Carlo Cubero “Urban Soundscape”

This presentation asks what kinds of knowledge emerge when anthropology foregrounds listening as a method. Anthropological research on sound encourages us to treat sound not as secondary illustration or data to be decoded, but as constitutive of experience itself. Listening is active and embodied: it shapes how people orient themselves in space, experience time, and engage affectively with others. To listen ethnographically is therefore to recognise sound as a mode of dwelling, a way of knowing the world that is irreducible to words on the page. This perspective opens pathways for urban analysis, where listening reveals the sonic textures of neighbourhoods, the politics of noise, and the ways in which architecture and planning organise everyday auditory life.

Carlo Cubero is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at Tallinn University. His research has focused on developing audiovisual methods for anthropological research. He has produced numerous documentaries and sound works that have been screened at film festivals, conferences, and television. He has also served in the film selection committees of many anthropological film programmes in Europe. He currently serves in the curating team of the Riga Pasaules Film Festival, an annual documentary film festival held in Riga.

As part of Open House Tallinn, we present a program of lightning talks worth discovering. The talks are delivered by experts and practitioners from fields related to architecture and urban space, who share their knowledge and experiences. Each talk is short, inspiring, and informative.

With these small “bite-sized” lectures, we aim to provide valuable insights and open new perspectives that help you better understand how architecture and urban space affect our lives and surrounding environment.