance auditory focus.
base:
Project Documentation
What are the traces of compost? Compost as a living body vs. its technocratic processing
During the summer semester 2023 I worked with the compost body, processes and collaborations between species happening in that body and their metaphorical meaning and transferability to bigger scales in post-athropocene era.
To link the compost topic with our researched methods, to get in touch with a physical space which we can access and where we can test soundwalk and psychogeography we decided to work with the site of BSR Biogasanlage West in Berlin, a plant which is processing the organic waste collected from households in Berlin. This plant uses the compost and understand the living critter inside it as workers. The gas (and heat) produced by bacteria is collected and then burned to powered vehicles of BSR company, promoting it as biofuel. The compost is then treated as an object, as a replacement of fossil fuels, but still as a passive resource.
We are looking at the place of the power plant as a shell for invisible compost, located between river, railways and motorways, surrounded by in-between places, terrain vague. We are examining if we can understand this powerplant as an example of contamination in the Anna Tsing undestranding. Contanimanion bringig new world-making projects, new collaborations. We try avoid focusing only on humans.
Soundwalking around the plant
We see the extended methodology of the sound walk summarized by Ján Solčáni, combined with the approach of the Krakow in 10 Lines project, as relevant to our topic due to its ideal application in an vague and ruderal terrain, and therefore tested it on the site of the Berlin Biogasanlage.
Calm down and take three breaths... I started tuning up for the mapping already on my way in S-Bahn, without having a pre-planned route in my head. On leaving the station, I headed towards the power station and let the environment guide me.
Traces & places // When mapping, I tried not to follow sidewalks, but sounds that caught my attention, but also a very specific rotting smell, traces of non-human actors (tiny paths in the bushes) and then the railway. Following them brought me to spaces I would not have visited without focusing on the sound. The biggest struggle for me in walking was to capture sound in space in relation to time. So after a while I focused on places where I stayed quiet for a few minutes instead of trying to capture movement. Each place sounds different depending on the actors that co-habit them, some are dedicated to speed, human infrastructure and dryness, where you can hear insects when lying on the sidewalk on Freiheit Street, some could have been named for their endless and steady hum of a network of pipes contaminated by the sudden unexpected bird whistles and mosquito buzzing at the Spree River, and many others heard at different volumes and distances.
Spatial hearing // From what I heard, I could imagine the space around me without seeing it. What was up, near, far, moving. Walking and sitting, I could sense the state of the environment, both material and immaterial: The matter of the earth by listening to the crackle of dry branches, the rustle of gravel or the squish of mud, or picking up on practices hidden behind the fence, that is, inaccessible (children probably playing in the kita, the whistle of vans, the dull hum of pipes, large pieces of metal falling, indicating technological manipulation at an industrial site, a strong wind rustling the trees, or birds singing over my head).
Sound structures // When analysing sound structures, the temporal aspect is crucial. The sounds are not stable but fluid, overlapping, their rhythms suddenly stopping and reappearing, drowning each other out and the distant ones approaching with the wind.
Notebook // For the visualization I decided to use two colors for human and non-human sounds. Only then did I realize that I was supporting a dualistic vision that draws a big line between culture and nature. So for future reference, I would still use colors, but more than two, to distinguish the different sources of sound. When drawing, I always felt like I was one step behind what I was drawing as I tried to capture every sound I heard. I then created a code for the sounds, so the visuals don‘t tell you exactly what happened, but rather what the overall sound texture of the place was.
Evaluation the to mapping process // It‘s hard to focus on the sound without suppressing your vision. To make it impossible to see, I would suggest walking with a light translucent cloth tied over your eyes or not wearing glasses. Photographs taken look different when focusing on sound, showing practices and newly explored places and elements of the physical world. The fluidity of the sound and the way it was displayed on the still image was quite a struggle. Another visual medium based on time could be an alternative to translate different soundscapes.