Holger Schulze
Colloquium Sound & Sensory Studies
»Transmission
trumps listening,we are no good
at receiving.«Michel Serres, The Five Senses (1985/2008), S. 139
Be it sound art-pieces, academic articles, blogposts or a PhD-treatment, an artistic research proposal: in this biweekly research colloquium we immerse ourselves in discussing new approaches to sound studies.
Part of the interdisciplinary ressearch environment of the Sound Studies Lab we invite all researchers, artists, students or listeners to take part and to propose topics and materials for our future meetings.
As a collaborative thinking workshop this meeting provides an opportunity for researchers of all levels (experienced scholars as well as PhD-/MA-students or artistic researchers) to discuss their approaches from various interdisciplinary fields with a special sensibility concerning sound.
Time
biweekly on Zoom
3:15pm-4:30pm
Location
On Zoom (see below)
Department of Arts & Cultural Studies
Københavns Universitet
Karin Blixens Vej 1
2300 København
References
Cf. on website Sound in Media Culture
Programme
* Tuesday February 11th, 2025, kl.15:15-16:30 CET:
Link: https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/65488389742
Topic: The Voice “in Action”: The Phenomenon of the Poetic Voice and Its Agency in Contemporary (Polish) Poetry from the Perspective of Sound Studies
Presenter: Katarzyna Ciemiera (Jagiellonian University, Kraków, PL)
Abstract: The development of sound studies at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries has contributed to the intensification of comparative research on the phenomenon of the poetic voice in intermedial contexts. However, there is still a lack of analyses that would precisely apply the methodologies and theoretical approaches to sound from the field of sound studies to the exploration of the poetic voice. This issue primarily concerns the question of the political agency of the voice, which appears to be crucial to sound studies. From a sound perspective, the subversive potential of the voice lies in its ability to dismantle dualistic oppositions and the patterns of political representation that rely on them. However, contemporary literary studies (as well as Western culture) restrict this agency to the referential functions of the voice/the medium of speech, which is evident, for example, in literary practices that equate the political, poetic voice with the performative recitation of politically charged poems. The presentation will aim to reflect on the possibilities of exploring the political potential of the poetic voice from the perspective of sound studies, using examples from the latest Polish engaged poetry. The paper will discuss three situations in which the poetic voice proves to be effective not because of its referential functions (the transmission of a political message), but because of its ability to disrupt the transfer of meanings resulting from the textual logic of the poem. The first situation concerns the “bad reading strategy” characterized by the poet’s nonchalant pronunciation, articulation, and intonation errors, etc., which hinder effective communication of the content. The second refers to “ironic vocal realizations” that are disproportionate to the rhetoric of the written poem (e.g., articulating an engaged poem with a subtle voice). The third relates to unintended moments where “the voice acts like litmus paper” i.e., reveals the true potential of the given engaged message (for example, through the poet’s difficulties in vocally delivering the poem).
* Tuesday February 25th, 2025, kl.15:15-16:30 CET:
Link: https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/65488389742
Topic: [TBC]
Presenter: [TBC]
Abstract: [TBC]
* Tuesday March 11th, 2025, kl.15:15-16:30 CET:
Link: https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/65488389742
Topic: Auditory Asides: Listening Habits and Non-Linear Temporalities
Presenter: Malcom Troon (University of Sussex, UK)
Abstract: I will present new ideas regarding sonic cognition by challenging traditional notions of exclusively singular and linear sonic chronologies. I will examine auditors’ listening habits when organising their sonic environs. My research has investigated the sonic as a property of permanence, opposing tendencies to consider sounds as being ephemeral and brief. As such, through observing subjects (and myself) within sonic environments, this research has unearthed the notion of the ‘auditory aside.’
The auditory aside is a cognitive process. Whereby a listener extracts a sound event from their ongoing sound environment, pausing it while examining the sounds that surround it both temporally and spatially. That sound event is stored as a received, but often pre-cognised auditory event. This process places a sound or sounds aside, retained in dormancy, until required or ready for cognition. Once more sonic information has been collected, and its contextual meaning has been perceived, it is reintegrated back into the wider sonic picture. This time as an understood and cognised sonic property. This process spotlights that we perceive not one singular linear sonic sequence, but parallel and even prismatic sonic timelines if you will. This subsequently raises questions regarding notions of the past, present and future, and their function within sonic realms when considering the sideward, backward, and prismatic glancing processes of the auditory aside.
My presentation will go on to examine three examples of my research participants’ sonic environments as examples to describe the practice of the auditory aside. I will document
visits to Great Dixter Gardens, Sussex for its multi-layered dawn chorus, examine ferry journeys across Istanbul’s Bosporus Strait for its daytime sonic cacophony and the
mountains of Rum in Scotland for the sonically intense and daily nocturnal arrival of thousands of Manx Shearwater seabirds. These examples will unearth sonic chronologies as being unbound by strict linear temporality. Furthermore, by examining findings that we do not necessarily cognise sounds in the chronological order at which temporally arrive at the ear, I have found that auditor event organisation occurs prismatically and as such, the flow and order of sonic perceptions seldom match the flow of time on which they are transported and received.
* Tuesday March 25th, 2025, kl.15:15-16:30 CET:
Link: https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/65488389742
Topic: [TBC]
Presenter: [TBC]
Abstract: [TBC]
* Tuesday April 8th, 2025, kl.15:15-16:30 CET:
Link: https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/65488389742
Topic: [TBC]
Presenter: [TBC]
Abstract: [TBC]
* Tuesday May 6th, 2025, kl.15:15-16:30 CET:
Link: https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/65488389742
Topic: [TBC]
Presenter: [TBC]
Abstract: [TBC]
* Tuesday May 20th, 2025, kl.15:15-16:30 CET:
Link: https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/65488389742
Topic: [TBC]
Presenter: [TBC]
Abstract: [TBC]