Sound culture
Encyclopedia
SoundCulture is also an international organisation of artists, theorists and performers with a common interest to promote and develop the sonic arts.
Sound culture is an interdisciplinary field of studies which considers "the material production and consumption of music, sound, noise and silence, and how these have changed throughout history and within different societies, but does this from a much broader perspective than standard disciplines"
Sound culture differs from traditional academic fields such as sociology
of music, ethnomusicology
and history of music
because it adopts a much broader perspective on music and sounds in the social world. Especially sound studies are interested in the connection between the development of the highly complex contemporary society and the ways people developed in order to manage and rearrange objects, discourses and practices involved in the listening acts.
A strong role in developing the sound studies is played on the one hand by the field of science and technology studies
(cf. social construction of technology
) inside which a clear definition of the field has been presented in the special issue of the academic journal "Social Studies of Science", nr. 34\5 (October 2004). On the other hand the approach of a cultural anthropology
of sound (as proposed by Veit Erlmann and Holger Schulze) has currently a strong influence in shaping the basic terminology and research method of the sound studies: "Historical anthropology of sound and the senses implies a cultural critique from the side of experience and corporeality. [...] Besides the sensory body of emitted sound and the sensory body of the historical listeners – there is the sensory body of the researcher as a (hopefully) sensible creature."
Sound culture is an interdisciplinary field of studies which considers "the material production and consumption of music, sound, noise and silence, and how these have changed throughout history and within different societies, but does this from a much broader perspective than standard disciplines"
Sound culture differs from traditional academic fields such as sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
of music, ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...
and history of music
History of music
Music is found in every known culture, past and present, varying wildly between times and places. Around 50,000 years ago, early modern humans began to disperse from Africa, reaching all the habitable continents...
because it adopts a much broader perspective on music and sounds in the social world. Especially sound studies are interested in the connection between the development of the highly complex contemporary society and the ways people developed in order to manage and rearrange objects, discourses and practices involved in the listening acts.
A strong role in developing the sound studies is played on the one hand by the field of science and technology studies
Science and technology studies
Science, technology and society is the study of how social, political, and cultural values affect scientific research and technological innovation, and how these, in turn, affect society, politics and culture...
(cf. social construction of technology
Social construction of technology
Social construction of technology is a theory within the field of Science and Technology Studies. Advocates of SCOT -- that is, social constructivists -- argue that technology does not determine human action, but that rather, human action shapes technology...
) inside which a clear definition of the field has been presented in the special issue of the academic journal "Social Studies of Science", nr. 34\5 (October 2004). On the other hand the approach of a cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans, collecting data about the impact of global economic and political processes on local cultural realities. Anthropologists use a variety of methods, including participant observation,...
of sound (as proposed by Veit Erlmann and Holger Schulze) has currently a strong influence in shaping the basic terminology and research method of the sound studies: "Historical anthropology of sound and the senses implies a cultural critique from the side of experience and corporeality. [...] Besides the sensory body of emitted sound and the sensory body of the historical listeners – there is the sensory body of the researcher as a (hopefully) sensible creature."
Further reading
- R. Murray SchaferR. Murray SchaferRaymond Murray Schafer is a Canadian composer, writer, music educator and environmentalist perhaps best known for his World Soundscape Project, concern for acoustic ecology, and his book The Tuning of the World...
(1977), The Tuning of the World, (considered as the first contribution in sound studies.) - Michael Doucet (1983), "Space, Sound, Culture, and Politics: Radio Broadcasting in Southern Ontario". Canadian Geographer / Le Géographe canadienVolume 27, Issue 2, pages 109–127, June 1983, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1541-0064.1983.tb01467.x/abstract
- Jacques AttaliJacques AttaliJacques Attali is a French economist, writer and senior civil servant.Former adviser to President François Mitterrand and first president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, he founded the non-profit organization PlaNet Finance and was nominated President of the Commission for...
(1985), Noise: The Political Economy of Music - John Potts (1997), "Is There a Sound Culture?", Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, December 1997, vol. 3 no. 4, pp. 10–14
- Trevor PinchTrevor PinchTrevor J. Pinch is a sociologist and former chair of the Science and Technology Studies department at Cornell University.Pinch has a degree in Physics from the Imperial College London and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Bath...
and Frank Trocco (2002), Analog Days - Emily Thompson (2002), The Soundscape of Modernity
- Jonathan Sterne (2003), The Audible Past
- Peter SzendyPeter SzendyPeter Szendy is a French philosopher and musicologist.His Écoute, une histoire de nos oreilles , with a preface by Jean-Luc Nancy, has been translated into Spanish and English...
(2007), Listen, A History of Our Ears (the original French version, Ecoute, une histoire de nos oreilles, was published in 2001) - Michele Hilmes (2005), "Is There a Field Called Sound Culture Studies? And Does It Matter?", American Quarterly, Volume 57, Number 1, March 2005, pp. 249–259, http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/american_quarterly/v057/57.1hilmes.html
- Holger Schulze & Christoph WulfChristoph WulfChristoph Wulf, Dr. phil., and co-founder of the Interdisciplinary Center for Historical Anthropology at the . Member of the International Research Training Group "", of the Collaborative Research Center "" and the Cluster of Excellence "" at the Freie Universität Berlin; professor honoris causa,...
(2007), Klanganthropologie - Holger Schulze (2008), Sound Studies
- special issue on "The Politics of Recorded Sound" by Social Text 102 (2010), edited by Gustavus Stadler.
- Veit Erlmann (2010), Reason and Resonance
- Trevor PinchTrevor PinchTrevor J. Pinch is a sociologist and former chair of the Science and Technology Studies department at Cornell University.Pinch has a degree in Physics from the Imperial College London and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Bath...
& Karin Bijsterveld (2011), Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies
External links
- A syllabus from a graduate seminar on Sound Studies taught by Jonathan Sterne in the fall of 2006.
- Weird Vibrations, a sound studies blog.
- Sounding Out!, a sound studies blog
- Anthropology of Sound, a sound studies blog
- Master of Arts: Sound Studies, study Sound Studies at the University of Arts Berlin