Towards the Possibility of Sound Epistemologies:
What We Talk about When We Talk about Sound and Music
What We Talk about When We Talk about Sound and Music
Format: on Shaninka campus and online
Language: Russian, English
Moderators: Maxim Zhiganov (HSE postgraduate student), Anna Ganzha (HSE associate professor), Sam Kondrin (HSE student, Philipps-Universität Marburg student), Arsenii Nikonov (HSE postgraduate student)
Language: Russian, English
Moderators: Maxim Zhiganov (HSE postgraduate student), Anna Ganzha (HSE associate professor), Sam Kondrin (HSE student, Philipps-Universität Marburg student), Arsenii Nikonov (HSE postgraduate student)
Abstract
Research on sound and music after the so-called sensory turn began to develop with particular intensity in the 1990s, compelling a forced renewal of the language and framework of musicological descriptions. The lines shaping the studies of noise, sound, silence, quiet, voice, listening, and the boundaries of music began to intertwine in complex ways, simultaneously diversifying and forming distinct epistemic regions with their own analytical tools. An especially notable phenomenon is the invasion of new theoretical conventions into practical domains, where the musical post-avant-garde, new sound cartographies, and digital sound ethnographies began to converge and qualitatively respond to complex theories of the sonic sphere.
These enclaves of research—of phenomenological, critical, cognitive, technological, historical-environmental, and social orientation—have, since the mid-2000s, on the one hand, moved away from each other and, on the other, spontaneously converged in broader studies of sound and voice. The paradox lies in the fact that representatives of each of these areas not only remain unaware of the existence of competing fields and the scale of the intellectual work already accomplished, but also fail to recognize the alternative and complementary domains investigating sound and music. This has created a unique epistemological configuration, aptly described by Michel Foucault (2004): «The different works, the individual books, the vast mass of texts that belong to a single discursive formation, and the great number of authors, known or unknown to each other, criticizing, refuting, copying from each other, without consultation arriving at identical conclusions, obstinately weaving their isolated discourses into an unbroken fabric, over which they have no control, whose totality they cannot see, and whose breadth escapes their imagination.» (pp. 243–244).
Our penal aims to attempt an overview of this field as a whole, focusing on the epistemologies of the sonic and musical spheres. We welcome both theoretical and empirical papers.
As a research guide for the papers, the following questions may serve as points of reference: how is knowledge about sound constructed? is it possible to connect music and sound within the same ontological field? who acts as the agent of sonic knowledge production? are the categories of understanding and meaning applicable as tools of sonic epistemologies? should the music sciences abandon part of their outdated language? what do we know about sound, and what do we know through sound? how should «meta-knowledge,» which unites the practical and theoretical into a coherent whole, be organized, and are there epistemic risks in doing so? how can sound be translated into the humanities without losing the original object in the process?
These enclaves of research—of phenomenological, critical, cognitive, technological, historical-environmental, and social orientation—have, since the mid-2000s, on the one hand, moved away from each other and, on the other, spontaneously converged in broader studies of sound and voice. The paradox lies in the fact that representatives of each of these areas not only remain unaware of the existence of competing fields and the scale of the intellectual work already accomplished, but also fail to recognize the alternative and complementary domains investigating sound and music. This has created a unique epistemological configuration, aptly described by Michel Foucault (2004): «The different works, the individual books, the vast mass of texts that belong to a single discursive formation, and the great number of authors, known or unknown to each other, criticizing, refuting, copying from each other, without consultation arriving at identical conclusions, obstinately weaving their isolated discourses into an unbroken fabric, over which they have no control, whose totality they cannot see, and whose breadth escapes their imagination.» (pp. 243–244).
Our penal aims to attempt an overview of this field as a whole, focusing on the epistemologies of the sonic and musical spheres. We welcome both theoretical and empirical papers.
As a research guide for the papers, the following questions may serve as points of reference: how is knowledge about sound constructed? is it possible to connect music and sound within the same ontological field? who acts as the agent of sonic knowledge production? are the categories of understanding and meaning applicable as tools of sonic epistemologies? should the music sciences abandon part of their outdated language? what do we know about sound, and what do we know through sound? how should «meta-knowledge,» which unites the practical and theoretical into a coherent whole, be organized, and are there epistemic risks in doing so? how can sound be translated into the humanities without losing the original object in the process?
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Main topics
- Contemporary listening practices: streaming, snippets, playlists.
- Soundscapes and audiocultures.
- The experimental realm: studying sound in art practices.
- The sonic space of literature, theater, and cinema.
- Technologies, materiality, and sonic skills.
- Voice: ethnography, psychoanalysis, political agency.
- Sonic inclusion in urban spaces.
- Sound and music from the perspective of cultural studies and sociology.
Keynote speakers
- Holger Schulze, Dr. habil. in Cultural Theory and Cultural History, Professor of Musicology (University of Copenhagen). Editor of numerous journals and collective monographs on sound studies, author of books on the anthropology of sound, sound design, and sound art, founder of the first Master's program in sound studies in Europe.
- Robin James, PhD in Philosophy, editor for Media, Communications/Rhetoric, and Music/Sound/Audio Media Studies at Palgrave Macmillan. Until 2022, Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.
- Andrey Logutov, PhD in Philology, sound researcher, guest editor of a special issue on sound studies in the journal New Literary Observer, translator, Department of German Literature and Aesthetic Theory at Goethe University (Frankfurt am Main).
- Evgeny Bylina, сultural theory and sound researcher, musician, editor of the History of Sound series at New Literary Observer.
- Nikita Safonov, PhD student at the European University at St. Petersburg, sound researcher, translato.
- Valeria Kononchuk, senior researcher at V–A–C and GES-2, cultural scholar, curator. Member of the editorial board of Art Journal. Lecturer and seminar leader at the Baza institute.
- Daniil Nebolsin, PhD in Philosophy, cultural researcher, lecturer at the School of Philosophy and Cultural Studies at HSE University, artist.
- Anatoly Ryasov, PhD in Political Sciences, researcher of sound and literature, writer, sound engineer, author of the book Barely Audible Hum (published by New Literary Observer).
- Michel Chion, composer, sound theorist, and author of the book Sound: An Acoulogical Treatise (translated by New Literary Observer).
- Alexandra Kolesnik, PhD in History, researcher at the University of Bielefeld and the Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research - ZfL Berlin.
- Viktor Vakhshtayn*, PhD in Sociology, Research Fellow at Ariel University (Israel).
- Christoph Cox, PhD in History of Consciousness, Executive Dean at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at The New School (New York). Philosopher, cultural theorist, and curator of audiovisual arts, author of the book Sonic Flux (translated by New Literary Observer).
*Recognized by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation as an individual acting as a foreign agent.
Apply
The application form includes the name of the speaker, Institution, topic of the report and an abstract (up to 500 words).
Participants should send these data to sound.vectors2025@gmail.com.
Applications for participation in the conference will be accepted
until 28 February.
*We have simplified the process of preparing the conference proceedings. To publish your work, please send an extended abstract to the email address of your panel's organizers and indicate your intention to publish in the email. Please note that submissions will undergo a selection process, more details at the following link.
Participants should send these data to sound.vectors2025@gmail.com.
Applications for participation in the conference will be accepted
until 28 February.
*We have simplified the process of preparing the conference proceedings. To publish your work, please send an extended abstract to the email address of your panel's organizers and indicate your intention to publish in the email. Please note that submissions will undergo a selection process, more details at the following link.
Контакты
vectors@universitas.ru
Газетный пер., 3/5с1, Москва