What is the symphony created by public space?

“commoning.mp3“ is a recorded space produced by many different people in public. The thesis approaches the activist challenge that common space is dynamic, and must be performed in order to exist. The strictly ordered and functionalised infrastructure of the city is seen here as an symptom of the fear people have of the strange, unfamiliar in public space. The work tries to deal with this fear by creating an intimate sound space in which people are confronted with the immediate echo of their own and others‘ footsteps. The sound installation allows people crossing a bridge to hear their footsteps amplified through headphones. Isolated from all other sounds, two strangers share this sound space for the length of a bridge. As soon as people become aware of the resonance of their footsteps, they break out of their habitual walking, lose their fear of exposing themselves for a short time and begin to act in concert. The performers relate to the space and the people around them through their playful actions. A strange dance of steps develops, playing the bridge as an instrument. The sound space produced by actions was recorded and saved as “commoning.mp3”. As a second intervention the file was played out loud at several places in the public sphere, which were abandoned. People hearing the sound stopped by and questioned the delimitations of that often private and forgotten space. “commoning.mp3” can be downloaded at the following link: https://soundcloud.com/user-952695271/commoningmp3