[Un]seen Sound. A sonic investigation and project for the Sile river landscape

As the notion of soundscape gains recognition as a crucial layer of landscape, representing it remains a challenge. While the graphical language of landscape has a rich and developed lexicon, the soundscape, as an invisible component of it, needs new strategies to become manifest. In the specific site where the representation and landscape project takes place, the fragility of the hidden world and its unseen nature must be studied and kept. This paper presents research where information relative to soundscape becomes integrated into the drawings of a tangible landscape, introducing a methodology that consists of a classical hand drawing accompanied by technical schemes, which creates an explicit image of the soundscape of the case study of the river. Using the river Sile in Treviso (Italy) as a case study, a method of “sonic archaeology” is presented, combining soundwalks, field recordings, and subjective experiences of the site. This dual dataset (objective and subjective) serves as the basis for a graphic transcription. The story of the place is told as a dialogue between past and present, just like appreciating music, one needs to have a memory to connect present sounds with past melodies. As a result, the soundscape becomes materiality and is organically woven into the fabric of the landscape, forming a gobelin in the Atlante’s castle.