Sound Up is an interdisciplinary arts-based research project, building on community engagement in data collection and artistic co-creation with a focus on sound. The project seeks – on a practical as well as theoretical level – to enable an improved quality of life (for all living beings) in residential areas and public (urban) spaces through a considered artistically inspired (re-)design of the sonic environment.

Through cooperation across a diverse interdisciplinary team, ranging from (sound) artists to landscape architects, and from historians and ethnographers to sound studies scholars, the project develops new insights and tools of relevance to such practical and applied fields as urban design and regional development.

Additionally, the project is designed to establish new active collaborations with stakeholders and businesses in order to set this innovative approach in practice, and thereby to contribute tangibly to the green transition and development of sustainable and more attractive living environments.

Tentative results

Building on community engagement in data collection and artistic co-creation with a focus on sound, the project seeks to enable an improved quality of life for all living beings in residential areas and public (urban) spaces through a considered artistically inspired (re-)design of the sonic environment.

The project aims to develop artistic as well as academic or scientific methods for participatory design of soundscapes and to determine how such methods may contribute to an enhanced wellbeing, inclusivity and quality of life in some carefully selected urban environments in Kiruna and Binkhorst.

Collaborations with municipalities, mining companies, school, and citizens are established for sonic urban transformation, to contribute tangibly to the green transition and development of sustainable and more attractive living environments.