Soundscapes

The experience of silence and sound in the landscape

International Landscape Study Days

2024, twentieth edition

 

The 20th edition of the International Landscape Study Days, the key moment of reflection and public debate on the lines of research of the Fondazione, will be held in Treviso on 22 and 23 February 2024.

 

The programme for this edition encourages reflection on acoustic elements in landscapes in all of their forms, including sounds, noises, music, voices and silence. It looks at them from the various cultural perspectives around which soundscape studies have developed from the late 1960s onwards, such as ecology, landscape, garden art, architecture, philosophy, pedagogy, literature, and cinema.

We are facing an environmental emergency and humans are putting the non-human world under more and more pressure. Against this backdrop, composition and listening systems can provide ways of taking heed of living organisms, as well as effective tools for identifying and gauging the effects of the climate crisis on biodiversity. Meanwhile, when it comes to interventions in specific places, there is both theoretical and practical evidence to show that exploring soundscapes through acoustic projects, performances and installations paves the way to the development of a sensitive approach that can play a significant part in steering transformations and management of landscapes and gardens, not to mention urban environments.

At the same time, there are a whole host of notions that can no longer be neglected if we want to pursue a sustainable future. These include: awareness of the role of silence in evolution, animal behaviour and ecology; conservation of specific soundscapes; protecting ecosystems from noise pollution; and creating more quiet places in urban areas.

 

The programme, edited by Luigi Latini (director of Fondazione Benetton and professor of Landscape Architecture at Iuav University of Venice) and Simonetta Zanon (head of landscape research and projects of Fondazione Benetton), that will be preceded on February 16 by the online preview lecture Sounds Wild and Broken. Listening beyond the surface with David George Haskell.