Sound Pressure Levels

Sound Pressure Levels is the new project by SOUND OF NAIROBI [ soundofnairobi.net ]. It is a field recording project documenting the current political atmosphere in Kenya.

The coming presidential elections in August 2022 in Kenya are already raising political and social temperatures. In Kenya‘s political past, ethnicity has been narrated by mainstream national and international media as a defining factor for winning an election, one which would be instrumentalised by politicians in their campaigns. Now a new narrative is on the rise: „Hustlers vs. Dynasties“, suggesting that this time the lines are drawn along social classes. It seems in Kenya’s political scenario words and sounds can be the deciding factors in winning, holding or losing power.

SON aims to document this moment in Kenyan history through the medium of sound, recording the voices and noises of the time. We will collect field recordings, seeking everyday conversations and live experiences in public places in different parts of Nairobi from April 2022 until election day.

With your help we aim to raise $4,300 for the first phase of the project, the recording phase. This will enable a diverse group of people to wonder the streets of Nairobi for 5 months and record the changing atmosphere in the wake of this important political event. The field recordings will enter the SON archive and can thus function as documents to study. They will be a resource for future generations shaping and complicating the mainstream and stereotypical ideas of what politics mean in Kenya. Further the funding will allow us to facilitate a listening and recording workshop in Nairobi and get more people involved in the wonderful world of sound.

If you are interested in more details, please get in touch: [email protected] or visit soundofnairobi.net.

About Sound of Nairobi
SOUND OF NAIROBI is an open access archive of the sounds of the city. It is committed to employing sound as material that can be archived, researched and explored as a source of information that can narrate the history of the city, now and in the future. Further it aims to open up possibilities to develop new ways of knowledge production and nourish different ways of thinking. Find out more about us and check out the archive: soundofnairobi.net.