Upcoming workshop: Sound/archive/voice/object
The workshop, sound/archive/voice /object, offers an introduction into the aural aspect of the colonial archives by means of reading and discussing a selection of key texts on the production of voice recordings, the preservation of sound, the status and potential of the (acousmatic) voice in regard of the production of knowledge, as well as how 'native voices' became archival objects, which relates to the colonial beginnings of comparative musicology.
Recent years have seen a virtual explosion of scholarly works on sound and the aural realm; sound studies have been introduced into the syllabuses of universities, and became the topic of several conferences and publications. What is now called Sound Studies, and sound history, is the attempt to engage with sound, voice, noise and silence beyond the scope of musicology.
Scholars have begun to listen more carefully and investigate ethnographies and histories of hearing, voice, and resonating soundscapes. Sound Studies seek to analyse cultural practices that create audiences, ways of hearing and listening, the production of music and sound, and its repercussions in the social world as well as the relation between the aural and the visual.
This is a relatively young field in the academy and the history of aural archives - for instance that of colonial recordings of voices and music - is yet to be explored. The Archive and Public Culture research initiative plans a longer-term investment in the area of sound studies. This pilot workshop, that is open to graduate students and researchers, is a first move towards the research on sound collections and archives at APC.
To sign up for the workshop, please contact Anette Hoffmann <anetteh3@gmail.com> before 30 July, 2012.