The City Rings

What does your street sound like to someone on the other side of the world? And what does their neighborhood sound like to you? During The City Rings, children from around the world share the everyday sounds of their surroundings with one another. No music, no words, just the sounds of their world.

Each of us moves through a unique soundscape every day: school bells, traffic around the corner, voices in the square, birds in the trees. It all becomes the soundtrack of our lives, but we rarely take a moment to consciously notice these sounds. Until we begin to really listen.

The City Rings invites children to become sound explorers by collecting the everyday sounds of their world, and sharing them with students elsewhere on the planet. What do you hear in the morning on your way to school? What does the playground sound like during recess? What sounds make your city recognizable?

By actively listening to their own surroundings and those of others, children discover how sound fills space, sets the mood, and creates connections. They also learn that listening is a form of connection as well: a shared space where you can meet one another without words.

Since 2010, we’ve been connecting schools worldwide through this part of our research on listening. Not as a completed project, but as a constantly evolving experiment.

Since 2022, The City Rings has been supported by Maghenta, a platform for South and Southeast Asian-inspired arts. They help us find an inspiring school at the start of each new edition, keep a close eye on things, and support the class as needed.

Currently in development

In December 2025, we collaborated with classes from Aurobindo School (Jaipur, India) and De Buurt (Ghent, Belgium). The students first met via video call, followed by a three-week project during which both groups embarked on their own sound adventures. At the end of the project, they gathered again online for a festive listening session, where they shared and celebrated their results.

Both classes were guided through TCR using a new, interactive script created with the help of students from Devine (Howest & KASK). Together, we conducted a thorough reflection on the TCR format. Their fresh perspective and ideas helped us make important decisions. For this edition, for example, we deliberately opted for greater clarity and simplicity, so that the project remained manageable and achievable for the teachers involved. At the same time, we wanted to involve the students more in the entire exchange, resulting in greater motivation and a sense of ownership.

That’s how the idea for an online tool that makes the process visible and fun took shape: a sort of relay race, board game with rewards, or interactive checklist where both classes can see which challenges they’ve completed and what’s still to come. To test this idea in an accessible way, we developed an interactive guide featuring two new mascots, Kiki and Bouba. They guide students and teachers through the project.

The next edition will take place during the 2026–2027 school year.

To be continued!

Previous editions

During the 2023–2024 school year, children from the Ghent elementary school De Triangel exchanged sounds with children from the Aurobindo school in Jaipur, the capital of the Indian state of Rajasthan.

We embarked on a short but in-depth four-week collaboration. After an introductory video call between the two groups, both classes were guided by their teachers into the wonderful world of listening using our free toolkits: Start to Listen, Geluidenatlas, and Citymixer.

With open ears, the students set out into the city with twelve listening challenges. What sound makes you happy? What’s the most mysterious sound in your surroundings? An important one? A useless one? … Together, they explored the city and its sounds. Finally, we shared all our recordings and experiences through an online quiz. This way, we discover different sounds, listening attitudes, and ways of listening in a playful manner.

In 2022–2023, children from the Ghent elementary school De Triangel exchanged sound recordings with children from the school SKSN near Jodhpur, a large city in northwestern India.

Over the course of the school year, the children from Ghent and India made sound recordings based on specific themes, such as sports, traffic, celebrations, and professions.

In 2022, we collaborated with the Canadian sound art organization Audiotopie and McGill University (Ville Sonore). Children from Ghent recorded sounds at their school and in their neighborhood to send them to children in Montréal, and vice versa. Those recordings were then played and re-recorded on-site in the other's environment. These new recordings were then sent back.

What do you think Canadian cities sound like?

Zeynep: It looks like it's a big city with lots of new buildings, so I think you’ll hear the sound of major construction projects going on everywhere. It seems like a fun vacation spot to me, so there will probably be shops and restaurants, too. Some restaurants are open, so you can hear people preparing food. And I think you can recognize the stores by the sound of the bags people are carrying as they come out.
Nevin: You can hear the waves of the sea. I think that sounds loud.
Rania: In the summer, you’ll probably be able to hear bees.
Adam: I think you’ll hear French-speaking people. There’ll probably be parks, too, where you can hear the wind rustling through the trees. Barking dogs. Helicopters. Electric scooters.

The Beginning

The City Rings was founded in 2010. During workshops held simultaneously in various countries across Europe, children were introduced to creative ways of listening, recording, editing, and composing with sound. They recorded sounds at their schools and in their neighborhoods. Using their recordings, they created their own audio compositions, which they then exchanged with children from other schools. We called these compositions – which were sent from one country to another – 'sonic postcards'.

At the time, The City Rings was an international sound education project launched by aifoon, MTG/Sons de Barcelona, and Sound&Music as part of Sounds of Europe.

Listen to some compositions

Below, you can listen to some compositions created by schoolchildren from all over Europe during the first edition of The City Rings.