Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • Sterne SoundStudiesReader PDF

    Uploaded by

    Javier Ampuero Albarracín
    7 views19 pages

    Original Title

    Sterne-SoundStudiesReader.pdf

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    7 views19 pages

    Sterne SoundStudiesReader PDF

    Uploaded by

    Javier Ampuero Albarracín

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 19
    The Sound Studies Reader ted by Jonathan Sterne R feeder, tpi a2 nol hor on Pe, Adin, Onn X4 ARN Sima pid he USA Cae byron Thi or 07 aa en pi of rc a fn es 1 2012 ur ncn mae tan Sina cater corr ‘here emda Serco eed eto of te work ben sere ht cri it pra ne ‘Align oer. No pf bock nye pad eed or wd a tyre era cs meal oor mn tw noe bra ‘Srl, ang ppg an erg rian ae ‘lee ar rn gem abo nla te Prado srponta nang domo gr ‘lose cl onl renin nd exponent Sites ec gy an i Dae ‘olga edb a om Reh ey ey 9 gre Clg Pe ata “Ta ten cease Sur, large eat nn SomdReeingsne repose Mio 2Samd—Recdng seteeay_Salspm Sherng Lenny Loe sayismosis7306 hy Ison pioste77003 GA) 1 eet Land py Salle Pine an bound by CP Group (UK) Lx, Croydon, CRO-YY chapter a Jonathan Sterne SONIC IMAGINATIONS* ACCORDING TO JACQUES ATTAL, he oer eis nd telong to the gids? With over 5.3 bln mabile phones now Ino that power now belonge to mos f humanity We lve in 3 warldwhowe sone texte constant manfarming, ands been for centres, New, neer-befoe-hard sounds ie ringtnes enter and leave every es the eoureo' few years Now process for maniplating, ranforming snd working with sound come and go in the space of| decades, But hiss not jst x condition of fate modernity Pato purged Mais and fresmakers om hie ie stat; 17Hh-centary Londoners complied of the new oles filing ther cley—"he that loves nee mat by pg"—and people psitons ‘ofpowerall oer 1h cantar Eerope were 0 worked up about he diferent tancarde Sor orchenal ning that my counties pase ls to resnve the problem, Like ‘those autor, we might imagine that our changing sate offs erupts ome pier, ‘mare arginie and dependable sie world Butt ny be more socrate to ny tha ‘mort times and places, onc culture is caraceried by the tensions held within is ciigurstion of iferenee and samenes, If you can, tke «goed long lite wound you—fora few das Whether a not you can ie yourself, conser what oters re bearing How many ofthe sounds in every Ie exited ten ears ago? Twenty Try? Tiy? That jot he sounder what ofthe contexts in wich they happen, he ways cof bearing or not henring anced to them, the practices, people ad actions ‘soc with them? Now think of what the previous peneraton of sounds mt have replaced, and what thore sounds and thee worlds replaced fn turn. In cis smal ‘veri, you loa generations ofillcil, who ave ted theese she sonleabspace around thm, ken stock oft and reacted to the changes they hard. “Arsonic words have change, so 10 hive the conoeptalistractes writers ave built to hold ther. Toy there a hoor in writing on sound by author in ‘he humanities and socal cence, whose work edistngsshed by e-conacioumess oft place ina larger nterdaciplinarydncuion of sound. Dozens of monographs fon one or another aspect of sonic culture hive appeared since the ely 1590, 2 JouATHAN sreRNe alongside countless joural arses, ook chapter, nd a growing lit of anthologies {one need only lok over the dates in many of the authors" bliographis to see i). Major itarduipliary journals leaing ourrale in older pines have devoted spoil ates o soi Profesional astocitions i almost every eld ofthe human sciences have devoted panel o sound la one form of another and some ow have sound-relted dvsion o iter roaps. New thematic conferences on snd pop ‘peach year* ‘Sound wade ba name forthe interdiiplinary ferment i the human scences that aks snd ait amalytealpoin of doprtue oar. By analyzing both onic ‘practices and the courses and iene that describe therm, i redevertbes what ound does the haman word, and whit humans doin the sonic world (Lay Iedecriber rer than describe becuse good scholarship awaye goes beyond the ‘common-sense eategories ued in everyday descriptive language iter hat we don't already now), Ie reaches scot registers, soments and apace, and chinks ‘ross diciplins and lone, some that have long considered sound, and rome ‘thathave net done so uns more recently. Sound studies i acae, but tan also ‘move beyond the univer. It ean begs fom obviously sonic phenomens like speech, hearing, sound technologies, architect, st oF mis, Bu does no have 10, Keay think sonically a Se noes underwater, tough the laboratory aint the Jnl of governments considers religion or nationalisms oi and new explores ces ‘ares with the history of phlosoply, erature or Sess or critiques