As “infrastructures are anthropocentric endeavours that are often built over existing ecologies and communities” (Barry, 2019, p. 371), the sonic qualities of place, traced through listening and field recording, reveal the entanglements between disrupted ecosystems and the materials facilitating mobility. Captured from under the bridge, near the water on the Polish bank of the Oder, the field recording below reflects how the sounds of the river and its ecosystem become entangled with, and eventually silenced by, the sounds of mobility infrastructure.
The constant roar of vehicles and the rhythmic thuds of wheels passing over the metal joints dominate the soundscape. The muffled birdsong blends with the flow of traffic and is echoed by stable, material structure of the bridge. The water flowing under the bridge remains a silent presence, constituting the inaudible layer of the recording, yet shaping how other sounds are heard.