Sound and Technology

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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 at https://www.chstm.org/user

Respectful Behavior Policy

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.

 

Upcoming Meetings

There are no currently scheduled upcoming events.

Past Meetings

  • May 16, 2024

    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.
     
  • April 18, 2024

    We'll discuss the Introduction and Chapter 3 of Deirdre Loughridge's Sounding Human (Chicago University Press, 2023).
  • March 21, 2024

    We'll discuss the Introduction and Chapter 1 of Eric Drott's Streaming Music, Streaming Capital (Duke University Press, 2024).
  • February 15, 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).
  • January 18, 2024

    We'll discuss a draft of Max Bridge's article "Whale Song Becomes a Signal: Revisionist Histories of Humpback Voice Science, 1941-1985."
  • November 16, 2023

    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
  • October 19, 2023

    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
     
  • September 28, 2023

    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/
     
     
  • May 18, 2023

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

    We'll be discussing chapter 1, Improbable miracles.
  • April 20, 2023

    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."