rlone of power, property or intrsebjeciy ec global phenomenon at well: Work that {etf-concny defines tei sd sides hs now appeared in kaghs, Geran, Dutch, French, lllan, Portuguese, panes, Koreas, Hebrew and Span among other langage. Tes tempting to all sound sue response to ou changing sonic Workd—and ft that. But so have boon many other important tlle! movements wound Scud nthe 200 century: when WEB, Da Bols wanted to rethink he rle af ace in American if, he turned so sound a key modality for thinking through Aftcan ‘American clare: efor each thought ht have writen nh book ave et prt, Iauntngechoof thee weirdo wong which he ul ofthc ae ‘poke women --] etn ry of he sven today not ‘lop the ce tere ne, bt a the at bens expreon furan experince born the ofthe eb bee gtd as ben, and ff deped, and above all it hasbeen pertenty skater and minnderood; bat not widandng, feel remag fhe snglr spiral ertage of the nation andthe rests git of he Negro peop? ‘Other canonical writers were quick to highlight new round media acing into question the very bass of experince and existence, For Martin Heidegger in 1827, radio lfcted a "de-dinancng frit Inteners, "by way of expanding and destroying the everyday surounding rl.” For Sigmand Freud ia 1923, sound recoding allowed for the retenon of lectin” auditory memories Sowic1magiNaTioNs 3 Avant garde muscins artis nd writers ave throughout the century tured o> change in soni calue se basis fr broad pilrophilrellecons. In the 1950s, 41960 and 1970s, writers turning to sound in plosophy, estes and design potned io Mtrial change asthe bats fr their sone interes, Writers ‘hring the 1980s sd 1990s rethinking what tmeant osady music tured round tnd technology a a way of making sense of massive changes hat bad happened to ‘ular over the previous daeades "To think snialy to ink conjanctrally abot sound and culture: cach ofthe writers Ive quoted above used sound tek big quertione about thelr cata moments andthe ers and problems of thee time Sound sud’ challenge ito this scrost sounds, to consider sonic phenomena in relatianship to one apother—ar ype of sie phenomene rater than ot tinge thenshs—whether they be muss, vices ening, mes, buildings, performances, ‘oranothr other path int soni ie ‘Aza body f thought, sound studs today i certainly an intellectual enson to “anges in elesre and tecnlogy, jst sealer modalities of soni thought were Butt also a product of anges a thought and the organieaton of the dicipines, Justa work on visual alae pd materia alr took off when writers in elds ike srt try, Merture, clr ede, history, anthropology, and any other ele realized hat thy were all working on related probleme and would benef from ak {ng with anther, too has sound studies arisen from the same feleneed shut no one Sel’ approad to or ake a sound enough Tis ambigly extend on down othe name forthe Bed. fet sound studies or the tidy of sound cxlare, sone estar, adler etre or ara caltre As Sichele Hllmes put the ready Of 05D, "ale aan ‘emerging Sl for the at hundred year, exis tong tendency to remain that way, aways emerging, never emerged." Sound studies does, however, aw arch nd growing scholarly erature, large numberof professors and gradi te sedents working nthe re, a growing presence in the curicul of any eld, allof which increasingly influene writers whore work may toch on sonic ies (oF ‘¥en oni gts) even though the primary concer ent soured. Thi ender lee the ope tt wll makes wel contribution tal the popltons. ‘Wenced anime for peopl whe do sound eee {propose und wudent, Since ‘he field a es known ody has oot afer 1945, ound student arena steely speaking -ocophersologiets or -ogapher. In ht 1997 stack on clr ste, ‘odd Gin uted the plate ‘clue student?” to describe practitioners of the eld the coinage was probably not intended generouly, ang procetioners of “eras fieldeadon isa lovely sd pring tir of phrase, and adapt there, Student has meant *2 persn who is engaged in or addicted to sty, sexlente tndergo course of study, they are atcclated with educattonal ination, dey have teacher sn they always have mare tolearn.