The restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 crisis transformed how we perceive and experience urban sound environments. Confinement measures created conditions for a new attunement to our surroundings. Cities became quieter. Common sources of noise disturbance—road traffic, aircraft, music from entertainment venues, crowds—faded or disappeared entirely during lockdown. Meanwhile, sounds already present—the hum of air conditioning, the electrical buzz of traffic lights, construction work, cleaning crews, birdsong—acquired new prominence in deserted streets and squares. Domestic sounds, defying the confinement of our homes, permeated public spaces, forcing us to rethink boundaries between private and public in a time of enforced distance.
This work-in-progress explores changes in the soundscapes of Lisbon’s tourist hotspots during COVID-19 confinement. For a tourist city like Lisbon, travel restrictions forced the hibernation of an industry many regard as emblematic of the Portuguese capital’s recent boom: mass tourism. With an average of 4.5 million visitors annually, tourism generates €13.7 billion in the Lisbon region and sustains approximately 180,000 jobs, according to the Lisbon Tourism Association (ATM). The sudden disappearance of tourists and the quarantine of ancillary services—guided tours, tuk-tuks, tourist buses, cafés, restaurants, pub crawls, and other leisure activities—revealed a starkly different urban landscape than existed just weeks before.
Inspired by the tradition of phono postcards and drawing upon the postcard as a powerful symbol of touristic experience, this project presents a series of audio-visual vignettes of Lisbon’s tourist attractions during confinement—a testimony to what a city without tourists sounds like.
See the project web site here
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