Orienteering Sounds (2023, 2024)

By raphaelaArts/Culture, Music/Sound Arts, Orienteering/Sports, Placemaking, Project description pages, Urbanism, Workshops/Activities
Orienteering Sounds by Raphaela Mak, with installations, soundwalks and performances at the Stockholm Fringe and Gothenburg Fringe Festivals

Orienteering Sounds is a sound installation concept consisting of several checkpoints in public space where you can co-create soundscapes with found objects.

Basic concept

Orienteering is a navigation sport where athletes navigate between checkpoints with a map. Orienteering Sounds takes the checkpoint concept and combines with art to create a landscape of urban sonic surprises.

In the Orienteering Sounds concept, visitors use a map to explore the several interactive sound installations in the city. At each checkpoint, there’s a sound installation using found objects or other ways to co-create sounds.

The concept has its origins from the SPORTident piece (2016) and Square Symphony (2023).

The concept of Orienteering Sounds combines orienteering with interactive sound installations.

2023 version (Värmeverket)

The original version of Orienteering Sounds came about as I was selected for an art residency at Värmeverket.

The main features of this version are:

  • Checkpoints are to be visited in order. At each checkpoint, visitors only get the map to the next checkpoint.
  • The orienteering course leads from the subway station to Värmeverket. (In the original proposal, the course was to continue indoors; however the course as produced was truncated to end immediately in front of Värmeverket’s entrance.)
  • The types of installations included in the checkpoints vary between percussion, conversation, and wind instruments.
  • Visitors get a mallet from the start point, and carry it with them until the last checkpoint where they return the mallet.

The set of installations were available to the public on the day of the residency exhibition, October 28, 2023. I also led a soundwalk to explain and help participants explore the soundscape of the neighborhood.

A set of percussion instruments, produced with kitchenware, in the 2023 version.

2024 version

The 2024 version, which I presented at the Stockholm and Gothenburg Fringe Festivals, is an evolution of the 2023 version. The main differences are:

  • All checkpoints are percussion instruments using found objects (mostly street furniture such as fences and poles, except one of the checkpoints which was a reprise of the kitchenware checkpoint)
  • Visitors can visit the checkpoints in any order; a map with all checkpoints is available at each of the checkpoints
  • Mallets are attached to all checkpoints

Besides the sound installations and the soundwalks, I added a performance element to the project.

This frame indicates a “hit zone” at a checkpoint.
A checkpoint consists of a mallet, an ensemble of frames to guide the visitor where to explore the sounds, and the project signage.
A map of the checkpoints in Stockholm.
A checkpoint in Gothenburg, with the map to the right showing all checkpoints. (The graffiti sticker was added by an unknown Gothenburger)

Response

The project was different from many soundscape projects; the co-creative nature of the project meant that participants were eager in exploring and playing with their mallets, even actively discovering new objects during the soundwalks.