* Mostsound dents are alo vrething ‘le: historians, philosophers, musiologiss, anthropologists, Merary cries, art historian, geographer, or resident of one of the many other postwar tie” felde—media suder,dlablty studies, cnema suds, cultral tudes, gender stu, sence and technology sides, postolonal ses, communion sae, queer mies, Amerian dies and on aad on. Sound tants produce and transform knowledge about ound and in the process ‘eflesively attend to the (cata, plia, eavzonmental aesteti. ..) sakes of 4 JONATHAN STERNE that knowledge production, By ees, I refer to srgumens developed by Pierre Bouries snd Denna Harry Both angie tha knowers mt plce themselves in relaon to what hey wan to know: they mst account fr thelr ov postions ‘ed prejuies, lest acholare latte them a gules ofthe object of study This ‘eins that fe we concept avn from the stay f human auditory pereepton, ‘we must acount fer thehistorcy ofthat owledge eather han simply saying "hit Iehow your es work 2 if he ear i the same i al tunes and places). Bat i also ena we mu eschew whata college of mine once called "the crit use ofthe ‘cite where the imperative wo ertiqu overtakas the eta fut tel, Haray Timounly wed vision metaphors to describe perspective ar a constutve featire of epistemology, but one could we audio jee eal Depending onthe poston tng of heres,» space may sound toy dierent. F you hear the sre Sound In to diferent spaces, you may aot even Yeognze ita the sume sound. Heating regres positional, ‘Abroad iranadcpinary carts and an warenes of partiality —even when it 1s pred with grestmpecnstive ambition are the mot inportant dein charc verse diferences between people who tink of derslvs as sound students, and people who think of themselves as sound sien, sound artists, sound engineer, found smheopologiss, sound cites, sound historians or for that matter paychor ‘couicans,souicane and linguist Te lt could go a, though ofcourse here ‘an be trafic song ll dese categories and it would be imposible to draw define lies between tem. But the diference bere sound sules and thse other fields iat they don't rere engagement with alernave epstemologes, methods cor approaches However wonderfully audacious sound ident cn make our work, emus also ‘be grounded in rete oft owm parsley, st authors and readers inowledge tat all the key term we might se to desrbe and analyze sound belong to muliple ‘uudione, and are under debate, Sound tadents protlematine sound and the Phenomena sound, aeudg thelr own intllecual dtins. Sound sds san Intellect exer, one hat forthe moments most grounded in adem, though ‘erainly nowacudemies produce fiscaating work about round all the time, 3d ‘ound students can and sbould move beyond the academy to try ad fleet change in ‘he word, Sound sais work s written and spoken Although it ean also be imaged ‘nd sounded, is fmdarentally a verbal protce boca i cbout sound (ough ‘merging practice of digital publication aller scholars opportunites to find new maya to fiapore wore and round, the analyse and the objects of anal) Collectively we think about sound through reading shout it Istening tit, contemplating it wetng and aking about it and working witht. OF course, some of he selection inthis reader conadice what's these aspirational paragraphs, but that the pont, Sound edie names ast of share itll sprains; 2 2 ddzeret we of objects, methods or the space betwean them. We might condense my lesripcon of sound studies ike di” “© Sound staiesian academic fed in the himaniies and soci weno defied by combination of object and approach, Not all scholarship about or with sound ‘2 "\ound sud" Just as not all acolarhip about wot i Sociology, nat ll sowie 1MasiNarions 5 secolealp witha concept of cleus ula studies o Anthropology, not all feholarehp that works with concepts of language is Linguists. The inide/ ‘outside description Is aol for caracteriation, bu not us nthe fist ‘nance forthe judgmn frlevance or quality 1+ Sound rdentrecngizesound ara problem thi cataarosacademicdinpline, methods and objecs, though the Bel’ instraoral existence wil yry as ft over acrost diferent natonal univer cltares (nd ll ilies begin a ‘ncericpins.*| 1 Sound sais work eleanely sends to i coe concept and objet, ‘Sound sedis work is conscsou ofits on itor, Sound dents are aware that they aze pare ofan ongoing converston about wound that span ers, ‘rations places, and dciplines they are alto aware of the specichistores of ‘nguling abou and weting abou ound in ther home dpins, 4 Sound tess an esentsl “ris” clement i the broader sense of tga may aso take on characteristics of « producer, poly, tec, poll, detecting dacouree, Bu without ritque, it ar, tcc couse, ‘elec, ealarl production oF trning practi “about road” and not son studies (hough sich work wil often be af great terest to sound students). “Teay, many people have become sound students o culate and falta tein ni Imagine, a wells those of people in othe eld at aotnd Becomes important thelr work. Sine imineon a eliberstly smacithetcneologie—i Is about sound but occupies a3 ambiguous positon Between sound eave and a space af coutemplaion outside it, Sonic imaginations axe necessnly pra, recursive, ‘flexing deve to represear,refgure and redeserbe. "They ae fated by sound ‘butriven to fshion some new intellect fey to make snte of some par he sonic