Sound Landscape in Juiz de Fora

The sound of the city as a rescue of culture and urban memory

Abstract

Sound, whether by its presence or absence, influences and alters the perception of a space, being a qualifier of this space and contributing to transform it or not into a place. Although there is a mastery of vision under the other senses, sounds, odors and thermal sensations, even if ephemeral and dynamic, cannot be ignored, since they are responsible for the construction of ambiences and the consequent sensitive construction of spaces. The soundscape, proposes the study of the acoustic environment in a systematic and contextualized way. A soundscape is the extension of the territory that can be heard, encompassing all the sounds produced in the environment, being also always a cultural creation. This research project proposes a study of the Sound Landscape of Juiz de Fora, more specifically in the region of the urban center of the city, understood in the outline of this study as the “Central Triangle”, a space that holds a significant part of the city's history, presenting several uses and formatting over time. The Central Triangle represents a part of the most important urban territory as a memory bearer, being one of the most relevant places for understanding the development of Juiz de Fora. A time frame was also proposed, dated between the 1880s and 1940s. This space-time frame is justified by the very historical-cultural relevance it presents to Juiz de Fora. However, in view of the density of the results obtained so far, approach the first decade of this clipping, from 1880 to 1890. The general objective of this research is to rescue part of the sound memory of the city of Juiz de Fora, categorizing the sounds highlighted as relevant (historically and / or culturally) and identifying the transformation of the soundscape amid the transformations of urban spaces. It is configured as having a qualitative approach, as it is not based on numerical representativeness, that is, the data are considered in the analysis according to the quality of the collected material, being considered the most relevant sound records for the research. Thus, even if numerical data are presented in this study, they are relevant to support qualitative analysis. It is characterized as a documentary research, since it works with primary sources (newspapers) that have not yet received an analytical treatment with the focus of this research. From the proposed research and its developments, a graphic-sound map was generated, indicating sounds collected in each area, serving as a historical-cultural record of sound perceptions in the center of Juiz de Fora, creating a landscape record sound in such a space-time.