The 2014 Hanoi Sound Walk programme is scheduled to begin in early October, promising to provide attendees with a chance to discover the typical sounds of the capital in the past.
Under the programme, the participants will join a short walk, and with the support of GPRS enabled smart phones, they will put on their headphones and enjoy the historical sounds of each destination they reach.
The walkers can choose which parts of the city to linger in, discover more, or move on to the next place. The sound will change according to where they are standing.
The programme was first held in Hanoi in 2013, attracting the participation of around 100 Vietnamese and foreign walkers. The idea is to find and use recordings that explain and evoke the unseen aspects of places in Hanoi.
The event is staged by artists Dinh Le Van from Viet Nam, Joshua Kopeoek from the UK, and Mathias Rossignol from France under the consultancy of historian Duong Trung Quoc.
The artists used historical documents and interviews from senior Hanoians to truthfully recreate typical sounds in the daily life of each location.
Josh Kopecek has lived in Hanoi for three years and has a passion for the sounds of the city. According to him, this year’s event will not only revive the sounds of Hanoi’s Old Quarter streets but also the small alleys of the capital.