E-Sound of Silence

Al Balad Theater (Jordan), Tanja Krone (Germany), zeitraumexit e.V. (Germany)

So far, electromobility and the traffic turnaround have always been discussed nationally. One might be looking to Norway or Silicon Valley, but do other nations go for E, too, and how does the road sound in the rest of the world today? Different countries, different cars, different sounds?

The project aims to investigate the topic of traffic turnaround and sound by international exchange and comparison and in doing so consciously involve partners outside the industrialized nations of the Global North. The purpose is to develop ideas and visions for the sound of electromobility with an open exchange between the Jordanian and German partners, each with their own relationships to automobile mobility and their sound.

The first workshop took place from September 22nd to 27th, 2019 in Mannheim as part of the festival "Wunder der Prärie". A selected group of sound artists from Jordan and Germany came together and created ideas for sounds and sound scapes for electric cars in intensive exchange. In addition, there were daily meetings with the "Mannheim Advisory Board", an advisory committee comprising citizens of the city, on the question "what will be the sound of our future cities?".

At the end of the workshop week there was a showing in a former fire station, in which the sounds were presented to an audience in a choreography for four electric cars. The performance was preceded by a public discussion entitled "city soundscape – sound and noise in urban space".

The second edition of the workshop will take place from July 9th to 16th, 2020 in Amman, Jordan. The development of the artistic format is currently being discussed online by the participating artists.