Soundscapes Escola de Música de Brasília

These soundscape compositions at the Brasília School of Music are part of my Master’s research in Innovation in Communication and Creative Economy, completed in 2024 at the Catholic University of Brasília, Brazil. I investigated the affections that emerge from the soundscape of the Brasília School of Music, located in the country’s capital. Based on the composition of a soundscape at the institution in 2022, sound experiences were carried out with both internal and external audiences, who were blindfolded, followed by discussion circles. The aim was to establish how the phenomenon of soundscape composition at EMB functions as symbolic production, shaped by the relationship between sounds and the listeners’ perception of the environment, as well as its connection with creative processes.

Theoretical investigations of the soundscape concept by Murray Schafer supported its understanding as a field of acoustic study (2011; 2019), in line with John Cage’s explorations of what constitutes music and musical composition (2013; 2015; 2019; 2021). Likewise, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (1992) provided the theoretical foundation for the notion of affect. For the research, a cartographic investigative approach proposed by Deleuze and Guattari was adopted, as an attitude that prepares one for the “welcoming of the unexpected.”

The study addressed cross-cutting themes such as spatiality, sensations, the corridor, musical perception, creative processes, and memories that emerged during the discussion circles. It is understood that individuals are traversed by affects, collectively constructed, without the possibility of being identified individually, and that the science of affects is not exact. The process of understanding the setting incorporates the Brasília School of Music as a work of art, crafted by many hands, with those who pass through it acting as composers of its soundscape. In this context, the corridor was identified as a physical and/or imaginary space, integrative and resonant within the institution.