In 2004, anthropologist Steven Feld asked : Can we imagine an anthropology in rather than about sound? An anthropology whose products are not texts but things like CDs, digital audio files or multi-channel installations? The course is a practical initiation to sonic research using field recordings, interviews, audio documentation, archives, and sound experiments.

Drawing on participant observation, sonic ecology, and feminist methodology, we adopt a performative approach to the field in order to question the conventions of listening and sounding. We consider what listening can do, as it takes place in individual and collective processes concerned with the possibility of social, political, and ecological change.

The course includes a short introduction to recording techniques, and one session will be dedicated to editing and mixing techniques. The goal is to create short individual pieces to be broadcast on the student radio Couch FM, a joint project from FU, HU and TU Berlin (https://www.couchfm.medienwissenschaft-berlin.de/).

Gilles Aubry is a Swiss sound artist, musician, and researcher based in Berlin. He creates installations, films, performances and radio pieces which explore the cultural, ecological and affective dimensions of sound and listening. As a musician, he crafts abstract compositions using environmental sound, electronic manipulation, and feedback processes. He holds a PhD in social anthropology from the Bern University and his latest book Sawt, Bodies, Species (2023, Adocs) gives an account on sound and ecological voices in Morocco. www.earpolitics.net

BA und MA Studierende, alle Fachbereiche

BA and MA students of all disciplines.

-  Aubry, Gilles. 2023. Sawt, Bodies, Species: Sonic Pluralism in Morocco. Adocs, Hamburg. URL:https://adocs.de/de/buecher/sound-open-accessebooks/sawt-bodies-species-sonic-pluralism- morocco

 

-  Bolt, Barbara. 2016. Artistic Research: A Performative Paradigm?, Parse Journal 3, 129-142. URL: https://parsejournal.com/article/artistic-research-a-performative-paradigm

 

-  Farinati, Luci. and Firth, Claudia. 2017. The Force of Listening. Doormats vol. 6, Berlin, Errant Bodies Press.

 

-  Littlejohn, Andrew. 2021. Sonic Ethnography. Chapter 3 in Gresseni et al., "Audiovisual and Digital Ethnography - A Practical and Theoretical Guide" Routledge, 2021