“Being Heard” is an interdisciplinary cultural experiment and exhibition initiated and designed by Yuting Zhang, Pu Zhang, and Yu Qiao at Studio RE+N. Merging the methodologies of filmmaking, anthropology, and spatial design, this project explores the representation and reinterpretation of local cultural heritage through participatory practices. Seven cultural inheritors from Songyang Old Street in Zhejiang Province, China, were invited to co-create unscripted documentary-style videos capturing their daily lives. This process highlights the nuanced relationship between intangible cultural heritage, personal narratives, and the rhythms of ordinary life.

The exhibition was held in a historical conservation building on Songyang Old Street, transforming the venue into an immersive space that bridges the abstract and the real. The seven videos, portraying “a day in the life” of the cultural inheritors, were displayed in juxtaposition, creating an environment that felt simultaneously detached from the street yet evocative of its essence. The exhibition design blurred the boundaries between the familiar and the artistic, encouraging viewers to rediscover Songyang Old Street through a layered lens of daily life, craft, and cultural preservation.

As a multisensory experience, “Being Heard” invited audiences to engage not only with the sounds of traditional tools, local dialects, and expressions of daily life but also with the voices and stories of those actively preserving heritage. The project extended into a public dialogue series titled “The Soul of the Old Street: Interpreting and Sustaining Local Identity”, bringing together scholars, local stakeholders, and practitioners to discuss the evolving meanings and methods of cultural transmission. This exhibition challenges conventional approaches to heritage preservation by proposing that cultural narratives are not static artifacts but living, dynamic dialogues shaped by the intersection of past, present, and everyday life.