Arts Practice for an Ecology of Human Interaction



The Grundtvig Learning Partnership “Urban Soundscapes – Arts Practice for an Ecology of Human Interaction”, supported by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union, brought together non profit organisations from Italy, Spain, Germany, Greece, France and Hungary, active in the promotion of cultural and social diversity through the arts and media, under the coordination of Associazione culturale Fabbrica Europa (Firenze, Italy). Aim of this project was to arouse awareness on environmental issues connected with the non-sustainable use of time and space in our urban contexts, where traffic and pollution affect our well-being and the concentration of human beings affects the relation and interaction between individuals in our constantly changing urban communities.
The means for reaching this aim were the arts: video, visual arts and music, dance and acting. Artistic and ecological sensitivity melted, thus reinforcing each other’s message in a truly European dimension.

Target of the project were first of all the staff, collaborators, trainees and members of the partner organisations, then the adult learners involved in their activities, who were enabled to improve both their artistic competences and their social, (inter)cultural and ecological awareness, and finally the local communities and public and private stakeholders in all participating countries.

Key elements of the project were:
  • video documentation of the traffic in the streets of all cities involved, realised by groups of learners
  • research on the peculiar sound of the different cities
  • confrontation, exchange and sharing of the process and the results in transnational meetings, as well as through web-based communication
  • groups of adult learners elaborated the video and sound materials in a variety of formats (text, film, visual arts, etc.), and composed “music scores” out of the recorded sounds of all participating towns
  • the results were presented to the public in video and sound installations
  • in the second project year, the presentations were accompanied by meetings aimed at discussing and analysing the method, the implementation process and the cultural and educational content
  • the works, and the evaluation of their role as cultural and educational tools, are published on line, thus becoming available for the communities of the partner countries and beyond.