City Walks Workshop – Sound of Nairobi

Citywalks

A two-week recording and listening workshop taking place at the Goethe Institut Nairobi and various places in Nairobi from Sep 11th to September 25th, 2019.

We invited 14 people to participate in the workshop. We introduced them to the idea of a sound archive. We discussed how it could be used, how it could sound like, if it is important and makes sense and what the rhythm of it could be. We also invited the participants to produce and contribute their subjective and personal sound of the city to the archive by recording a city walk.

We started the workshop with two days of theory, listening exercises, presentations, discussions and an introduction into the recording equipment.

For the following 12 days the participants ventured out into the city to capture their sounds. They were equipped with binaural microphones. These microphones are worn in each ear and are capturing the sound in a similar way as the ears receive sound waves.

On the last day we met at the Nairobi Arboretum, to talk about the recording experiences and we collected the information for the archive and engage together into a listening exercise.

These recordings produced during the workshop are now the first entries into the archive. Most of them also featured in the exhibition LISTEN at the Goethe Institut Auditorium.

The workshop was facilitated by the SOUND OF NAIROBI collective (Brian Muhia, Sophia Bauer, Raphael Kariuki, Lorna Ng’eno) and supported by the Goethe Institut Nairobi.

Participants were Joseph Kamaru, Kevo Stero, Ondi Madete, George Gikaria, Joy Ruguru, Okal Otieno, Nyambura Mutanyi, Alex Kanyi, Lutivini Majanja, Alacoque Ntome, Waringa Wagema, Anita Kavochy, Otieno Gomba and Kamwangi Njue.