“When the unspeakable is brought to light, it becomes political.” This statement by Annie Ernaux serves as the starting point for this presentation, which focuses on how sound studies can sustain or deconstruct eco-political urban discourses. At the centre of this reflection is the rat – the symbolic patron of this presentation – as the embodiment of the underground, the hidden, the marginalised. Here, the rat is not just an animal, but a metaphor for the “dark” side of urban life, which, instead of being recognised as coexisting, is treated as an “enemy of life”. Statistics on urban acoustics show that the dominant themes are noise, wind, birdsong and dogs barking. Meanwhile, sounds associated with the margins – with infrastructure, waste, the movement of “unwanted” forms of life – are rarely present in research and discussions. They are pushed beyond the boundaries of both visibility and audibility. The presentation asks the question: what do we overlook and what do we not hear when constructing assumptions for research on soundscape? 

The concept of “dark soundscape” (from dark ecology, T. Morton) can describe precisely this sphere of hidden, overlooked, unwanted – but not necessarily irrelevant – sounds. On the contrary, they can reveal deeper mechanisms of exclusion, prejudice and control of space. In this context, human auditory ecology – a field that studies human perception of sounds in relation to ecological processes – becomes an interesting field of study. This leads to the questions: What can we gain if we learn to listen to what has been inaudible or overlooked until now? Can the inclusion of “dark” sounds broaden our understanding of the city and its ecological relationships? Rats live in the waste of consumerism, adapt to our systemic failures and are silent witnesses and participants in catastrophes.

Joanna Patrycja Wyrwa explores meta-psychical and geo-physical presence through research, multimedia and community-based projects, focusing on spatial justice, sound ecologies and interspecies care in Wrocław and beyond.