Path of Awareness – Sounding Chinatown
Everywhere you look

Path of Awareness is an artistic walking format that explores how space is experienced through conscious movement and listening. Developed for Chinatown in Boston, this edition responds to the neighborhood’s layered architecture and the presence of Interstate 90, whose continuous infrastructural sound shapes the area’s atmosphere.

Through a steady, moderate pace and deliberately open listening, participants expand their auditory field beyond the habitual filtering of everyday life. The walk invites attention to subtle acoustic shifts: reverberations between buildings, the masking and revealing of voices, the rhythm of traffic, and the sound of one’s own footsteps meeting pavement and concrete. Shoes become instruments; walking becomes a dialogue with architecture.

The site-specific route turns thepath itself into the destination. Thresholds—between quiet and noise, enclosure and exposure—emergeas lived spatial moments. Listening while walking reveals that infrastructure is not only seen but also heard, felt, and embodied.

Since 2012, more than 25 Path of Awareness works by katrinem have been realized worldwide, including in Berlin, Linz, New York, Tehran, Mexico City, and Marseille. Sounding Chinatown continues this evolving practice at a critical moment of urban transformation.

Path of Awareness– Sounding Chinatown is the first phase of a multi-part international artistic research project at the intersection of sound art, urban perception, and urban development initiated by stadtmusik (Sam Auinger and Dietmar Offenhuber). It takes as its point of departure the ongoing infrastructure initiative Reconnecting Chinatown, addressing the spatial and social ruptures caused by the Interstate 90 corridor.

katrinem, born 1969 in Augsburg, Germany, is a sound and performance artist. For many years, her artistic work has been dedicated to exploring the relationship between sound and space. Her solid classical music laid a broad foundation, that ultimately led to her specialization in spatial performances, installations, and new performance practices.

Since 2004, katrinem has been researching the walkability of cities and the corresponding perception of space in her artistic practice. Two key perspectives shape her approach: the observation of places and the self-experience of space through walking. The work series go your gait! brings together diverse artistic formats, including audiovisual compositions, scores, performances, site-specific installations and exhibitions, workshops, photo collections, and texts.

With BesenBallett (2020) and Raumspiel (2024), she has developed new formats designed as social sculptures. These works foster new dialogues with urban spaces, engaging both performers and audiences in a shared experience. BesenBallett premiered at Linzer Klangwolke 20, and in 2021, it opened the Humboldt Forum in Berlin. (www.besenballett.art)

katrinem gives lectures on her work and the methodology of her artistic research, as well as leading workshops. She is particularly committed to working with schoolchildren to explore the auditory atmospheric qualities of their school routes (Pause and Listen).