Sonic Exploration of Safety & Belonging in Cities by Fairspace

When do you feel welcome, watched, protected or exposed? What makes you relax in a space, stay alert, change your route or feel that you belong somewhere? And how might those experiences shift depending on who you are, how you are perceived and the spaces you move through? Starting from these questions, we'll work with personal memories, recordings, music and other sonic material. Through simple sound production in Audacity, each participant will create a short audio piece based on their own experience. No previous experience with audio production is needed. The workshop is about experimenting, listening and using sonic practice as a way of thinking together. Beyond surveillance The workshop is part of the co-creation process for Blind Spots, a participatory installation for Dutch Design Week 2026. Blind Spots asks what safety in public space could look like beyond surveillance, control and exclusion. Instead of starting from cameras, barriers or monitoring, the project looks at the everyday experiences, relationships and forms of care that can make a space feel safe. There is no single experience or definition of safety. Identity, perception and context all shape how we move through public space differently. For Blind Spots, we're collecting a wide range of stories and perspectives to make these differences visible and audible. With your consent, the audio piece you create may become part of the sonic landscape of Blind Spots at Dutch Design Week. Blind Spots is being developed by Fairspace, a non-profit working towards safer and more inclusive public spaces through research, training and creative participatory projects. Can't make the workshop but want to contribute? You can still share your story with the project by emailing [email protected] More about Blind Spots: https://ddw.nl/en/programme/blind-spots-a-speculative-care-infrastructure More about Fairspace: https://fairspace.co/ Practical Please bring a laptop + headphones. No previous Audacity experience needed.