Ensounding the City for the Breathable Future

As critical meta-synthesis this paper revises the urban art- and, particularly, sound-based projects connected to the urban environmental problems to discuss the creative potential of the sound to sensify the invisible and silenced. More specifically, the paper addresses artistic expressions of the social representations of urban nature, air in particular, and the ability of sound to deconstruct the patterns of social imaginary, translate scientific knowledge and facilitate the scientifically and socially deeper understanding of the urban environmental problems and so more informed public support for ambitious local policy action in the Medellin metropolitan area. Air quality issues in Medellin led to a public health burden often disproportionately affecting the more vulnerable. With decades-long air quality policies in place the core problem has not yet been addressed: poor understanding of the sources of air pollution, benefits of the actions, and the nature of the air itself couples with seasonal saturation of information on the air quality crisis. Critical sonic studies explore sound together with other senses as a site for questioning subjectivity, reality, its dominating order and relations with the other. Sound is used to explain the complexity and reciprocity in interaction and highlight the productivity of diversity. The rich organizational system of musical literacy also offers a methodology to quantify the multidimensional impact of interaction. The COVID-19 lockdowns evidenced the possibility of the cleaner air and also offered a new meaning for sound as an alternative media of sense making under the necessity of social distancing.