Sound studies Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

This essay proposes a historically material theory of resonance in experience and literature. Working against contemporary techno-deterministic assessments of sound, I argue for a historical, rather than individual, modality of listening... more

This essay proposes a historically material theory of resonance in experience and literature. Working against contemporary techno-deterministic assessments of sound, I argue for a historical, rather than individual, modality of listening – a collective acoustical unconscious. Understood in its technical expression, Faulkner’s literary acoustics helps us to draw out some of Benjamin’s more elliptical points regarding an acoustical unconscious, a notion that Benjamin never directly articulated, but can be found scattered across the writings. Both Faulkner and Benjamin teach us that the acoustical unconscious far exceeds the boundaries of the individual life. In Absalom, Absalom!, Faulkner crafted a narrative space that is a sensitive recording apparatus, more sensitive than any mechanical device. But as history moves through narrative space and its radiophonic air, there are consequences for racial consciousness. In Faulkner’s narrative space, blackness and whiteness become, above all, sound-effects, or what I call a “fact of resonance” rather than of essence or substance.

Nurses working in the Neuro-Intensive Care Unit at Aarhus University Hospital lack the tools to prepare children for the alarming atmosphere they will enter when visiting a hospitalised relative. The complex soundscape dominated by alarms... more

Nurses working in the Neuro-Intensive Care Unit at Aarhus University Hospital lack the tools to prepare children for the alarming atmosphere they will enter when visiting a hospitalised relative. The complex soundscape dominated by alarms and sounds from equipment is mentioned as the main stressor. As a response to this situation, our design artefact, the interactive furniture Kidkit, invites children to become accustomed to the alarming sounds sampled from the ward while they are waiting in the waiting room. Our design acknowledges how atmospheres emerge as temporal negotiations between the rhythms of the body and the environment in conjunction with our internalised perception of the habituated background. By actively controlling the sounds built into Kidkit, the child can habituate them through a process of synchronising them with her own bodily rhythms. Hereby the child can establish, in advance, a familiar relationship with the alarming sounds in the ward, enabling her to focus later more on the visit with the relative. The article discusses the proposed design strategy behind this solution and the potentiality for its use in hospital environments in general.

Based on the author's artistic research on migration, contemporary urban experience, and sonic alienation, The Nomadic Listener is composed of a series of texts stemming from psychogeographic explorations of contemporary cities, including... more

Based on the author's artistic research on migration, contemporary urban experience, and sonic alienation, The Nomadic Listener is composed of a series of texts stemming from psychogeographic explorations of contemporary cities, including Copenhagen, Berlin, Kolkata, Vienna, Delhi, Hong Kong, Mumbai, and New York, among others.
Each text is an act of listening, where the author records his surrounding environment and attunes to the sonic fluctuations of movement and the passing of events. What surfaces is a collection of meditations on the occurrences of life movingly interwoven with memories, associations, desires, and reflections. Readers are brought into a tender map of contemporary urban experience and the often lonely, surprising, and random interactions found in traveling. The Nomadic Listener includes parallel drawings based on the original audio recordings and appears as ghostly renderings of the corresponding experiences. The recordings are published by Gruenrekorder and accessed through a QR code in the book.

I have been working in the field of radio art, and through creative practice have been considering how the convergence of new media technologies has redefined radio art, addressing the ways in which this has extended the boundaries of the... more

I have been working in the field of radio art, and through creative practice have been considering how the convergence of new media technologies has redefined radio art, addressing the ways in which this has extended the boundaries of the art form. This practice-based research explores the rich history of radio as an artistic medium and the relationship between the artist and technology, emphasising the role of the artist as a mediator between broadcast institutions and a listening public. It considers how radio art might be defined in relation to sound art, music and media art, mapping its shifting parameters in the digital era and prompting a consideration of how radio appears to be moving from a dispersed ‘live’ event to one consumed ‘on demand’ by a segmented audience across multiple platforms. Exploring the implications of this transition through my radio practice focuses upon the productive tensions which characterise the artist’s engagement with radio technology, specifically between the autonomous potentialities offered by the reappropriation of obsolete technology and the proliferation of new infrastructures and networks promised by the exponential development of new media. Switch Off takes as its overarching theme the possible futures for FM radio, incorporating elements from eight ‘trace’ stations, produced as a series of radio actions investigating these tensions. Interviews have been conducted with case study subjects Vicki Bennett, Anna Friz, LIGNA, Hildegard Westerkamp and Gregory Whitehead, whose work was chosen as being exemplary of the five recurrent facets of radio arts practice I have identified: Appropriation, Transmission, Activism, Soundscape and Performance. These categories are derived from the genealogy of experimental radiophonic practice set out in Chapter One.

