Contextualities of Listening to Soundscapes: The Past and The Present Converging in Sarajevo

Maja Zećo

This article discusses the relationship between autobiographical memories and personal and group identities in the post-conflict soundscape of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The discussion will focus on the perspectives of residents and their intersecting narratives, collected in interviews, on the city's soundscape. I will relay intimate experiences of the city's soundscapes, contextualized from the position of a listener who is native to the city. The ways in which memories of the recent war (1992-1996) inform conversations reveal links between traumatic memories and experiences of environmental sounds. From the religious calls of mosques and churches to inhabitants pleading for help on the streets of Sarajevo, the complexity of contexts that play a role in knowledge production about the city will be explored through listening and writing. The article, in the form of praxis, aims to accentuate the importance of local knowledge of soundscape as a means of decolonizing the sonic arts discourse. An interest in the ways that the city’s inhabitants engage with contemporary soundscapes and how the past informs our present knowledge about places guides this inquiry.

1. Theoretical Frame and Scope of the Essay

2. Soundscapes of Sarajevo’s Built Environment

2.1 Sonic Iconography

3. The Past and Present on Sites

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3.1. Sites of Memories: Markale Market

3.2. Sites of Memories: Mount Trebević

4. Conclusion

5. References

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