Soundwalking in contested space

I am an artist researcher undertaking a Ph.D. by Published, Established, and Creative Works at Nottingham Trent University, entitled ‘Soundwalking in Contested Space’. Soundwalking is an expanding creative discipline with its origins in situationist practices and soundscape studies. Alongside numerous fellow artists and researchers, I am exploring the far-reaching possibilities of the medium. In my thesis, informed by over two decades of leading art walks and composing soundwalks, I interrogate my own soundwalking practice, that I use as a means of investigating contested space. I consider findings from six of my soundwalks composed between 2013 and 2018 and guide the reader through my process and the methods of aleatoric composition, temporal shift, synchrony, and ordeal that, in combination, distinguish my soundwalks. Alongside writers and theorists such as Tim Edensor, Brandon LaBelle, and Frauke Behrendt, social geographer Doreen Massey provides a firm theoretical foundation through her conception of space as ‘the product of interrelations’ and imaginable as ‘a simultaneity of stories so far’ (Massey, 2005, p. 9). While Massey adopts a generally progressive tone in her articulation of space, in recognition of the human potential that can be realised through spatial encounters, I place emphasis upon its contested nature, as a product of the unequal power relations that arise out of the everyday interactions of human beings. My contribution to knowledge is both thematic and methodological, through my core concern of human-contested space, the specific combination of methods that I apply within my practice as research, and in the ways these methods encourage deeper appreciation and understanding. My research journey traces a path through contested urban and rural space and exposes the lived realities of human experience when utopian or hubristic visions falter or fail. My findings are directed towards researchers investigating contested space, be it from artistic, social-historical, or environmental perspectives. .