listen to each other / belong to each other – an acustic approach to culture and environment Erasmus Project

Project Title

listen to each other / belong to each other – an acustic approach to culture and environment

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage; Creativity and culture; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

During our Erasmus + project “the sound of the others” we learned what other cultures sound like and how we can open ourselves up to them through sensory and aesthetic intake. Every international meeting had the sound of the other at its core and started with getting to know each other and the soundscape surrounding us. We recorded sounds locally but also on trips and excursions, we categorized them and listened for our favorites. At the end of each week, the students held performances on stage which were prepared beforehand in workshops on the basics of performance, sounds and percussions as well as body language (gestures). To conclude the project we put a final sound performance on stage in which each country was represented in sounds and performance.

At the beginning of the project in the preparation phase, students between the ages of 13 to 17 who were enrolled in the secondary level were selected at each partner school and an Erasmus club was formed. Musicians and sound engineers trained the recording of sounds with the groups and a collection of sounds was started. This way, the awareness of sounds and their surroundings was raised and reflected upon.

The first journey led a delegation of German and Italian students to snowy Finland, which offered completely new sounds to us: car tires with spikes, pedestrian crossings emanating a “tick, tock”, ice hockey. We recorded in busy Helsinki and quiet Kangassala. There, we mainly collected sounds of nature: crackling of the fire, the hissing of water on hot stones in the sauna, tramping through snow. In a one-day work shop given by a sound artist, we took a sound walk and realized how many different sounds were surrounding us and how much variation there is. On the last day, our students met in multinational teams and after an introduction to composing, presence on stage and body language, experimented with their sound objects and favorite sounds. In the end they showed a performance made of tones, sounds and action.

The second international meeting in Bracciano, Italy brought us a warm, Mediterranean climate with very different soundscapes: waves and boats, screaming parrots in pine trees, sirens and busy traffic mixed with conversations in Rome. Now very familiar with recording techniques, we focused more on body and expression in our workshops. The participants learned how to use their body as an instrument (body percussions), how we communicate differently in every culture with gestures and facial expressions, how to convincingly perform on stage. At the end of the week, three presentations of 10 minutes length performed by international teams lay the groundwork for the final performance in Hamburg.

Hamburg awaited us for our third meeting, where we first took a city tour in the dark. Led by blind people we could imagine our surroundings just by listening and touching: cobble stones, a rocking boat in the harbor, nightlife on the Reeperbahn. This experience deepened our awareness and perception of sounds. Afterwards, the students were eager to experience Hamburg with all senses. After the collection of sounds in Hamburg, three drama teachers and a music teacher supported the students in intense rehearsal, experiments and the creation of a European sound performance which represented each country. After the successful performance, a celebration concluded our project and we had to say goodbye to new international partners and friends.

In our project, the interplay of music and theatre highlighted the importance of education in aesthetic subjects, in which unity and difference can stand next to each other. Habits of listening were being questioned; a sensitization was reached of being permanently surrounded by sounds, more awareness of the self and the other was raised – all important elements in the international, European, intercultural context. Following this logic, our project helped form an understanding of a common Europe in which every voice has a say – and a sound. The European idea was not taught in this project, it was lived and shall continue being promoted in our schools. The cooperation and partnership of our schools will continue and hopefully, many more Erasmus projects.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 89166 Eur

Project Coordinator

Emilie-Wüstenfeld-Gymnasium & Country: DE

Project Partners

• LICEO SCIENTIFICO STATALE IGNAZIO VIAN
• Pitkäjärven koulu