TH.e.SS.scape: Thessaloniki distilled in a site-specific map of soundscapes / Ioanna Palamidous (2020)

TH.e.SS.scape is a collection of soundscapes constructed to place the listener in a habit-at of active perception. The soundscape collection emerged out of a listening practice from the intimacy of my balcony. By choosing to listen to a soundscape, and to sounds within it, you create your own version of it. What slips your attention is lostsound is ephemeral- and what your attention remembers creates your surrounding environment. Be open to what comes. (Palamidous, Ioanna, 2020c, p. 2)”

In this thesis, the development of TH.e.SS.scape, from the seeds that planted its essence to the meta-experience of realising it as a project, is discussed. I start by describing what https://thescapeonline.wordpress.com/ (Palamidous, 2020b) is and the personal experiences that drove my interest towards sound’s architectural ability.

Being influenced by post-humanist philosophers such as Deleuze and Guittari, sound artists Salome Voegelin and Pauline Oliveiros, amongst others, and my background in neuroscience, I continue to introduce concepts that construct the axis of TH.e.SS.scape: soma- the body as an actively sensing medium -, active perception and aural architecture. The outcomes of TH.e.SS.scape, materialise through a multi-media archive that will grow as research goes on and whose elements can be re-synthesised to develop other “momentary stabilisations of the work-system” (Rubridge,2010, p.136). The outcomes consist the development of a listening practice and observations on how I perceive sound and how it affects me. Such insights are integrated with theoretical underpinnings from the above influences and with reflections on inner conflicts that functioned as turning points for this project in the Discussion section.

Please take in mind that “TH.e.SS.scape” refers to the project as a collection of practices and outcomes and not the website. Moreover, in the soma multiple thoughts occur concurrently. In order to honour this capability, any side notes presented in coloured boxes on the side represent parallel thoughts that occurred in my mental space simultaneously to what was written. Lastly, any in-text words that occur in bold font, are there to accompany the reader as a score.