Veit Erlmann (ed.): Hearing Cultures. Essays on Sound, Listening and Modernity (2004)
Filed under book | Tags: · acoustics, ethnomusicology, listening, modernity, music, sound recording
Vision is typically treated as the defining sense of the modern era and a powerful vehicle for colonial and postcolonial domination. This is in marked contrast to the almost total absence of accounts of hearing in larger cultural processes.
Hearing Cultures is a timely examination of the elusive, often evocative, and sometimes cacophonous auditory sense – from the intersection of sound and modernity, through to the relationship between audio-technological advances and issues of personal and urban space. As cultures and communities grapple with the massive changes wrought by modernization and globalization, Hearing Cultures presents an important new approach to understanding our world. It answers such intriguing questions as:
· Did people in Shakespeare’s time hear differently from us?
· In what way does technology affect our ears?
· Why do people in Egypt increasingly listen to taped religious sermons?
· Why did Enlightenment doctors believe that music was an essential cure?
· What happens acoustically in cross-cultural first encounters?
· Why do Runa Indians in the Amazon basin now consider onomatopoetic speech child’s talk?
The ear, as much as the eye, nose, mouth and hand, offers a way into experience. All five senses are instruments that record, interpret and engage with the world. This book shows how sound offers a refreshing new lens through which to examine culture and complex social issues.
Publisher Berg Publishers, 2004
Sensory Formations series
ISBN 1859738281, 9781859738283
239 pages
PDF (updated on 2012-8-3)
Comment (0)XLR8R magazine 130-131 (Nov/Dec 2009-Jan/Feb 2010)
Filed under magazine | Tags: · music, sound art, sound recording
Nov/Dec 2009
Issue 130: XLR8R’s Favorites of 2009
While we where pretty burnt on definitive best-of lists, we couldn’t resist crowning Bristol cover star Joker the 2009 king of bass music. On top of that, in this year-end issue we survey a host of our favorite artists of 2009, including Martyn, Hudson Mohawke, The Field, Holy Ghost!, Nite Jewel, Schlachthofbronx, DJ Koze and tons more. As well, we look at the year’s best technology and videogames, just in time for the holidays.
Jan/Feb 2010
Issue 131: Revolutions Per Minute: Matias Aguayo
As we head into 2010, the continuum of great music streaming from the tail end of last year just don’t stop. Latin playboy Matías Aguayo takes house in all sorts of new (vocal-driven) directions, while L-Vis 1990 and Bok Bok hold it down with their London club and label Night Slugs. Then over on this side of the pond, Washed Out, Pictureplane, Toro Y Moi, and Neon Indian take electronic music back to the garage, while Beach House blesses Sub Pop with a new seaside stunner. View online at Issuu.
Older issues (free download)
Comment (0)Sylvia Mieszkowski, Joy Smith, Marijke de Valck (eds.): Sonic Interventions (2008)
Filed under book | Tags: · dancehall, hip hop, music, reggae, sound recording, voice
Sonic Interventions makes a compelling case for the importance of sound in theorizing literature, subjectivity and culture. Sound is usually understood as our second sense and ż as our belief in a visually dominated culture prevails ż remains of secondary interest. Western cultures are considered to be predominantly visual, while other societies are thought to place more importance on the acoustic dimension. This volume questions these assumptions by examining how sound differs from, and acts in relationship to, the visual. It moves beyond theoretical dichotomies (between the visual and the sonic, the oral and literature) and, instead, investigates sonic interventions in their often multi-faceted forms. The case studies deal with political appropriations of music and sounds, they explore the poetic use of the sonic in novels and plays, they develop theoretical concepts out of sonic phenomena, and pertain to identity formation and the practice of mixing in hip hop, opera and dancehall sessions. Ultimately, the book brings to the fore what roles sound may play for the formation of gendered identity, for the stabilization or questioning of race as a social category, and the conception of place. Their intricate interventions beckon critical attention and offer rich material for cultural analysis.
Publisher Rodopi, 2008
ISBN 9042022949, 9789042022942
328 pages
PDF (updated on 2012-8-3)
Comment (0)