Welcome

Welcome to the SoundBlog. This is a space where a group of people will post regularly on topics relating to sound. The blog is closely associated with the Sawyer Seminar “Hearing Modernity” which is taking place at Harvard University in 2013/14. You’re on the Hearing Modernity website, so you probably already know all there is to know about the project. If not, check here.

The central team working on the Sawyer seminar with me are the amazing Betsey Biggs, the fabulous Olivia Lucas, and the incomparable Peter McMurray. But there will be other guest bloggers making regular contributions to this blog. Here’s a shoutout to our friends across the US: Ian Power, Seth Kim Cohen, Miki Kaneda, Joe Auner, Eric Drott and Seth Brodsky have been involved in the project one way or another.

The Sawyer seminar itself will be over after one year. But our hope is that, with enough momentum, we will be able to keep the conversation going beyond the end of “Hearing Modernity.” The SoundBlog, which goes beyond the concerns of the seminar and might well develop a life of its own, may be an essential component for it. So far, before the official beginning of the seminar series, the response has been overwhelming.

I think this is a great time to be embarking on this project: there is so much interest in sound at the moment, from a variety of perspectives. At Harvard, where we are based, there are many faculty all over campus that are interested in various aspects of sound but that have not had a platform to explore the intersections between their interests. Some of these faculty members are featured as our Core Faculty but there are plenty more. We hope that the Sawyer Seminar and the SoundBlog will provide this platform that has been noticeably absent.

What is more, the SoundBlog allows us to go beyond the ivied walls of our institution. The SoundBlog is designed to provide a connection to all those friends and colleagues, present and future, who cannot be physically here but who also want to be involved in the discussion. Please join in the conversation – we are always happy to know you are here. And please let us know if you are interested in writing for us. (AR)