SITES + SOUNDS is at its core a decentralized framework for collective archiving, which rethinks the ways we map and experience place and its stories. At and around Bennington, students, artists, faculty, staff, and community members are invited to work with project facilitator, Elæ Moss, to identify and produce audio content that draws on the multifaceted past, present, and future of this site—creating an interactive sound walk for fellow community members and visitors alike. 

Like "PUBLICATION as PUBLIC ACTION," SITES + SOUNDS lives conceptually under the ARCHIVE + ACCESS umbrella we find all sorts of project frameworks that consider the ways in which we make, document, save, share, distribute, and become aware of human meaning-making. 

This exciting project considers the ways in which humans have always made meaning in and with place, and invites the public to inscribe their experience into the landscape, which then become part of a digital platform linking these commons-generated audio walking tours with ecological, historical, somatic, speculative, and other content.

On the ground, installation and intervention take a variety of forms, including site-specific, geolocated sound materials and signage with digital extensions. A centralized mobile/digital app-based site (working with Echoes’ spatial audio programming elements.) 

Like all AUTONOMOUS MECHANICS offerings, SITES + SOUNDS is designed to scale and be operational in a wide range of settings, with implementation possibilities from the most personal/DIY through progammatic and/or archival interventions for municipalities, organizations, communities, etc. 

Operationally, SITES + SOUNDS uses everyday materials, and when fully rolled out will both offer and invite signage blueprints for DIY construction and/or production through local or virtually accessible sign shops. 

Read more about the project, its history, theoretical grounding, and related media here.