Before walk · listen · create, there was Sound Walk Sunday at the Made of Walking International Encounters at La Romieu, France on 27 August, 2017, leading to a first map and directory of sound walks around the world, maintained and updated till today.

Now, walk · listen · create hosts the Sound Walk September and Marŝarto Awards, yearly recognising the most interesting new walking art.

• We maintain a public archive of walking pieces and events in an online directory.
• We facilitate a worldwide network of creatives, institutions and museums to share practices and knowledge around walking art.
• We facilitate a network of collaborative educative online resources, available to the public, allowing broad groups of people to create their own sound walks.

Who is the organizing team?

Check our About page.

Who have collaborated and supported

Check out our Partners and Supporters.

Who is the audience?

Artist walkers, and walking artist. Or, everyone who uses ‘walking’ as a part of their practice. This includes artists, sound artists, musicians, poets, architects, performers, designers, anthropologists, writers, wellness professionals, cultural and social professionals, educators, teachers, students and others interested to explore the impact and possibilities of walking and sound walking.

What can you submit to our awards?

When you make a submission you will be asked to provide a url from which your entry can either be accessed, streamed, downloaded, where participants can follow instructions, or book for a live event. The choice of format is yours.

What is a sound walk?

Read up on what is a sound walk. Here are a few examples.

• A listening walk (a live event) – in which participants listen to the environment through which they walk
• A listening walk – in which you provide instructions to enable someone to take such a walk independently at the time and place of their own choice
• An audio-enhanced walking piece (a live event) – in which participants may be required to speak / sing / make music or sounds or listen to such elements whether live or recorded and transmitted through headphones or speakers
• A sound walk or an audio-enhanced walking piece transmitted through headphones
• A geo-located walking piece in which participants trigger recordings to which they listen via headphones

How can one make a sound walk?

Co-hosted with the British Library’s digital research team, we ran a knowledge sharing and networking event in London on Friday 7 June 2019 – read more about this here.

Here’s a recording of an online workshop on how to make a sound walk, part of Greenwich Sound Image Festival.

Take a look at the recording for our Open Call Advisory Event from April 2021.

To make your own sound walk, your context, focus and interests matter a lot. You could start at this introduction on how to make soundscapes, this somewhat more technical piece on the same subject or this MOOC on sound sketching. Over at GPSmuseum, there’s a nice list of tools for creating sound walks. A Pocket Guide to Soundwalking, is available on the site of Hush City Soundwalks for SWS 2019. 

The British Library have drawn together a list of links to reusable content. Note that most of the material on Soundcloud is in .wav format while the sounds on Wikimedia are mp3s. There may be a little bit of overlap between the British wildlife recordings on Soundcloud & Wikimedia. 

• https://soundcloud.com/the-british-library/sets/off-the-map-gothic
• https://soundcloud.com/the-british-library/sets/shakespeare-off-the-map
• https://soundcloud.com/the-british-library/sets/alices-adventures-off-the-map
• https://soundcloud.com/the-british-library/sets/british-wildlife-recordings
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wildlife_Sounds_in_the_British_Library

Is there any submission fee to submit to our awards?

No. Support us by becoming a member.

Can I submit more than one piece?

Yes. There is no limit.

Who can submit?

Contributor from all backgrounds and nationalities are invited to submit sound walks / walking pieces.

What if my walking piece is not in English?

No problem. Make this clear when you submit your piece.

What is the submission deadline?

For the SWS Awards, the submission deadline is the last day of September. For the Marŝarto Awards, the deadline is the last day of October.

What if my entry includes third party copyrighted material?

Entrants declare that the work submitted is their own and that they have cleared permissions for any recording for which they do not own. Its rights have not been transferred to third parties. Entrants assume all liability for any claim or demand by third parties, administrative, judicial or of other nature, concerning intellectual property or rights of the submitted work.

How will an entry be selected for an award?

We work with an Online Jury, a Grand Jury for the SWS Awards, and a Grand Jury for the Marŝarto Awards.

Also check the criteria for the SWS Awards, and the criteria for the Marŝarto Awards.

What if I want to correct a mistake I have made in my entry after I have submitted it?

You can edit your submission at any time. Make sure you are logged in using the account with which you first submitted your piece or event.

Can I submit an event?

Events are not eligible for our awards, but you can submit an event to our events listing.

Do we cover your expenses?

No funding is available for the participating artists.

More questions?

Contact us or find us on social media. For example on Twitter.