For one month (October 2011), Berliners have the chance to experience the city as blind or visually impaired people do – sonically.
What does it mean to travel through a city while listening to the different sounds and noises a city creates? And what sound and noises make up a place like Berlin compared to other cities?
Going through a city in this way opens up your ears again. You will experience the city in a different way during and after the tour for two reasons: on one hand you’ll realise how different the world is for blind and visually impaired people, and how complex a city and the routings through it are.
You will be aware of difficulties you never even thought of. This reasons is borne from practical difficulties blind people experience. On the other hand you will learn to ‘look’ at your surroundings again, in a completely new way. All these beautiful, strange, dirty, funny, exciting, calming things you never even noticed are all there to be found.
I cannot think of one sound that can represent Berlin as it is too diverse, like most cities. However Berlin is lucky in that it developed from different districts, and therefore every district has an enormous amount of all the different sounds and noises that make the overall ‘Berlin sound’.
Your intention is to do a tour through the eyes of blind people. Are there just blind people participating actually or is the tour open for everybody?
The tour is open to everyone. The routing is precise enough for a blind person to find his way without bumping into everything but the tour is more an ear-opener than that is is a tour, especially for the blind and visually impaired. It’s interesting for everyone who likes to re-think their surroundings, and isn’t interested in yet another tour about well known buildings of the capital etc.
I am aware of the fact that my tour is a bit long for a blind person. Walking with a guiding cane requires a lot more energy than normal walking. For that reason I made it possible to take extra breaks during the route, and to walk the tour in two parts. During the test phase I worked with a blind woman, to check my steps and be able to see the city like a blind person. That was really helpful, because it is really hard to think like a blind person, as I realised while walking the possible routes with her.
How did you get the idea to offer this specific kind of tour?
A year ago I was asked to do a project about public space in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. There I developed an audio tour about the overkill of visual information in nowadays society. This is one of my special interests, especially as I am a graphic designer so I am producing part of his overkill as well. I believe people should think more about what they do and why they do it. Therefore I decided to make an audio tour instead of the more common choice of print work. It was triggered by thinking about the different ways one can experience the city with such a tour.
From there the idea of another audio tour developed. During my residency with CBK Dordrecht (art centre in the Netherlands) I was thinking about how much someone decides for themselves, and how much is decided for them. These thoughts brought me to visually impaired people. At the same I really wanted to work together with other people, organise something bigger. The other part of the tour is de CD called With New Eyes- Grüße aus Berlin.
From sound recordings at interesting points along the route, music piece are made by six different musicians; Bilwa, Ear Monk, Werner Urban, Orphax, Wouter Jaspers, and Scald Rougish. The CD has a tactile booklet with punching and UV-varnish so it becomes a tactile booklet, interesting for everyone. Together they make a complete story.
Are there remarkable differences in the sounds? Is there a difference between East and West Berlin? Prenzlauer Berg and Neukölln?
There is no strict line between East or West, but of course there are remarkable differences in sounds between different places. But you have to think more in ways of different functions of an area, urban planning, and how that changes the use and therefore also the sounds. Prenzlauerberg and Neukölln look very different and they sound different as well.
What do you think is an “old/historical“ sound and what could be the sound in the future?
That is a difficult one. I would say the big difference is that old/historical sounds could be experienced in a more isolated way because there is simply less noise. Soft sounds are historical sounds. In the future there will not be any isolated sounds. There are so many sounds and noises that we will always experience sounds together with other sounds. Most of these sounds will have to fight for their place and will therefore be loud, or in an other way very present.
During the tour you won‘t stop at normal touristic things like the Reichstag or Brandenburger Tor, but interesting “audio memorials“ instead…can you explain what these are?
One of the spots I really love in the tour is underneath Kronprinzerbrücke, with the noise of the water, tour boats passing and producing enormous amounts of sounds, resonances. Add to that the typical smell of gasoline and a hint of urine for the typical under the bridge feel. Most of the time it’s the combination of sounds and noises that make a place interesting. Another example is Quartier 206 on Friedrichstrasse. I love the fact that this place definitely sounds like a mall, and at the same time it sounds completely different than all the other malls I know.
Do you think people aren‘t listening enough to the sounds a city makes? Why do you think it is important to do so? What can people learn about a city?
I do think people are not listening enough to the sounds the city makes. But a lot of people also do not look enough either. I think it is good when people are confronted with that fact every once in a while. It is very healthy, and at the same time beautiful to realise: there is more than one truth. People can understand a city on a different level when thinking in sounds: common things will disappear all of a sudden, and you will have to reconsider every step you take.
What is your favourite sound in Berlin and why?
Sparrows. Definitely a good representation sound of Berlin. I literally kept hearing the birds of Berlin in my head after moving back to the Netherlands again. They are everywhere. In almost every sound recording I made during my time in Berlin they come back. They also represent a combination that I love in Berlin: space, nature and a vibrant city, all in one. Sparrows, and other birds too, change their sounds depending on where they live. When living in a city: they are louder to fight against all the other sounds of the city, and tweet different than their country side fellows, because they copy their surroundings in a way. For example: the birds just outside my atelier window were so loud I always thought I heard rusty bicycles although I am on the 2nd floor.
About The Author
Stefanie Rothenhöfer graduated in Food Service Management. As a Francophile she lived in Paris for a while, working at International Market Rungis buying and selling food for Feinkost Käfer Munich. Afterwards she went to New York City to see how people in big cities eat local. She checked out some urban farming programs as well as rooftop gardening projects and got inspired by fancy food concepts run mostly by young people. In her leisure time, she takes random photographs in big cities. Having just moved to Berlin she is very surprised about what the city has to offer for young people and is convinced that Berlin can keep up with cities like Paris or NYC.