world. The concept le meant to reference an intellectual Mistry of inking Sout our own ereasive and erital apaciier i reaches back ito senthetic ‘propositions much as TS, Elo’ fgure ofthe “auditory Imaghution® and caltral- ‘heoreial eonsrucs such a C Wright Mills "toologtclsmagination” sod Anne Bslamo's“echnclogial imagination” Like its tibutaries—dhemaeles rivers of thought to which aspies to coneibuteeonie imagination places sound ss 2 Fundamentally human problem, Sound ie certain rnre than an problem —we ‘tk of anal’ hearing, of underwater sound, or sound on ater planes—but {er the next few page, er comer sound a ategry defined in relion to eat ofthe human before we explode tht formulation, "TS, Ble writes “The aidtory imagination’ i¢ the feling for sylable and shyt, penetrate farbelow the conscious levels of thought and fling, igosing ‘every word inking to the mot primitive and forgoten, retiring to the origin snd ‘ringing something back, ssi the beganing andthe end. It works thovgh 5, certainly, of not witout meatnge nthe ordinary sate and Faxes the old sdobiteratd andthe wit, th current andthe new an aurpiig, the most ancient fad the mot civzed mentality Blot’ notion of sudtory imagination ares hon ‘he cue the erica of poetry, bt ie posible to imagine the definition mach ‘morebradl fr thinking wih allmanses of sunding things We need only subtute the general “sound? forthe specie “ylbe” in his fit sentence to acleve this 6 sowaTHAN sreRME ‘broader meanog It tan cpenear sound a part of cltue, fel fo i. For Elot, the movement aos reir also a cru qulity of imagination. Thi reonates ‘with C. Weight Mls’ tion of sociological imagination: a “quality of wld that ‘rable ite poter to undead the larger hioril sane in terme oft meaning for the inner lif and external creer ofa variety of individale"The socololeal ‘emaginaton i base in "he cacy os foun one perspective to another, e Js dhe capacity torange fom the most impersonl and remote wansformations 0 the ont mat fester ofthe human self and ose te elaons between the wo."” Soni imaginations bring us to parla cnjunctre and problem, but they ako redeseribe thm frm unexpected standpoints, Don Die wes that lid descr of oni experience reales the penorenlogi's gesture of epoch, which means to auspend” orto put out of pla. ] eis pension of preuppoaians™” ln another register, Pierce Bourdieu and his alaboratars verte ofthe epitemalogia "uprue”dzough which scholars lave behind the force of the vrousprenotions tht ‘operatein the field they study to conont thei objec fy with rsh perspec, and to construct them anew. Aa Paul Fascomnet and Marcel Maus wrote over 2 ‘entury ago, “srions research leads one to unite what i ordinarily separated oF t0 sungulsh whats edie confued™ Imagination is also a creative face: Anne Balsamo conceives the technological Imaglnaton "the welling oF tehnolgial imnovationisamindet hat eables people to think with technology to twasform what ie known into what x pore” “To once aun indulge in eubtituting sound for other’ keywords, sole imaginations rework eultre trough the developmen few asaiea, nem ley ne el nologies, and new slernatives, Sonic iaghntons“eproduce cultural wader tnd Inge ateverytara"—thereisne knowledge of ound that come from oxtie cre only knowledge thar works from particular limits. These Leia tur work He Mfordances—cineasumptions and massive radtens to bald from, at wll as ‘conventions worth plying wah or struggling sgn “This aglnaion ls perform ‘ive: improves thin consralas to produce something new" Asa ceive ‘ty, robust sn imagination not tit diferent fom good musica: both sim to sais and rasoate expectatins inorder to pre something memingl and engiging (for themselves and for thei communities and audiences). Douglas Kate explains ber “sour rater thn being a datinaton, as beens poten nd necessary means fr accessing and understanding the worlds i let, leads ay from itl A very nebulous nation of methodology, bt also someting thar hick a belore methodeogy" ‘This a an importans frit principle: there no a priori privileged group of| methodologies for sound studies. Iatsd, sonic maginatons are guided by a orienting curiosity, 2 gurl practice that reaches into Bld of oni knowiedge and practice and Mends them with other question, problems eld, pacts and hori Method mates, but should aise from the queatons asked and the knowledge fale engaged, not the other way sound, We cold go firter to argue tat sound studies shoal! borrow a page rom cultural aude ad operate by way of engaging ts Sonic IMAGINATIONS 7 jes or problems of stuiy contextually a tes ater thn at totale that can be riped tough a xngle method or combination of methods, or whose polteal oF ural sgnieance is guarasteod