This chapter examines the meaning-making functions of cinematic sound from the perspective of embodied cognition. Using embodied simulation theory (Gallese, 2005) as a unifying framework, and placing particular emphasis upon the affective... more

This chapter examines the meaning-making functions of cinematic sound from the perspective of embodied cognition. Using embodied simulation theory (Gallese, 2005) as a unifying framework, and placing particular emphasis upon the affective aspects of ‘Feeling of Body’ (Wojciehowski & Gallese, 2011), an account of cinematic media emerges which puts into play Mark Johnson’s concept of ‘embodied meaning’ (Johnson, 2007). Central to Johnson’s concept is the assertion that all human meaning, abstract conceptual thinking, and imagination have basis in our sensorimotor interactions with the world. In the context of cinematic media, it suggests the stylistic crafting and patterning of perceptual content not only elicits an affective response but also shapes cognition. Drawing upon examples of cinematic sound design an embodied aesthetics is illustrated.

This essay considers the roles of sound in racialization processes in late nineteenth-century Salvador da Bahia as evidenced in the work of Raimundo Nina Rodrigues (1862–1906). While his work is frequently situated in discussions of... more

This essay considers the roles of sound in racialization processes in late nineteenth-century Salvador da Bahia as evidenced in the work of Raimundo Nina Rodrigues (1862–1906). While his work is frequently situated in discussions of Afro-Brazilian culture, eugenics, and scientific racism, this discussion asks how the specific sonic spectrum of the behaviors and practices considered through his work shaped listening practices in the context of medical criminology. The discussion returns to reported cases of dancing manias in Salvador and other parts of Northeastern Brazil that were disruptive enough to warrant the creation of a special report to the Emperor. Nina Rodrigues would return to this and similar reports as a point of departure for the consideration of more general relationships between sound, consciousness, and sociability. Through a discussion and analysis of his case study of a young Afro-Brazilian woman apparently named Fausta, this essay, furthermore, draws comparisons between the Bahian doctor’s clinical approaches and those of the French neuropathologists with which he sought dialogue.

Chapter 2 CONTEMPORARY FILM TECHNOLOGY by William Whittington

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without prior written... more

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without prior written consent of the publisher-or in the case of photocopying, a licence from Access

Between 1995 and 1996, The Beatles released the three volume, six-disc Anthology, a sprawling audio set issued to coincide with a televised documentary of the same name. One of the first major releases of its kind, the Anthology albums... more

Between 1995 and 1996, The Beatles released the three volume, six-disc Anthology, a sprawling audio set issued to coincide with a televised documentary of the same name. One of the first major releases of its kind, the Anthology albums curated and compiled previously unreleased demos, studio recordings, and live performances, under the auspices of giving listeners insight into the band's creative process. Beyond the appeal of new Beatles product however, the Anthology albums are unique in exploiting particular manifestations of musical intimacy that ultimately serve to further cultivate the group's well-established pop cultural mythos.

In this paper, which is a draft for the lecture to be given in January 2020 at “Steklenik,” gallery for sound, bio-acoustics & art, in Ljubljana, Slovenia, I would like to bring fundamental traits of sound & listening in close relation... more

In this paper, which is a draft for the lecture to be given in January 2020 at “Steklenik,” gallery for sound, bio-acoustics & art, in Ljubljana, Slovenia, I would like to bring fundamental traits of sound & listening in close relation with pivotal physical, physiological and psychological bodily functions. With acknowledging both psychophysical and bioenergy dynamics, my final effort is to highlight the possible role of sound & listening in better comprehension of the overall human experience: of oneself, and the all-pervading environment.

CALL FOR PAPERS: "Italian Sonorities and Acoustic Communities: Listening to the Soundscapes of Italianità" conference, April 27-29, 2017 at Queens College's John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, 25 West 43rd Street, Manhattan.... more

CALL FOR PAPERS: "Italian Sonorities and Acoustic Communities: Listening to the Soundscapes of Italianità" conference, April 27-29, 2017 at Queens College's John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, 25 West 43rd Street, Manhattan. DEADLINE: September 16, 2016.

