Ice Cream and Automobile Horns

Sensory Knowledge and Practices in Urban Spaces (1900–1930)

Abstract

This contribution examines the senses of taste and hearing in relation to space in Germany between 1900 and 1930. It considers the consumption of ice cream in public space an activity that comprises a potential reorganization of a spatial order. In this respect, it builds upon Henri Lefebvre’s concept of space. The paper explores the scientific design of automobile horns and its impact on pedestrians and road users during the 1920s and early 1930s, connecting it with notions of space. Thus it provides insights into the formation of expert knowledge of how the phonotope of urban traffic as a spatial context and the impact of noise is imagined, organized, disciplined, and appropriated.