"First Eastern Dream"
A Sound-Essay by Ivana Stefanovic
Sound Design: Ing. Gerhard Wieser
A Kunstradio Production
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| The sound and media artist Ivana Stefanovic (Belgrade) defines "First Eastern Dream" as an acoustic essay on the theme of "time", an essay that deals with a place where different historical temporal levels are observable.
The author invites us to participate via Kunstradio in her journey of discovery into the urban soundscape of Damascus, this ancient oriental city that is now Syria's capital.
From her acoustic observations during her stay in Damascus, she concludes that the soundscape of Damascus cannot be assigned to a single time plane, as it is set in different, parallel historical periods. "The sound of Damascus," says the author, "is the sound of eternity." In addition to "new" sounds and sounds of the "modern" times, there are very different acoustic impressions, such as the sounds of hammers coming out of a silversmith's workshop, the voice of the muezzin, the bazaar merchants and the people who populate the old quarters of the city, the ringing of ancient bells, or the silence that reigns in the houses, the courtyards, the mosques and the churches. These are soundscapes from the oriental world that have remained the same for centuries and have withstood global changes. Ivana Stefanovic: "Damascus is a place where one should not believe in the perfection of the time rhythm of Western clocks. It is a place where a multifaceted polyrhythm pulsates." |