In anthropology and across the humanities and social sciences, zoos have tended to be theorized as places of spectacle. Scholars often focus on the ways in which these institutions enable the viewing of other-than-human animals by human... more

In anthropology and across the humanities and social sciences, zoos have tended to be theorized as places of spectacle. Scholars often focus on the ways in which these institutions enable the viewing of other-than-human animals by human publics. This article, however, uses sound-focused ethnographic fieldwork to engage with two UK zoos and to describe a particular mode of cross-species listening which is enacted by zookeepers. The concepts of pastoral care and control discussed by Foucault and applied to the zoo context by Braverman are productively reworked and reoriented in order to understand this form of listening. The article also demonstrates the interconnectedness of keeper, visitor and animal sound worlds, in the process generating an original perspective that complements and enriches conventional zoo studies.

In this paper I shall try to move around a liminal and partly unpredictable area. Here we are dealing with the question of sound and acoustic perception in some directorial works of the twenty-first century. Sound Studies consist in the... more

In this paper I shall try to move around a liminal and partly unpredictable area. Here we are dealing with the question of sound and acoustic perception in some directorial works of the twenty-first century. Sound Studies consist in the study of sound, and research into sound and listening. When we extend some of the issues to the specific field of theatrical studies and performance the questions start to multiply. Through some of these suggestions we might reflect on certain works that we will take as case studies. The works I have chosen are all by a Japanese composer and visual artist: Ryoji Ikeda.

Sonograms are images produced by sound; more specifically, they are produced by ultrasound—sound waves vibrating at frequencies well above the range of what humans can hear, but suitable for producing maps below surfaces such as skin or... more

Sonograms are images produced by sound; more specifically, they are produced by ultrasound—sound waves vibrating at frequencies well above the range of what humans can hear, but suitable for producing maps below surfaces such as skin or oceans. Long before scientific devices transduced vibrating air waves into graphics, cultural devices such as voices, instruments, pens and parchment, transmitted sounds in the form of love songs that had an ultrasonic function to produce sonograms that mapped subjects and objects of desire. This essay unites musicology’s concerns with the discursive force of organized sound, and sound studies’ concern with the discursive force sonic environments, recording formats, and media networks, to consider how the widely transmitted medieval song Lanqan li jorn son lonc en mai by Jaufre Rudel, with its famous refrain of amor de lonh (“love from afar”) and evocations of the Saracen kingdom, reverberates across time and space to map subjects and objects of desire below skin and across oceans. The first half of the essay examines Lanqan li jorn son lonc en mai in the context the transcultural sound networks, medieval notions of global geography, and the material formatting of songs. The second half of this essay turns to two modern-day resoundings of Jaufre’s song of distant love: these are the 1977 recording by the Clemencic Consort directed by René Clemencic; and the 2000 opera by Finish composer Kaija Saariaho called L’amour de loin with a libretto by the Lebanese author Amin Maalouf. In both cases the song, and the medieval legend that sprung from it, are sonically reimagined to express twentieth-century strife in the Middle East. Thus while the notes of Jaufre’s medieval song have all but disappeared from these reformattings, its ultrasonic function continues to produce sonograms of desire born of distance.

In the summer of 2016, musicians in Tripoli gave a series of concerts at an outdoor seaside venue near downtown. Many families were in attendance, and children made the grassy seating area into a dance floor. Members of the militia based... more

In the summer of 2016, musicians in Tripoli gave a series of concerts at an outdoor seaside venue near downtown. Many families were in attendance, and children made the grassy seating area into a dance floor. Members of the militia based around the corner stood off to the side of the stage to watch the revelry. By this time, not quite five years after the fall of long-time dictator Mu'ammar al-Qaddafi, a shifting constellation of militias governed much of Libya.

The intertwining of sound and the body is fascinating and multifarious. Until fairly recently, sound has mainly been studied in terms of listening, sound reproduction technologies, and acoustical measurements. In turn, the body,... more

The intertwining of sound and the body is fascinating and multifarious. Until fairly recently, sound has mainly been studied in terms of listening, sound reproduction technologies, and acoustical measurements. In turn, the body, especially that of someone producing sound with their voice or with an instrument, has commonly been approached as a physiological entity. Lately, however, the embodied and experiential aspect of sound has increasingly gained ground in research and pedagogy as well as in the arts. In a short period of time, studying the experience of listening or producing sound has generated a number of fruitful approaches and methods for sound studies.

This paper examines current issues at the intersection of the Sociology of Technology and the interdisciplinary field of Sound Studies. It begins with an overview of major social constructionist, interpretive semiotic, and actor–network... more

This paper examines current issues at the intersection of the Sociology of Technology and the interdisciplinary field of Sound Studies. It begins with an overview of major social constructionist, interpretive semiotic, and actor–network theoretical sociological approaches to technology as developed within the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). Considering the predominance of narrative visual metaphors in these approaches' treatment of socio-technical perception, it is argued that the “turn to sound” in social studies of technology, rather than simply furnishing established analytic approaches with a fresh set of empirical cases (i.e. “sound technologies”), presents an opportunity to better sensitize STS approaches to the contingent socio-technical shaping and distribution of embodied perceptual modalities in general. A critical review of recent social and historical studies of sound and technology, attending especially to debates surrounding the theoretical shift from acoustemological or soundscape-based to signal-oriented “transductive” approaches, suggests the importance for future STS and Sound Studies work of addressing how shared modes of sensory perception are produced within particular socio-technical frames.

Abstract: From DJ Premier's beat productions in the early'90s to Kanye West's live performance at the 2010 Video Music Awards, the Akai MPC has long been considered standard sampling technology in any hip-hop... more

Abstract: From DJ Premier's beat productions in the early'90s to Kanye West's live performance at the 2010 Video Music Awards, the Akai MPC has long been considered standard sampling technology in any hip-hop production studio. Expanding upon the ...

El artículo pretende pensar la técnica como medio vital del ser humano. Se intenta para tal fin un acercamiento a la noción de técnica que se articula con los conceptos de naturaleza y cultura. Se recurre para ello a Marshall McLuhan y a... more

El artículo pretende pensar la técnica como medio vital del ser humano. Se intenta para tal fin un acercamiento a la noción de técnica que se articula con los conceptos de naturaleza y cultura. Se recurre para ello a Marshall McLuhan y a Gilbert Simondon, dos figuras centrales en el pensamiento de la técnica del siglo XX. Por fuera de las posturas tecnofóbica y tecnofílica se arriesga el abordaje de una tercera posición, sostenida en la propuesta de Simondon de una nueva “cultura técnica”. Finalmente, se procura poner en relación estos conceptos con la dinámica actual de las relaciones socio-tecnológicas, a la luz de la efervescencia reciente en torno a la noción de algoritmo.

Although the concept of Historically Informed Performance (HIP) has been initially based on the exact representations of the early music, over the time, the unattainable nature of “authentic performances” has prevailed and many... more

Although the concept of Historically Informed Performance (HIP) has been initially based on the exact representations of the early music, over the time, the unattainable nature of “authentic performances” has prevailed and many researchers have accepted it as a certain endeavor to reach historic conditions of the early performances as possible. This approach is very different from historical soundscape studies, where the tendencies of staying in monograph is still preponderating. Today, the new technologies and boomed digital humanities methods allow to update this approach. This study focuses on the impacts of these new methods into historical soundscape studies by grounding on HIP concept.
The application of HIP into soundscape has been done for the first time by Linda Pearse and colleagues which created the concept of Historically Informed Soundscape (HIS) composition and suggesting to concentrate what we can excavate from the history with accepting our current possibilities to obtain history-based compositions in an artistic context. On the contrary, we discuss the HIS as a complete research method in historical soundscape investigation by introducing the sound designer instead of performer in HIP. What is the importance of reproduction in sensory studies and which digital techniques we can utilize to work with historical soundscape, from historical records to sound, were also mentioned in the study.

La música desarrolla un rol clave en nuestra experiencia audiovisual. Aunque en un relato audiovisual la imagen es el foco consciente de la atención, es la banda sonora quien aporta una serie de efectos, sensaciones, significaciones... more

La música desarrolla un rol clave en nuestra experiencia
audiovisual. Aunque en un relato audiovisual la imagen es
el foco consciente de la atención, es la banda sonora quien
aporta una serie de efectos, sensaciones, significaciones que
enriquecen la narración y que habitualmente se asocian a lo
visual. El papel activo de la música en la interpretación de la
imagen resulta especialmente destacable en Hannibal (Fuller, NBC). La particularidad de su scoring, que conjuga composiciones originales con el repertorio clásico característico de Hannibal Lecter contribuye a la creación de la atmósfera de la serie y la dota de nuevos significados derivados de un inteligente uso de la intertextualidad. En este sentido el presente artículo presenta un análisis de la música clásica en Hannibal, sus relaciones y significaciones.

Does a city project a certain inner character within the subjective auditory perception of the listener’s experience of its complex sound environment? This paper examines the artistic processes involved in the author’s recent composition... more

Does a city project a certain inner character within the subjective auditory perception of the listener’s experience of its complex sound environment? This paper examines the artistic processes involved in the author’s recent composition elegy for Bangalore, which sheds light on the methodologies of listening to and field recording in an emerging and transfiguring Indian city toward composing its urban character.

