Being Here / Estar aqui is a site-specific sound project created at the Tipografía Minerva da Beira en Viseu, Portugal. In a former printing works located in the centre of the village, I created a listening experience for 6 people from 3 different “points of hearing”: 1) near the case of cast metal type-pieces, 2) close to the window, 3) in the storage room. Many days of recordings and actions in the traditional printing works led to the creation of a singular and collective listening situation deeply embedded in the material, human, sonic, spatial and affective experience of the place. In this project, I was really interested in the tension between a shared and collective listening (all together at the same time in the same location) and an individual one (with headphones). I multiplied the interactions between the listeners, synchronizing sound events in order to accentuate their actuality.

Intervention in the frame of the international symposium Invisible Places (Sounding Cities) (curator: Raquel Castro). 6 headphones, 3 audio players, sound card, max/msp programming. Very special thanks to Antonio for his generous help, and to all who participated in the recordings. Photo: Julie Faubert, Cláudia Faro Santos et Raquel Castro.