Projects

Coordination

Susana Sardo (IP)

Ana Flávia Miguel (co-IP)

Funding

POCI-FEDER, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia-OE

Reference

PTDC/ART-OUT/30825/2017

Period

July, 25th 2018 to July, 24th 2021

Team

Abstract

The SOMA project aims to construct a physical and digital space for memory, dedicated to the music and sounds of the region of Aveiro while simultaneously promoting objectives for social innovation and transformation and objectives of academic innovation and production. This living laboratory will be collectively constructed and shared with the community alongside academic researchers, with the aim of ensuring that research and development includes and benefits the local community. This project will involve a transdisciplinary team comprising ethnomusicologists, archivists, designers, information technicians, sound engineers, music producers and members of the non-academic community. 

Sound is increasingly valued as patrimony and as a repository for memory, an aspect that was internationally established with the promotion of a variety of practices that include music and sound in UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The various projects that are now dedicated to mapping the sounds of cities and to reconstructing soundscapes associated with nature or those manipulated by human action such as industrial spaces are relevant examples of the recognition of sound as a significant feature of people's lives. The relation between sound and memory, and in particular with collective memory as an expression of social relations and the resulting realities, is one of the main arguments for its recognition as archive material, for its inclusion as museological narrative or for its consideration as a decisive factor in individuals identification with their cultural heritage. 

Therefore, the SOMA project aims to contribute towards the construction of a place of memory dedicated to sound and music, where it will be possible (1) to preserve a sound and musical heritage associated with the region of Aveiro; (2) to recall rural and urban spaces and their dynamics based on historical sounds; (3) to inspire actions of re-activating memory through creative processes associated with music and sound; (4) to mobilise citizens in the construction of a collective repository, of an inter-generational nature and where the communities will feel represented; (5) to promote active ageing through shared research practices between academic researchers and holders of traditions; (6) to stimulate a more permeable relationship between the university and society; (7) to consolidate an attractive laboratory space, from a collaborative perspective, which will encourage academic and research tourism.

Keywords

Ethnomusicology; Creative Social Memory; Digital Sound Archives; Creative Patrimonies for Social Inclusion

Website
http://soma.web.ua.pt