İstanbul'un kültürel ses alanı: Günlük kentsel yaşamın işitsel kültürel mirasını toplama, koruma ve sergileme

This dissertation aims to evaluate the culture and traditions of everyday life from a sonic perspective and suggests ways to protect characteristic sounds and soundscapes, as well as to raise public awareness of urban sounds. This multidisciplinary research project, entitled The Soundscape of Istanbul, is rooted in fields such as soundscape studies, intangible cultural heritage (ICH), museum studies, sensory studies, interaction design and experience design. It explores the larger contemporary cultural soundscape of a metropolitan city, Istanbul. Sounds constitute an inevitable part of daily life and, are therefore very important as ICH. Thus, they deserve to be protected to strengthen cultural memory. However, sonic culture is twice endangered, due to the physical characteristics of sound itself and due to the dynamic structure of intangible culture. Therefore, the protection of contemporary cultural soundscapes in the context of ICH is particularly urgent and crucial for transferring the present sonic environments to following generations in order to maintain a cultural identity. For the purposes of this research project, I defined culturally significant sounds of the city of Istanbul by public participation. Public opinion was very crucial for determining the most significant sounds, since cultural identity is based on individual's cultural memory. Then, I collected the sounds thus determined and created a sound archive, now located in Koç University's Suna Kıraç Library to make it publicly accessible. In order to turn this collection into a more sustainable and richer archive, we designed an interactive platform that is open to contributions so that volunteers can record and upload their own sound recordings. We then designed two exhibitions to increase the public awareness of urban sounds, to introduce this interactive sound archive, and to encourage volunteers to contribute. According to surveys conducted during the exhibitions, visitors have an unconscious emotional bond to sounds, but they generally did not realize this before the exhibitions. During the exhibitions, they became aware of the significance of urban sounds and volunteered to contribute. Thus, the exhibitions played a significant role in raising public awareness and in protecting the sonic heritage, making it live on for future generations.