Connecting Commutes is an artistic project that chooses listening as a sensory practice that fosters reflection and experimentation. Its main partners are the Audire research group and Braga’s public transport company (TUB), and it will be presented to the public between March and September 2025.
The main premise of this project, developed within the framework of Braga 25, is based on the concepts of mobility, territory, landscape, public space and community, opening up avenues of creation in the field of sound and also in the thinking associated with these concepts. We are witnessing constant changes in the territory, imposed by urban growth, and we are looking for efficient, ecologically responsible mobility systems that help create alternatives to individual transportation and give us back the “right to the city”. Public transport is a public space with its own characteristics, it is part of the life of cities and their inhabitants, and is therefore also a way of participating in collective life. Buses, in particular, are also places to meet “the other”, where we can let ourselves be lulled into an interstice of space-time conducive to introspection and imagination.
Through interventions in the fields of radio art, soundscape, documentary, performance, audio routes and music, we explore the themes present in our daily lives as passengers and observers of the transformations in the landscape and fabric of the city and its outskirts, paying special attention to the communities that are part of this universe.
The project is coordinated by Luís Pinto. With a background in sound exploration, Luís Pinto has worked as a broadcaster, sound technician, actor, sound designer and creator of sound content such as documentaries, soundtracks, installations and musical composition for advertising. His most recent experiences involve curating and producing shows, exhibitions, experimental radio, mediation actions and community cultural creation.