ahead of tine by what we think we ow" about found polis o calure™ “These aberact questions bear down on even the mot base atempteto define ne ofthe’ central concep, sound,” and to decide how ane comes o imagine for know it Doce sound refer to = phenomenon out in he werld whic eae then ik ‘pt Does tzfer oa human phenomenon that only exists in relation to the physical trod? Oris it someing ela? The antwer to the question ha tremendous epic ‘ons for both the objec and methods of sound studies. Can we sry sounds in hemseve” or as part f «Bld of whration tht exist in and or sel? Must we wie are the clr etady of eound fom the postion of people? Can sound be ‘described separately fom the poston of the person who dseibs i I the ast, ‘wn prison on ths question ka heen somewhat human-centered ‘he Boundary between vibration tht i sound and vibration dat snot ound not derived fom any quality of te vibration In il or the ‘ie that conveys the ibeations, Rabe, the boundary between sound and ovaound is bed on the anderrood posses of the faculty cof bearng whether we are talking about a person or a aqurel ‘Therefore, ar people and myuels change, r0 too will ound—by efinion, Spectr have hierie” But tht rates more questions than answer, IF we ae relly aking sbout the seasyng power ofthe elured er, perhaps we sould fllow Michel Bll and Les Bick in alin the feld “auditory cults” to reflect he degree to which wound ea seory problem, a senility echoed more recently by Trevor Pinch and Kain Bjsterveld when hey state sound sade a party emanating from something they call “venaory studes"* This aproich bea apecial appeal ior ae sound scholars ‘im to drop narratives ofthe so-called hegemony ofthe vil and the privlegng ofthe eye. aloha the advantage of certain terzlnologla parla witvsua ‘eatare” Bull and Bock sal for "emocracy ofthe sens” and a i lari the volume a wel atti one, many cele studs of sound begin by contrasting the suitor and inal rites, When they make this move, authors more often talk shout care and eyes than sounds and light. But this eno he only crit path nto ound stuces. Another path in more or Jes atsames the physi of sound and then considers it cular valene, Francie ‘Dyson argoes eran reduce poatty to sounds a having tet wa "omlogleal” cexience* In this volume, Steve Goodman anges forthe prileglng of bration 1 primary categery of ana, aking wound as pont of rientton, but ot further ‘ubsanlising i, Smialy Michele Frieder sn Stein lelmreich ave aged tha ‘bration ix ruil plan on which sound ade an intersect with deaf ead that sound is best taken as" vibration of certain foquency in a material medi, rather han centering vbnaocs in a hearing ea?” Their apprchauggests that vibration, tthe register of reality for which sound is carved out, “stein ned cofealurl nd hori stunting?” Yet another appro Vet Enmannse ofthe 8 JONATHAN STERNE term curly, which considers both"the materiality of perception and theonditions ‘hat mane be given for romething co become recognized, Ibeed and varied a auiblein dhe fst lace™ No sound sudentan writ anything of substance without st lest emplicly taking » poron in there debater and he choice has dict feonequences for what gots sud in werms of what counts asthe Fandementl ‘phenomenon under investigation andthe very definition of context. And in most ‘ses, defining the object of sound studies (or whstever you cll) i inextricably ‘bound up i negoitng lds of knowledge that pertain to sound. Knowledge Is problem in sound std neat tee way, Knowledge i problem of epistemology and method how do sound students acquire shape, bud tnd diseminate knowlege about sound in thelr owm practice? Knowledge i alo 4 problem for the eld in dhe sense tat there are many competing knowlege of ound Inthe world, they have ther ow pois, istry and ell domains and exert ‘hel effec on everything we stdy.Kaowledgetealto a problem beaut setae among vectors of power and diference. Tra Rodgers's point about itories of electronic music could be extended all areatof sonic tory exdly-crousted “origin storie tend vo normalioe hegemonic cultural practices hat fllon?™ ‘Many ofthe most ced gure of knowing in son sts try to del with all these problems of knowledge at once, Compoter Pine Oliveros coined the term “deep listening” to deeribe tot, minal reflesve sonic awareness tht moves beswoen ying to hes everything once and deep atenve facut onasngle sound or set sounds. Hr stenig practices were meant both aa way of asin th onic word med eativating stds for changing ky and hor carat as compen end ‘theorist has alo been bound up withthe erg ofa til only patriarchal cultare in many els of avant-garde music” Steven Feld uses the tr “scoustmology to

    You might also like