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 September 23rd, 2025, kl.15:15-16:30 CET:
Link: https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/65488389742
Topic: Studies of Air and Smoke: a framework
Presenter: Thiago Leiros-Costa (Milano / Verona, IT)
Abstract: In the context of the attention economy driven by tech and social media conglomerates, the rise of the “anxious generation”, and increasingly dystopian narratives, a cultural and neurobiological rewiring of our relationship to consciousness and to one another is underway. Educators, scientists and performers could work together to create hybrid formats that empower individuals to better navigate such landscape. Here I present a track of interdisciplinary research and performance. Studies of Air and Smoke is a series of performance lectures where the main goal is to invite us to reflect on the nature of attention, consciousness, social interactions and our relationship to sound. It draws strongly from psychology, neurosciences, native-American spiritual traditions and Deep Listening. The work of Pauline Oliveros is a key reference as it proposes listening exercises and sonic meditations. The performance is also a framework to investigate the performative nature of artists vs. scientists.
* Tuesday October 7th, 2025, kl.15:15-16:30 CET:
Link: https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/65488389742
Topic: Speculative Design for an AI Noise Machine: Signal, Noise, and the Aesthetics of Algorithmic Ambience
Presenter: Paulus van Horne (Boulder, US)
Abstract: Abstract:
This presentation examines the productive tension of applying generative AI—a technology fundamentally oriented toward maximizing signal-to-noise ratio—to the creation of ambient noise. I detail a speculative plan for an AI-powered noise machine that interrogates the boundary between signal and noise in both sonic and computational contexts. The work positions the AI noise machine within frameworks of functional sound design while questioning our relationships to algorithmic medi(t)ation and the politics of auditory attention in domestic spaces. Drawing from media archaeology of popular noise machines like the Marpac Sleepmate, dOhm and Lectrofan, I discuss how these devices achieve effectiveness through carefully crafted non-repetition and recognizable yet non-specific sonic signatures. Generative AI complicates this paradigm, operating in the liminal space between coherent output and computational hallucination.
* Tuesday October 21st, 2025, kl.15:15-16:30 CET:
Link: https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/65488389742
Topic: Entangled Listening and Free Radio
Presenter: Jacob Saheb (Nottingham, UK)
Abstract: Entangled Listening builds on Édouard Glissant’s notion of entanglement (1997) and Pauline Oliveros’ quantum listening (2024) to consider postcolonial listening practices that arise from sonic encounters in the “contact zone.” (Pratt 1991) Drawing on research interviews with listeners of former free radio (“pirate”) station PCRL, I centre listening and sonic encounters within Birmingham’s Black and South Asian diasporas to consider how sound and listening are implicated as points of racial and/or cultural identification and play a crucial component in the construction of hybrid identities.
* Tuesday November 4th, 2025, kl.15:15-16:30 CET:
Link: https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/65488389742
Topic: Reconceptualising Sonic Home
Presenter: Jacqueline Waldock (UK)
Abstract: This work in progress reconceptualizes sonic home as extending beyond the physical boundaries of dwelling places and instead questions how individuals create meaningful experiences of belonging through sound. By drawing on critical geographical frameworks (Blunt and Dowling (2006) and Boccagni (2017)) that position home as simultaneously material and imaginative, embedded within power relations, and operating across multiple scales. The research questions how sonic scholars can/should engage with these complex and significant spaces.
* Tuesday November 11th, 2025, kl.15:15-16:30 CET:
Link: https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/65488389742
Topic: Propositional Listening
Presenter: Jacob Eriksen (Sound Art Lab Struer, DK):
Abstract: [TBC]
* Tuesday December 2nd, 2025, kl.15:15-16:30 CET:
Link: https://ucph-ku.zoom.us/j/65488389742
Topic: The production of social space through sound: A social work perspective on the auditory dimension of social spaces
Presenter: Anna Hampel (Hamburg, DE)
Abstract: [TBC]