How does sound affect us? What does it tell us? And what happens when it is absent? These are just some of the topics the UNESCO Week Of Sound seeks to address. ‘Sound can tell us a lot once we actually learn how to listen to it,’ says Dr Morag Grant, a music fellow at Edinburgh University who is hosting two events during the week, both of which focus on some aspect of detention and which will act as the launch for a new research project called Sonic Conditions Of Detention. ‘We’re very used to thinking about environmental noise as being something that impacts our lives,’ Grant continues. ‘A lot of research has been done on that, but in the specific context of detention there is a surprising lack of awareness and policy.’

The first event, a talk entitled Listening With Hotel Detention is centred around an art project in which refugees placed in hotel detention in Australia sent out daily audio updates on their experiences in detainment. ‘It’s only really when you listen to the testimony of survivors that you realise just what a massive impact sound has on people,’ says Grant. ‘It’s a case of learning to listen to what that acoustic environment actually is and to consider the impact which that environment is going to have, particularly on someone who doesn’t have the freedom to leave.’ 

Following this will be Behind Bars: Music From Places Of Detention, a concert featuring music created by detainees which references some element of their detainment. Grant hopes that the music featured will not only foster awareness but encourage people to take action. Of particular relevance is a chamber music piece by Hans Gál, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany who was interned as an enemy alien in the UK during World War Two. ‘I think it’s important for people to know in regard to the current regime’s attitudes to refugees and asylum seekers that we have been here before,’ she says soberly. ‘There is a long history of such human rights abuses, and it would be nice if we could start to learn why it’s so important that we have protections for refugees and asylum seekers and what the cost is going to be if we decide to go back on those human rights protections.’

UNESCO Week Of Sound takes place at Edinburgh College Of Art from Monday 16–Friday 20 October.