Acoustic Experience and Musical Practices of Metro Buskers
In this article, I examine the acoustic experience of being in the underground spaces of the Montreal metro system and detail the practices and perceptions of musicians who perform there. I consider the effect of the particular acoustic characteristics that distinguish underground spaces from the aboveground on the co-productive relationship people have with those spaces. Buskers (« street » performers) who perform in the metro system must work with and against the constraints and possibilities posed by the material characteristics of those spaces – particularly in terms of acoustics – as well as formal regulations and prevailing social norms. Metro buskers exhibit highly variable and improvisational tactics in their musical and spatial practices. This demonstrates the co-productive nature of body and space through sets of practices that are at once mutable and tied to singular personal and spatial features, while retaining enough durability and cohesiveness to be identifiable as an assemblage-act. Finally, I suggest parallels between buskers’ technologically mediated practices and the audio-visual production in my research, with both emphasizing the relationality of body and space and the participatory role of material agents in sensory experience.