Abstract

This research aims at analysing the connection between soundscape and depopulation in Assolo, a Sardinian village with a population of 447 that, according to statistical projections, is doomed to disappear within sixty years.

While Assolo’s landscape is rich from a sensorial point of view, it is at the same time endangered by the depopulation characteristic of an economically impoverished area.
This research, the first of its kind in Italy, brings together an esthetological analysis, enriched by a musicological approach. Resulting data are assembled through an artistic gaze that facilitates a multimedial fruition of the sonorities.

Because the relationship depopulation/soundscape has not been object of thorough studies until now, this research has the potential to provide an unprecedented insight into the mechanism that transforms awareness of acoustic soundscapes into a driving force that, based on the enhancement of local soundscapes, could attract visitors, thus triggering an economic return.

Added value of this project is the fact that Assolo’s population will be directly involved in the collection of sounds and also be educated in the recognition, conservation and restitution of sounds. The community will form into a living, sustainable laboratory, able to work on the acquired awareness of their immaterial heritage.

Keywords

Soundscape, depopulation, endangered soundscape, immaterial heritage, soundscape recognition, soundscape conservation, soundscape restitution, Sardinia.

Paper

Resound/Su Sonu Torrau in Assolo – A case study on soundscape enhancement as a means to impact on the depopulation process in a disappearing village of Sardinia