We are pleased to welcome Charles Hirschkind and Ana María Ochoa to campus for Session 2: Decentering Sound, today (Monday, September 30, 2013), beginning at 4:15 pm in Holden Chapel in Harvard Yard. Pre-circulated papers are available here. Today also marks the inaugural session of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts tandem series,… Read more »

[Ed: This post reviews a talk by Timothy Taylor given as part of the Barwick Colloquium Series, presented by Harvard’s Music Department. Although not officially part of the “Hearing Modernity” series, the talk echoed many relevant issues.] Timothy Taylor: “Music and Neoliberal Capitalism” Barwick Colloquium Series September 23, 2013   By Sarah Politz   Drawing… Read more »

INTONARUMORI A series of artist’s talks at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Presented by the Sound Area, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston   My Dear Balilla Pratella,   If I remember correctly, it was on a day not unlike today. Yes, it was just like this, but 100 years ago…. Read more »

The inaugural Sawyer Seminar on Hearing Modernity heralds an exciting year ahead. Veit Erlmann and Jonathan Sterne’s meditations on the disciplinary and institutional pressures confronting Sound Studies reminded me that the field’s attraction derives in part from its promise of novelty. If we begin with listening, Erlmann and Sterne suggest, we might hear new epistemologies,… Read more »

On September 16, 2013, Veit Erlmann and Jonathan Sterne inaugurated our “Hearing Modernity” series with papers and presentations addressing the question of “grand narratives” in thinking about histories of sound and listening. As with all sessions, their pre-circulated papers can be found under “Papers” (for the password to unlock papers, contact us). We have also… Read more »

by Olivia Lucas   Ylvis’ viral music video asks, “What does the Fox say?” Commentary on the video concentrates on the way the song riffs on popular culture and music in the style of Psy and The Lonely Island.[1] Indeed, the video makes liberal use of outlandish animal costumes, imaginative vocalizations (stunningly subtitled) and sarcastically… Read more »

By Olivia Lucas Last Tuesday, the reading group held its first official meeting of the academic year, in the run-up to the first seminar on Monday. (The reading group will be meeting every other Tuesday – please let us know if you’d like to join! We will be reading previous work by the seminar speakers.)… Read more »

By Peter McMurray The centerpiece of the “Hearing Modernity” seminar will be the presentations by various authors of some of their latest writing on sound, listening and culture. With the exception of the final session with Jacques Attali, those sessions will consist of each author giving a 10-minute overview of their pre-circulated paper, followed by… Read more »

When thinking of studying sound, or of hearing modernity, the mind tends to shift almost immediately to that of sonic environment. R. Murray Schafer’s fundamental text The Soundscape provided a fascinating examination of how sonic environment defines our living situation; some “keynote” sounds are so ingrained as to be “rarely listened to consciously by those… Read more »

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… Read more »