A sonic essay using Artificial Intelligence and deep listening to map the atmospheres of an evolving city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Caroline Claus is a Brussels-based urban planner, sound artist, and researcher whose practice focuses on the use of vibration and site-specific listening to redefine how we perceive urban space. Her work moves between sociology, planning, and design, studying how a critical engagement with sonic environments can inform the planning of dynamic and resilient sites. CDA SONIC DRIFT<\/em> (2025) is an audio essay<\/strong> that listens into Brussels-North, an area undergoing significant transition. The work is the result of an AI-powered sonic geographic d\u00e9rive<\/em><\/strong> that traces three alluring “sonic figures,” recorded from two complementary vantage points: rooftop loggers, that monitor the district\u2019s acoustic horizon, filtering speech (to satisfy GDPR) while retaining distant traffic and airflow; street-level field recording<\/strong>, that captures the textures and utterances that define everyday sonic proximity.
Each geo- and time-coded recording is processed using Urban-Sound Separation (USS)<\/strong> and Audio-Emotion Recognition (AER)<\/strong> to mark each figure\u2019s emergence and withdrawal, and to identify moments of perceived acoustic discomfort. The resulting data is then plotted on GIS layers<\/strong> (Geographic Information System) to speculate on how forthcoming densification policies might reshape the local soundscape.
The installation is conceived as a small studio workspace. Three hand-cut acetate dubplates<\/strong> (one for each space of observation) rest on a modular headphone deck; visitors can cue, loop, or reverse them. The gradual wear of the acetate mirrors the area\u2019s uncertain future. GIS prints surround the deck, open to annotation, encouraging the listener to compare their own observations with the algorithmic reading. Here, sound operates as both an analytical critique and a speculative proposition, presenting Brussels-North as a constellation of differential sonic atmospheres<\/strong>, open to critical interrogation and imaginative reconfiguration through the ongoing act of listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n