Les Madelinéennes

This research-creation collaboration is about the design and evaluation of the permanent public space sound installation Les Madelinéennes by Charles Montambault, deployed since 2023 in a pocket park (Parc-des-Madelinots) in the Montreal borough of Verdun. Verdun was a major emigration destination from the Magdalen Islands (Îles-de-la-Madeleine) and now has the largest community of Madelinots outside of the islands. The Parc-des-Madelinots is a small public space honoring the Madelinots diaspora. However, it is exposed to high levels of traffic noise, sparsely used by residents, and mostly perceived as a transit space. The goal of Les Madelinéennes is to provide a more soothing and pleasant sound environment to this public space while highlighting the community’s cultural heritage through compositions using field recordings from the Magdalen Islands.

This research project builds on the methods developed as per the collaboration surrounding the Niches Acoustiques installation. It involves field recordings and laboratory evaluations of prototypes of the sound installation with residents familiar to the space. Specifically, we investigate how the dominance of different coastal sound sources (e.g. birds, water, wind) can affect the public space’s soundscape. Design recommendations will be made from the results of the study to inform the composition of a new iteration of the sound installation.

For details, please contact: Valérian Fraisse, Catherine Guastavino

Journal Metro (2022, September 28). Les sons des Îles-de-la-Madeleine berceront Verdun. [Interview with Charles Montambault](in French).