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SCORING THE JOURNEY: LISTENING TO CLAUDIA MOLITOR'S SONORAMA
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2021
Abstract
Sonorama is a 2015 sonic artwork by Claudia Molitor, consisting of a number of audio files designed for listening on a train journey between London St Pancras and Margate, and a graphic score based on the composer's own ‘reading’ of this journey. This article analyses the relationship between the sonic and the spatial in the work, exploring how Molitor's site-specific composition interacts with its environment on multiple scales. By drawing on the strategy of ‘situated listening’ developed by Gascia Ouzounian, as well as urbanist language introduced by Richard Sennett, this article seeks to elucidate the relationship between a number of ‘nested’ spaces, present across varying realisations, and the political agenda that energises the work. Written in the midst of summer 2015's European refugee crisis, the work brings into sharp focus themes of British exceptionalism, immigration and inclusion.
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press
Footnotes
An updated version of this article was published in January 2022, all of the corrections were minor typographical changes.
References
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