Sound Studies

The course introduces Sound Studies as a discipline that explores the multiple end dynamic meanings of sounds. Traditionally sound is seen as a medium for signification: the content of a radio program is the spoken word, and the content of music is musical form or structure. Sound Studies go beyond the paradigm of medium/content to reflect how sonic experiences are codified and interpreted at different cultural, discursive and historical moments. How do voice qualities and timbre produce meanings in different contexts? How can a sonic environment or a soundscape be experienced as meaningful respectively noisy?

Sound Studies are open to historical or cross-cultural investigations as well as to exploratory investigations of sound in contemporary culture. It puts emphasis on developing skills in analyzing of, reflecting in and communicating through sound.

The course incorporates video tutorials as well as interactive texts and assignments, where students are encouraged to use audio technologies. It draws in open access texts from established journals in the field and The Sound Studies Reader (ed. Jonathan Sterne, 2012), which students are recommended to acquire. Though being embedded within a multimodal field of resources and practices, Sound Studies privileges sound resources as well as methods that will allow learners to work beyond transcripts, thus introducing to sound as an artistic, cultural and meaning making field of its own.

The goal of the Sound Studies course is to equip you with basic knowledge and skills to deal with these opportunities.