APC to host second sound studies workshop

The Archive and Public Culture research initiative will be hosting a second workshop in the field of sound studies, to be led by APC research fellow Dr Anette Hoffmann on 6, 7 and 8 March from 9 am to 1 pm each day. The workshop is designed as a continuation of the conversations and discussions that emerged during the workshop sound/archive/voice/object in 2012.

This time, the series of readings move away from sounding 'objects' (early phonographic recordings) and archives. Instead, they have been selected as a basis for an engagement with recurring topics and questions of the last meeting as well as themes that are pertinent to the research of many of the participants listening, 'earwitnessing' and radio.

Again the workshop will offer a reader, consisting of a selection of texts, and sound examples. This time, the acoustic snippets will be chosen by some of the participants (of the last workshop): Renate Meyer, director of the Centre for Popular Memory, composer Philip Miller and sound artist James Webb.

The readings traverse several fields and periods. Fromlistening as a technique and cultural practice (and glimpses of its histories), we move to several (excerpts of) texts on radio in Africa and beyond, as well as to the question of earwitnessing, which includes interrogating the question of whether, or not 'earwitnessing' is a useful concept.

The readers will be ready 10 days in advance. You do not have to have attended the first workshop in order to participate in the second. To sign up for the workshop, please contact Anette Hoffmann anetteh3@gmail.com; before February 20.