Dr Sarah Lappin, Prof Gascia Ouzouninan and Conor McCafferty invited papers for the Architectural Humanities Research Association's 15th annual international conference at TU Eindhoven, "Smartness? Between Discourse and Practice." On 15-17 November 2018, Sarah and Conor chaired the session, "Sound and the Smart City: Mapping Sound and Noise" with three remarkable papers from Dietmar Offenhuber (Northeastern University, Boston); William Renel (Royal College of Art, London) and Eric Lewis (McGill University, Montréal). The session emphasised the political complexity of sound in urban space, in defiance of the simplifying and universalising rhetoric of smart city initiatives. All three papers showcased creative and participatory approaches to sound mapping. Offenhuber (with his co-author Sam Auinger), Renel and Lewis all pointed to the rich potential to stimulate participation and citizenship by bringing together practices of sonic arts and design.