Sounding transformation in three cities: articulating encounters of sonic shifts in Kaifeng, Melbourne and Suzhou through field recording practice and sound composition

This practice-based doctoral research project investigates the possibilities of field recording practice and composition to encounter and respond to sites of urban transformation. Recordings collected through cyclic field research in Kaifeng, Melbourne and Suzhou between 2016 and 2019 form the basis of a series of iterative compositional responses. These works explore processes of returning to, retracing and reauditioning urban space, uncovering ways in which transformation was encountered through listening. This body of work also examines the field recordist as an itinerant documenter, visitor and tourist, attending to the impact of accumulative listening across three different urban contexts. Previous works within disciplinary intersections of art, music and acoustic ecology have explored the shifting sonic character of place and temporal variability through creative approaches and methodologies that range from experimental field recording practice and soundscape composition to systematic sound surveys. This research project furthers practice and discussion within this area, through the production of a novel body of site-responsive sound works that articulate three experiences of urban transformation and in placing these three listenings in dialogue.