Exploring familiar streets and yet feeling completely foreign, observing social distancing rules while weaving through a crowd – with this audio walk, you discover a distant place, meet new people, and learn about a faraway country, all without traveling. The audio walk virtually guides you through the largest market in Central America, while you physically walk towards the Leipzig market.

This three-part soundscape composition was recorded using binaural microphones while walking and is best experienced on foot. The real world with its ambient sounds and the soundscape of the virtual world interact uniquely depending on the time of day. Depending on which entrance to the Leipzig market you take, you will experience different facets of the vast Mercado Oriental, which forms a city within a city in distant Nicaragua.

The soundscapes for this audio walk were recorded in 2015 and 2016. Since 2018, the political situation in Nicaragua has significantly deteriorated. For current information, you can refer to sources like the Nicaragua Information Center. The creation of this work was made possible by a grant from the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony.