Acoustemology: Four Lectures by Steven Feld, a new intermedial open-access book
Steven Feld recently published an open access, intermedial (text/image/audio, 198 pages) + video(s) publication titled Acoustemology: Four Lectures. It is freely available here to download as PDF or ePUB :
http://www.stevenfeld.net/acoustemology-four-lectures
CFP: «En Plein Air: Soundscapes of Ritual and Festivity in Europe and beyond from the Middle Ages to the Present»
LOCATION: Università di Siena, Palazzo del Rettorato and Complesso Universitario di S. Francesco
DATE: 24-26 April 2025
organized by Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini Università di Siena, Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche e dei Beni Culturali
Keynote Speakers:
• Mark Everist (University of Southampton)
• Massimiliano Tabusi (Unistrasi – Università per Stranieri di Siena)
The concept of soundscape has undergone a fascinating evolution, considering the spatial turnand the rise of urban musicology (e.g., Strohm 1985; Carter 2002; Bombi-Carreras-Marín eds. 2005; Piperno-Caputo-Senici eds. 2023; Collarile-De Luca eds. 2023). This has sparked interdisciplinary reflections, leading to groundbreaking insights and innovative ways of experiencing places that host rituals and festivities where sound plays a pivotal role (Lefebvre 2018, Massey 1994, Soja 1996). By incorporating the spatial dimension into the critical investigation of ritual and festivity, we can better identify the sonic identities of urban spaces. Before delving into the spatialisation processes of a musical event, the hermeneutic challenge lies in defining the sonic identity of a place and the nature of a historical soundscape compared to its contemporary counterpart. This is achieved by drawing on an integrated array of sources (literary, iconographic, etc.) that can more comprehensively capture the temporal dimension and its associated changes. Studies in geography (e.g., historical cartography, social geography), archaeology, and anthropology expand our knowledge of how sound spaces are constructed and how they evolve over time due to the transformation of cities, societies, and the ways festive and ritual moments are produced and experienced. Through a critical lens, it is crucial to address the power structures that underlie the organisation and use of public spaces: How do formal and informal power structures shape the construction and use of sound spaces for rituals and festivities? How do they influence the programming, organisation, and management decisions for these events? How are social hierarchies and power asymmetries reflected in the participation and representation of different social groups within these sonic spaces? How can access to these events be conditioned by factors such as class, gender, ethnicity, or religious affiliation? Consequently, issues of inequality and marginalisation in these contexts emerge as significant concerns. The conference aims to stimulate reflection on soundscapes in relation to spaces designated for rituals and festivities in Europe and worldwide, from the Middle Ages to the present. It specifically focuses on processions, civic and religious parades, diplomatic visits, and recurring festive occasions closely tied to the social and urban fabric, as expressions of communities.
The official languages of the conference are English, French and Italian. Papers selected at the conference will be published in a miscellaneous volume.
For any additional information, see https://www.luigiboccherini.org/2024/09/20/en-plein-air-soundscapes-of-ritual-and-festivity-in-europe-and-beyond-from-the-middle-ages-to-the-present/ or please contact:
Dr. Massimiliano Sala, conferences@luigiboccherini.org
Sound Art Museum Beijing
Sound Art Museum is an institution that focuses on sound. Based in Tongzhou District in Beijing, they opened to the public in May 2023. Their mission is to create a platform that places cross-disciplinary practice at the center of their activities. Rather than focusing on a location, era, or theme, Sound Art Museum explores a medium – sound.
Sound is all around us all the time and has a profound effect on our lives. Art, natural sciences, linguistics, and many other professions work with sound, but mostly independently of each other; the museum’s aim is to create projects that bring people together, so an ecology of collaborative projects can be generated and grown over time.
By fostering cutting-edge content, Sound Art Museum bridges traditional and contemporary culture and engages otherwise disparate communities. As sound is a flexible and reproducible medium, it means many of their projects can easily be shared across China and around the world.
New Book review online
Sirens - Michael Bull. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020
Book review by Paul Carter
Free online course in sound and audio this summer offered by Barry Truax
Following four very successful previous versions of this course, I am offering to mentor another group of participants in a 12 week online course in sound and audio, starting Wednesday May 8 and going to July 31. There is no fee for participating in this group.
We will be systematically going through the Tutorial associated with the Handbook for Acoustic Ecology located on the WSP Database, and covering two modules most weeks, one in acoustics, the other in electroacoustics. We’ll meet once a week on Zoom for 2-1/2 hours to discuss these topics, scheduled for 10:30 am – 1 pm PDT on Wednesdays.
This course will be useful as professional development to those wanting to teach sound and audio, as well as graduate students and others who would like to broaden their knowledge across multiple disciplines. If anyone wants to take the course for academic credit, they need to set this up at their own institution and I would supervise it.
The particular strengths (and challenges) of the Tutorial are the parallel modules in acoustics and electroacoustics that emphasize their often ignored links. I would expect participants to be more experienced in one or the other areas, but this course should allow for imbalances in knowledge to be addressed.
The Tutorial and Handbook files can be downloaded by each individual for ease of access, but participants can also use the online version. The preferred browsers are Safari and Firefox (Catalina OS and Chrome also seem to work). Additional software for experimentation will be made available.
Those interested who have the time (I estimate you will need a minimum of 6 hours a week for the webinar and individual study if you want to take it all in), apart from whatever time would be spent with the personal listening and studio experiments), please contact me at truax@sfu.ca, if you have any questions or would like to view the Tutorial in advance, which I recommend.
For those in the Pacific region and its time zones, this year for the first time, I have arranged a parallel version of the course, hosted by Jesse Budel from Australia who will present the same topics with my recorded audio and the same Tutorial material. As a freelance individual, he will need to charge a fee for this service. Those interested should contact him directly at: budeljesse@gmail.com
Barry Truax (truax@sfu.ca)
Professor Emeritus
Simon Fraser University
Journal of Sonic Studies: New issue online - Ethnographic rubbish
Guest Co-Editors: Jonathan Larcher and Heikki Wilenius
Additional contributors: Ernst Karel, Harsha Menon, Julie Métais, Sandro Simon, and Victor A. Stoichiță
What can be considered as a discarded recording in an ethnographic inquiry? Do the instabilities and technical errors that may occur in recordings show that technology is an inextricable part of the encounter of ethnographic situations? Furthermore, is there a limit beyond which a sound is too degraded so it can no longer be restored, and instead can only be described in writing, the preferred medium of the human sciences in general and anthropology in particular? The contributions – six written essays, one video essay, and one conversation – offer a range of answers to these three questions, proving that sonic rubbish is worthy of scholarly attention. By approaching the issue of failed or deficient ethnographical recordings from different perspectives and different subdisciplines in anthropology, the ensuing contributions critically engage with discarded audio materials and in so doing challenge the long-standing emphasis on clarity and precision in field recordings.
New Book review online
Earshot: Perspectives on Sound - Bruce Johnson. Milton: Routledge, 2023
Book review by Kevin Toksöz Fairbairn
New Book review online
Book review by Alexandra Supper
Journal of Sonic Studies – New issue online
Journal of Sonic Studies 26 – General issue
We are happy to present to you JSS26, a special issue with six contributions that offer the essential work and approaches of, or issues that are near and dear to, the ten authors who have submitted their papers to us outside of a thematic call. In celebration of the diversity of such a non-themed issue, we give you an overview of the themes presented in the following brief descriptions:
The concept of imaginery media is thought through by Andreas Helles Pedersen, using the case study of DR DJ, an unapproved proposal for music discovery that – it is proposed – has expanded the historical imagination of the digital music platform /Diskotekt.
The noise trio SHLUK – Sara Pinheiro, Jiří Rouš and Petr Zábrodský – take us on a journey investigating the relationship between noise and pollution, a journey in which the sounds of “noisy” and “quiet” places in Prague intertwine with theory and lead to the performance Hladiny.
Patryk Wasiak opens our ears to a fascinating time in state socialist Poland of the 1970s, with a listen into audiophilic discourse at the time and how that was part of a boom of High-Fidelity audio electronics manufacturing and nationwide modernization.
Marie Koldkjær Højlund, Anette Vandsø, and Morten Breinbjerg turn toward sensory citizenship in Denmark during the complete lockdown of March 2020, explicitly exploring how the attuning approach of sonic citizenship might add to the framework for soundscape research.
Henrik Frisk takes his long-time work with “creative” machines, developed in the artistic research project Goodbye Intuition, and addresses the questions this research has brought up through the practice of intuition – in the sense that Henri Bergson employs the word – explored as a possible method.
Finally, Franziska Schroeder’s audio paper takes us on a mediated, improvisatory, multi-sensory walk through the streets of Hanoi, intertwined with sound memories and reflections upon her ongoing engagement with Vietnam and her collaborations with local artists, citizens, and researchers.
Special thanks to all the authors who have contributed to this issue, and to all of you who are listening with us.
CfP - Espacios Resonantes: II Festival of Architecture, Sound and Listening
Santiago, Chile, March 15 - April 27, 2025
Open Call for Artist Residencies
Deadline: October 31, 2024
The festival invites national and international sound artists, architects, musicians, and researchers to participate in a 10-day residency in Santiago, Chile. During the residency, participants will create an in-situ sound performance to be showcased at the historic Quinta Bella underground water reservoir, located in the Recoleta district, on April 26-27th, 2025. A total of three projects will be selected.
Reception of applications: from October 01 to 31, 2024.
Announcement of results: November 15, 2024.
Residency period: April 17-27, 2025.
Festival presentations: April 26-27, 2025.
Terms & conditions + application form here
___
Open call for Ambisonics audio pieces
Deadline: November 30, 2024
The festival invites national and international sound artists, composers, and sound designers to present a spatialized sound audio piece in Ambisonics format. The selected works will be featured in the spatial audio installation Sonómetro at the GAM - Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center in Santiago, Chile, utilizing a 16.1 sound system.
Reception of applications: from October 1 to November 30, 2024.
Announcement of results: December 15, 2024.
Sonómetro presentations: March 15 to April 27, 2025.
Terms & conditions + application form here
Additional information from the venues in festival.espaciosresonantes.com
Contact: espaciosresonantes@gmail.com
Organized by Espacios Resonantes, sponsored by I. Municipality of Recoleta, Innova Recoleta and Centro Cultural GAM, financed by the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage, Chile.
CfP Sounds, Power, and African Knowledge
The deadline for submitting papers to the panel I, Nina Baratti, am coordinating with Cristina Sá Valentim (ICS-ULisboa) at the 12th IBERIAN CONGRESS OF AFRICAN STUDIES has been extended.
The panel, titled "African Sounds, Power and Knowledge: Potentialities, challenges and decolonial possibilities of historical sound archives on Africa", will take place during the congress in Barcelona, Spain, from January 29 to 31, 2025.
This is a reminder that we are now in the final days before the submission period closes on September 30th, 2024. We encourage you to submit your papers in any of the five languages of the conference: Catalan (CA), Spanish (ES), French (FR), English (EN), or Portuguese (PT).
For more details about the panel, please visit the link below:
https://redestudiosafricanos.org/en/panels/african-sounds-power-and-knowledge-potentialities-challenges-and-decolonial-possibilities-of-historical-sound-archives-on-africa/
We look forward to your contributions and hope to see you in Barcelona!
New Book review online
Book review by Marcel Cobussen
New Book review online
Unspooled: How the Cassette Made Music Shareable - Rob Drew. Durham: Duke University Press, 2024
Book review by Linnea Semmerling
Vacancy (in Dutch) – Artistic Director
November Music is op zoek naar een
Artistiek Directeur
(32 uur) (m/v/x)
Ben jij een gedreven muziekkenner met een scherp oor voor vernieuwing? Als onze Artistiek Directeur geef jij leiding aan ons artistieke team en creatieve gemeenschap. Ontdek en ondersteun talent, en realiseer met ons team en partners grote ambities.
Met het vertrek van onze toegewijde artistiek directeur en architect van ons artistieke erfgoed, ontstaat er binnen onze huidige koers een kans voor nieuwe werkwijzen en initiatieven. Je bent samen met de zakelijk directeur de drijvende kracht achter ons festival en bouwt voort op een stevig inhoudelijk fundament.
Aan de ene kant zoeken we iemand met sterke inhoudelijke muziekkennis en ervaring in het veld, die de diversiteit van muzikale stromingen begrijpt en kan integreren in het festivalprogramma. Aan de andere kant zoeken we een persoon die uitblinkt in teammanagement en het versterken van menselijk potentieel, die een inspirerende werkomgeving kan creëren waarin teamleden hun volledige potentieel kunnen benutten en effectief kunnen samenwerken. Hoewel je je dus verhoudt tot onze huidige ambities en ons meest recente beleidsplan, is er binnen deze rol is voldoende ruimte voor jouw eigen visie en creatieve aanpak om het festival verder te laten groeien en bloeien.
Jouw Verantwoordelijkheden:
- Strategisch leiderschap: Samen met de zakelijk directeur ontwikkel je de strategie en het beleid van November Music. Jouw artistieke visie zal de rode draad vormen voor ons toekomstige succes en positionering. Daarin ben je een inspirator voor het team, help je individuele potentie en onderlinge samenwerking te ontwikkelen.
- Externe vertegenwoordiging: Als ambassadeur van November Music vertegenwoordig je de stichting extern. Je bouwt voort op bestaande relaties, maar initieert ook nieuwe samenwerkingen met makers, musici en organisaties op internationaal, nationaal en regionaal niveau.
- Talentontwikkeling: Een essentieel onderdeel van jouw rol is het ontdekken, selecteren en coachen van talenten. Zo draag je bij aan de groei en vernieuwing van de hedendaagse muziekscene, zowel binnen als buiten Nederland.
- Budgetbeheer en programma: Je beheert het artistieke budget en bent eindverantwoordelijk voor het festivalprogramma. Samen met programmeurs en curatoren zorg je voor een eclectische mix van hedendaagse gecomponeerde muziek, jazz, new world music, muziektheater en grensverleggende genres.
- Samenwerking en netwerken: Je initieert en begeleidt artistieke samenwerkingen, zowel nationaal als internationaal.
November Music is een BIS-instelling en werkt met een kleine staf van toegewijde freelancers. De stichting kent vijf bestuurders en een tweekoppige directie. Het bestuursmodel is in transitie naar een raad van toezicht.
Solliciteren?
Ben je enthousiast over deze vacature en herken je jezelf in wie wij zoeken? Dan nodigen we je van harte uit om te solliciteren. De headhunters en recruiters van DDJ& begeleiden deze procedure en zijn ook verantwoordelijk voor de eerste screening. Wij streven met hen naar een zo eerlijk mogelijke beoordeling en gelijke kansen voor iedereen. Dat is ook de reden dat we kandidaten geen motivatiebrief vragen te schrijven, maar in plaats daarvan enkele praktijkvragen voorleggen.
Klik op de onderstaande link, upload je CV en je antwoorden op de vragen vóór donderdag 2 mei 2024. We zijn benieuwd naar je ideeën en aanpak. Mocht je worden uitgenodigd voor een kennismaking met de sollicitatiecommissie, noteer dan alvast deze momenten voor de beide gespreksrondes: donderdag 16 mei en woensdag 22 mei 2024. We hopen 1 juli, en uiterlijk 1 augustus onze nieuwe collega te mogen begroeten.
https://opportunities.dixon-dejaeger.com/o/november-music-artistiek-directeur/c/new
New Book review online
Book review by James G. Mansell
Abstract submissions are now open for the 5th. international Congress on Ambiances: Sensory Explorations, Ambiences in a Changing World
We are delighted to announce the 5th International Congress on Ambiances which is scheduled to take place from October 8 to 11 in 2 places !
One in Lisbon, Portugal, in collaboration with Lusófona University, and the other in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in partnership with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro).
This conference gathers scientific contributions from academics, practitioners, artists, and doctoral students engaged in the study of architectural and urban atmospheres. Together, they illuminate the diversity of themes and issues within this field, presenting the latest research, projects, and methodological approaches. Organized into thematic sessions and presentations, the 5th International Congress on Ambiances explores current concerns, debates, theories, policy issues, and cultural practices, drawing on multidisciplinary expertise from areas such as anthropology, architecture, landscape, computer science, cultural studies, design, engineering, geography, musicology, psychology, sociology, urban studies, and more.
We invite you to submit your abstracts in one of the 51 sessions, or outside sessions (noTopic) according to your interest. You can also offer an Interventions or organize a workshop
For Abstracts, prepare:
- a title,
- a text with a maximum of 500 words; and
- 5 keywords.
Access the Congress website for more information, follow the SUBMISSION link.
[In order to preserve the anonymity of peer review, do not send your abstracts by email, but rather to the platform indicated in the “SUBMISSION” button.]
DEADLINE FOA ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS
April 20, 2024
More information: http://www.ambiances2024.com
New Book review online
Book review by Will Schrimshaw
New Book review online
Book review by Cat Hope
Sawt, Bodies, Species. Sonic Pluralism in Morocco - Gilles Aubry. Hamburg: Adocs Verlag, 2023
Book review by Marcel Cobussen
Invitation from Barry Truax - Online octophonic course in Soundscape Composition
I would like to invite individuals who have access to an 8-channel sound system, along with teaching studios with the same format, to participate in my upcoming Special Topics course in Soundscape Composition this coming term, from January to April 2024.
The course will start Wednesday Jan. 10 and go through to April 3, with a weekly two and a half hour Zoom meeting starting at 10:30 Pacific time, which translates to 8 hours later in the UK/Portugal and 9 hours later in Central Europe. There will be a two week break in February (Feb. 14 & 21), so 11 meetings in total in which I will survey the theory, history and emerging practice of soundscape composition.
I regard the octophonic component as essential to understanding the potential of studio-based soundscape composition, and although the webinars will feature many stereo examples, I intend to play one or two 8-channel pieces each week. How that will work online is that each week, I will send out a download link for the files involved, and then they will be played at the appropriate time during the following webinar in each location simultaneously on your own system, with a real-time Spectrogram display from our studio on the Zoom monitor.
So, in summary, I am prepared to host and conduct a weekly webinar over 11 weeks, sometimes including guest composers. I will also prepare a package of supplementary readings related to soundscape composition that can also be easily downloaded in advance. In addition, the full resources of the WSP Database will be made available. There is no course fee.
In the case of participating studios, I will leave it entirely up to them as to who can take part in their studio, that is, whether they are treated as auditors or credit students and under what requirements. For individuals who have their own 8-channel access, they can join the Zoom meetings individually, and receive their own copies of the readings and soundfiles.
Those individuals who do not have multi-channel access are probably best advised to wait for the next online Tutorial course starting in May that will depend only on stereo sound examples. However, those wanting to audit this course just in stereo will be welcomed. Those wanting academic credit for the course need to arrange this with your home institution.
I have a provisional course outline with most of the specifics which I will send to anyone who is interested.
Looking forward to your response
Barry Truax (truax@sfu.ca), Professor Emeritus
Book review by Jean-Baptiste Masson
New book on film sound by Martine Huvenne
The Audiovisual Chord: Embodied Listening in Film – Martine Huvenne
This book is a phenomenological approach to film sound and film as a whole, bringing all sensory impressions together within the body as a sense of movement. This includes embodied listening, felt sound and the audiovisual chord as a dynamic knot of visual and auditory movements. From this perspective, auditory spaces in film can be used as a pivot between an inner and an external world.
Dr. Martine Huvenne retired after a career teaching and researching in the audiovisual field. She was a senior lecturer in Sound and Music for Film at the Kask & Conservatorium (Hogent-Howest), Belgium, where she developed a phenomenological approach to music and listening.