Listening Lisboa: Urban Sound Cartographies
Pedro Campos Costa
Ivan Prego
Rádio Galeria Antecâmara and Antecâmara Gallery are Lisbon-based cultural initiatives that combine architecture, sound art, and community engagement to explore the city through active listening. Our team is composed of architects, curators, sound artists, and researchers who share a common interest in collaborative and interdisciplinary practices that challenge traditional modes of urban representation.
Rádio Antecâmara is Portugal’s first radio station dedicated to architecture and the city, offering a diverse program including interviews, sound performances, documentaries, and conversations that promote cultural diversity and civic participation. Antecâmara Gallery serves as an exhibition and dialogue space where artistic and curatorial projects engage with urban, social, and environmental themes.
Our team members have solid experience in academic research, cultural production, and artistic projects within national and international networks. Notable achievements include curatorial exhibitions exploring sound and space, scientific publications on sensory urbanism, and participation in collaborative sound mapping initiatives.
With Listening Lisboa, we aim to consolidate and expand our methodology by integrating new digital technologies and deepening engagement with both local and transnational communities. Our collaborative work fosters collective memory, social inclusion, and critical reflection on urban transformation processes through sound.
Listening Lisboa is a collaborative and practice-based project that explores the city of Lisbon through sound as a critical and affective method of spatial inquiry. In response to the growing dominance of visual and data-driven urban representations, the project foregrounds listening as a political, ecological, and cultural act—one that reveals unseen dynamics, layered memories, and voices often excluded from mainstream narratives.
Initiated by Rádio Galeria Antecâmara, the project was inspired by international sound mapping initiatives and developed through local engagement, beginning in the multicultural neighborhood of Arroios. It includes a digital platform with a geolocated sound map, a series of thematic radio episodes, participatory workshops, and public installations. Contributions come from artists, residents, students, and listeners—resulting in a polyphonic and inclusive archive of Lisbon’s sonic life.
The most successful aspects are its accessibility and resonance with diverse communities, as well as its ability to foster dialogue across cultural and linguistic boundaries. By treating sound not only as artistic material but as a form of knowledge, Listening Lisboa challenges dominant urban epistemologies and introduces new methods for sensing and caring for the city.
In the face of ecological and social crises, the project invites a deeper attentiveness to our sonic environments and promotes collective practices of care, coexistence, and storytelling. Looking forward, it aims to grow into a transnational network of sonic cartographies, connecting Lisbon with other cities and listening cultures, and further integrating audio-based research into spatial and urban disciplines.