The proposed Sound and Technology working group is concerned with the a focus on scholarship coming from history of technology and science towards a history of sonic technocultures. This group welcomes scholars interested in sound and sound technology from all time periods, though the group’s reading and writing will focus on cases, debates, and actors that engage the conditions of sound’s technological reproducibility since the late 19th century. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the topic, relevant studies have been fragmented across a variety of fields within the humanities, arts, social sciences, engineering, acoustics, and the sciences. This working group will work across these disciplines to collectively interpret sources and commentary that share an interest in sound.
 
Group Conveners:
Eamonn Bell
Brian Miller
Magnus Schaefer

Please set your timezone

Participants at Consortium activities will treat each other with respect and consideration to create a collegial, inclusive, and professional environment that is free from any form of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation.

Participants will avoid any inappropriate actions or statements based on individual characteristics such as age, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, nationality, political affiliation, ability status, educational background, or any other characteristic protected by law. Disruptive or harassing behavior of any kind will not be tolerated. Harassment includes but is not limited to inappropriate or intimidating behavior and language, unwelcome jokes or comments, unwanted touching or attention, offensive images, photography without permission, and stalking.

Participants may send reports or concerns about violations of this policy to conduct@chstm.org.

Past Meetings

-

We'll discuss the Preface (All Patched Up) and Chapter 9 (Grid Culture) from Modular Synthesis: Patching Machines and People, ed. by Ezra J. Teboul, Andreas Kitzmann, and Einar Engström (https://www.routledge.com/Modular-Synthesis-Patching-Machines-and-People...).
 
Please note that we will reschedule the meeting with Christopher Haworth for later this year.
 

-

We'll discuss the Introduction and Chapter 3 of Deirdre Loughridge's Sounding Human (Chicago University Press, 2023).

-

We'll discuss the Introduction and Chapter 1 of Eric Drott's Streaming Music, Streaming Capital (Duke University Press, 2024).

-

We'll discuss the introduction and Chapter 10 ("Neural Syntheses") from You Nakai, Reminded by the Instruments: David Tudor’s Music (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021).

-

We'll discuss a draft of Max Bridge's article "Whale Song Becomes a Signal: Revisionist Histories of Humpback Voice Science, 1941-1985."

-

We'll discuss Joe Snape and Georgina Born, "Max, Music Software and the Mutual Mediation of Aesthetics
and Digital Technologies" from Georgina Born (ed.), Music and Digital Media: A Planetary Anthropology
https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/187643

-

We'll read and discuss chapters 1 and 4 from Viktoria Tkaczyk's book Thinking with Sound: A New Program in the Sciences and Humanities around 1900
 

-

We'll discuss the introduction and Chapter 4 from Michele Friedner. Sensory Futures: Deafness and Cochlear Implant Infrastructures in India. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2022.
The book is open access and available here: https://muse.jhu.edu/book/101002%20/
 
 

-

Virdi, J. (2020). Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History. University of Chicago Press.
 

We'll be discussing chapter 1, Improbable miracles.

-

Noah Kahrs - PhD candidate, University of Rochester
Chapter title: "Electronic Music’s Separation of Acoustics from Tonality" from a dissertation currently titled: "Composing (with) Theories of Acoustics and Pitch Perception after 1950."

-

Kelli Smith-Biwer (UNC)
Dissertation chapter 2:  Tangled Technologies: Audio Cables and Midcentury Scientific Masculinity

-

We'll discuss the introduction and first chapter of Fanny Gribenski's new book, Tuning the World: The Rise of 440 Hertz in Music, Science, and Politics, 1859–1955 (Chicago, 2023).
 

-

We'll discuss the Intro and Chapter 1 of Computing Taste: Algorithms and the Makers of Music Recommendation by Nick Seaver (Chicago Press, 2022).

-

We'll be discussing

McCray, Patrick. 2020. Making Art Work: How Cold War Engineers and Artists Forged a New Creative Culture. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

 

-

We'll be discussing a chapter from Katherine McKittrick's 2021 book Dear Science, "(Zong) Bad Made Measure" (pp125-150).
Magnus Schaeffer will be joining back as discussant!
 

 

 

-

we'll be discussing Cecchetto, David. Listening in the Afterlife of Data: Aesthetics, Pragmatics, and Incommunication.

-

We'll be discussing chapter 4 from
Sterne, Jonathan. 2021. Diminished Faculties: A Political Phenomenology of Impairment. Duke University Press.

-

Guest: Dr. Sarah Fuchs. Assistant Professor of Music History and Cultures (Syracuse University)
We'll be discussing an excerpt from Dr. Fuchs's current book project, with the working title Operatic Artifacts: Opera, Archives, and Audio-Visual Media in Paris and the Provinces.
 
The text for Chapter 4, "Opera and orthophonie in the Laboratoire de la Parole" is attached.
 
We'll briefly introduce the visitor, begin with introductory remarks on the reading, then discuss participants' questions and other topics of interest to the visitor as appropriate.
 
All are welcome!

-

Guest visit: Dr. Mara Mills (Media, Culture and Communication, NYU / personal website)
We'll be discussing Dr. Mills' recent presentation, "Everything is a filter? George Campbell and the development of the electrical filter in the Bell System (1903-1915)."
A link to the lecture is included in the pdf for the meeting.
This will be moderated by Magnus Schaeffer, Ph.D. student in Media and Communication at McGill University.
We'll briefly introduce the visitor, begin with introductory remarks on the reading, then discuss participants' questions as well as topics of interest to the visitor as appropriate.
All are welcome!

-

Guest: Dr. Peter Sachs Collopy (University Archivist and Head of Archives and Special Collections, California Institute of Technology; personal website)
We'll be discussing Dr. Collopy's essay, "When Computer Animation Was Analog: Scanimate and the Work of Image Processing."
This session will be moderated by Dr. Ted Gordon, professor of Music at Baruch College.
All are welcome!
 
 

Group Conveners

138 Members

You must be a member to view resources. Create an account or login to join group.