Urbanism versus Branding
for Montréal’s Quartier des Spectacles
Acoustic Urbanism
The collective experimented with mapping sound in the district, producing a test cartography of urban noise, recognizing the Canadian tradition of soundscape awareness. Tony Round and Steve Topping scouted for street performers and Round documented several striking performances in the subway: break dancers who spin on their heads, a flute player who plays two instruments at once. The aim was to link the creative performers who spontaneously entertain in the streets with the official performances in the local venues. In a parallel vein, Lorraine Oades proposed a prototypical live video link between the underground subway and the sidewalk, so that transit users would be aware of street events happening above the station. These proposals were accompanied by mapping of festivals and demonstrations in the area.
Le spectacle est le capital á un tel degré d'accumulation qu'il devient image.
Guy Debord, La Société du spectacle, 1967 Chapitre 1, 34
Right: Examples of
subway street dancing in
the Montréal Métro.
left: live video Link Proposal by Lorraine Oades, to connect subway riders with events going on at street level.