In my artwork, the approach to walking is not merely a research subject; it embodies and connects affective relationships formed during walking experiences. The walks that are part of Los Pasos de Mama Killa, a research-creation project in Bolivia and Mexico, are essential for cementing long-term friendships and interdisciplinary collaborations that have been nurtured over years of dialogue, cooperation, and trust, emphasizing listening as the foundation.

Bolivian territory

Los Pasos de Mama Killa in Bolivia was conceived during a four-day walking workshop, in which we created the augmented-reality sound design. The public sound walk was presented during the 2024 Sur Aural Sound Festival in Cochabamba, Bolivia, as a listening session. Grounded in the Andean territory’s cultural, political, and historical context, the project sought to examine how listening can become a tool of resistance, care, and self-recognition for women and gender minorities inhabiting urban public space.

The soundwalk was developed in close collaboration with the Bolivian community radio collective Fuga Radial. The walk and the workshop emphasized co-creation and collective authorship. Over four intensive days at the Martadero Cultural Center, participants engaged in a range of practices, including walking, deep listening exercises, counter-mapping strategies, and explorations of the technical dimensions of sound production. These activities fostered not only artistic experimentation but also critical reflection on how nighttime public spaces can be experienced as sites of safety, resilience, and solidarity for marginalized communities.

A central outcome of the residency was the design of a sound augmented reality walk, created using the ECHOES platform. The walk was collectively shaped by the participants’ situated experiences and embodied through a group night walk in Cochabamba. This final intervention emphasized listening as a relational practice, an embodied form of reclaiming space, narrating hidden histories, and strengthening community presence in the city. By weaving together collaborative methodologies and sound-based practices, Los Pasos de Mama Killa highlighted the transformative potential of sound art as both a creative and political medium for collective empowerment.

Mexico City

Los Pasos de Mama Killa in Mexico City was a second iteration of the walk, “The Steps of Mother Killa CDMX,” proposed to delve into the embodiment and to study the public space at night as an affective and relational space for women and LGBTQ2+. These strategies were shared among the workshop participants during two sessions in which we created a route for a night walk, emphasizing urban listening and public space agency. The route was selected from the situated experiences of female and queer participants living in Mexico City, drawing on their reflections, inquiries, and personal experiences. The final walk was open to the public and took place from 9 pm to 11 pm in the university’s surroundings, where the conference took place.

In Mexico City, Los Pasos de Mama Killa adopted a different approach due to the workshop’s short duration and the community that attended and participated. In this instance, it lasted only two days, with participants walking for three hours each day, and the walk presentation was included in the symposium’s evening programming. The workshop was part of an academic symposium organized by faculty and students from the Faculty of Music at UNAM, titled Transferencias Aurales – II Encuentro Latinoamericano de Música y Tecnología. The primary focus was to invite musicians, researchers, collectives, and artistic organizations centred on sound and music production in Latin America. The symposium featured lectures, concerts, and workshops on five different topics. Los Pasos de Mama Killa was chosen to be part of the workshops titled “Imagining the Impossible”, opening a space for projects related to research creation that incorporated a gender perspective in their engagement with sound, music, and aural studies.

For me, it is important to imagine and form situated methodologies based in the territory of Latin America. Therefore, my walks speak to these two cities, decentralizing and highlighting soundwalking otherwise from a feminist decolonial perspective.