In this article I discuss how people, as listening bodies in urban spaces, both passively (hearing) and actively (listening) engage with sound and unwanted noise. The uneven generation and perception of sound presents us with an important... more

In this article I discuss how people, as listening bodies in urban spaces, both passively (hearing) and actively (listening) engage with sound and unwanted noise. The uneven generation and perception of sound presents us with an important set of spatial, social, and physiological impacts. Our bodies are guided, damaged, invited, and otherwise shielded by invisible yet powerful forces. These forces have a broad patterning, what might be termed the sonic order of the city. Within the walls of homes, offices, and streets our experience is shaped both by natural sound and, more often, by orchestrated commercial practices such as in-store radio, muzak and the flows of rush hour traffic. This aural stage management takes places through the planning and relative containment of socially, commercially, and industrially sourced sound. This article discusses the broad relationship between these urban soundscapes and their influence on the trajectories of the human body to ask how sound and noise shape our experience and movement through the city.

City of Noise tours the sonic space that orchestrated the different, often conflicting, sound cultures that defined Paris's street ambiance. Mining accounts from guidebooks to verse, the book braids literary, cultural, and social history... more

City of Noise tours the sonic space that orchestrated the different, often conflicting, sound cultures that defined Paris's street ambiance. Mining accounts from guidebooks to verse, the book braids literary, cultural, and social history to reconstruct a lost auditory environment.

The article takes its basis in D.W. Winnicott's theories of play and transitional space to argue that Stagnation-era sound recordings and animated films found a devoted audience of both adults and children because, like Winnicott's... more

The article takes its basis in D.W. Winnicott's theories of play and transitional space to argue that Stagnation-era sound recordings and animated films found a devoted audience of both adults and children because, like Winnicott's good-enough mother or therapist, they created the conditions for playing: they did not merely narrate play, but also embodied, invited, and enacted it. Fishzon looks closely at the performative and analytic functions of Vladimir Vysotskii's popular musical adaptation of Alisa v strane chudes (Alice in Wonderland, 1977), which employed and served as a play framework or analytic session. Vysotskii's broadly circulated, well-known work enabled Brezhnev-era citizens to dream a new habitus and ideology at a time when irony and playing were becoming increasingly difficult. While opportunities for paradox narrowed in Soviet official discourse and printed fiction after the Thaw, children's records and animated films shaped critical imaginations and made space for subjectivity.

In 2012 the newly built Metropolitan Arts Centre (MAC) commissioned artists Fionnuala Fagan and Isobel Anderson to write verbatim songs from oral history interviews with members of the Sailortown Regeneration Group (SRG). These songs... more

Some of the most acute moments of social unrest in urban areas in recent Colombian history took place during and around the recent nationwide strikes of November 21 (2019), September 9 (2020), and April 21 (2021). In record numbers,... more

Some of the most acute moments of social unrest in urban areas in recent Colombian history took place during and around the recent nationwide strikes of November 21 (2019), September 9 (2020), and April 21 (2021). In record numbers, university students, indigenous and black communities, LGTB+ movements, environmental activists, and artistic collectives, alongside unionized laborers and teachers, participated together in sit-ins, non-violent protest marches, public and digital concerts, cacerolazos, and the toppling of statues of Spanish conquistadors. These diverse actors first came together because the Colombian government, headed by President Iván Duque, pushed for unpopular tax and health reforms during times of extreme economic precarity. We are interested in the conjunction between sound, listening, and digital technologies, and their articulation into different forms of protest has contributed to the constitution of new democratic practices. We also inquire into the political effects and limits of these forms of protest during the uprising. The text is structured around three case studies that trace distinct sonic practices and listening habits that became politically marked in the public sphere during the uprising. The first case examines symphonic concerts performed by young musicians in parks and public squares, known as “cacerolazos sinfónicos.” In doing so, we detail how art music performance and social activism came together in the streets, prompting the creation of new musical repertoires that sought to resignify sonic symbols of Colombianess as a means of protest. The second study traces the performance and compositional history of the “Himno de la Guardia Indígena,” an indigenous anthem that became the soundtrack of the 2019-2021 protests. In this section, we analyze how this anthem went from being an indigenous musical reference to a sonic index of the uprising, making indigenous grievances audible and central to the strike’s demands. In the third section, we study the sonic and political appropriation of a perceived slip of the tongue that Duque made during a public speech. We discuss how political speech is enacted in and through audio-visual digital media cultures such as Internet memes. In the conclusion, we bring the case studies together to discuss the limits of these practices of protest and dissent. Before proceeding, we present an overview of the uprising, followed by a section on the relationship between sound and politics in the context of protest in participatory democracies.