Sound+ (2014)
Event Information
March 27-29, 2014
Tawes Hall
Increasingly, and across a broad variety of fields, a conversation has been unfolding about the sounds that produce, surround and absorb “text.” Work on cultural sites ranging from the jazz of the Harlem Renaissance, to the resonance-chamber of Shakespeare’s Globe, to the audio compression format of the MP3, to the acoustic torture at Guantanamo Bay, has begun to challenge models in which text is understood as a predominantly visual, linguistic construct.
This conference brings together leading scholars who have helped to reconceive the relationship between sound and text. Emphasizing the interdisciplinary nature of sound studies and the importance of research on the ways in which experiences of sound are culturally produced, Jonathan Sterne has written, “Sound studies should be a central meeting place where sonic imaginations go to be challenged, nurtured, refreshed and transformed.” “Sound+” offers a space to pursue this goal.
As work on soundscapes, audio technologies and acoustic ecologies continues to open up new ways of thinking about the sonic dimensions of literature, this conference invites scholars from a range of fields to address the following questions:
- What happens when text is mediated through acoustic environments?
- How does sound become categorized as literary?
- How do writing and sound thread together in areas such as theater, opera, jazz, film, hip-hop, poetry, performance art, and digital literatures?
- How does writing encode or remediate sound, and how is literature shaped by acoustic technologies from voice to byte?
- How does sound reshape the politics of literature, and how are political acts distributed between text and sound?
Scholars of literature, rhetoric, composition, media studies, science and technology studies, art and culture studies, architecture, philosophy, political economy, the practice of politics and other fields have demonstrated the limitations of conceiving of text in purely discursive terms. This work has helped re-direct attention to the voice, to performance, and especially to listening practices that impact how we understand cultures, contexts and objects previously analyzed through approaches that privileged the eye. This conference promises to extend and expand upon those conversations.
Sound+ is free and open to the public.
Schedule
Thursday, March 27, 2014
5:00-6:30 pm.
Ulrich Recital Hall, 1121 Tawes Hall
Keynote & Petrou Lecture: "Are People Analog?"
Jonathan Sterne (Art History & Communication Studies, McGill University; Visiting Researcher, Microsoft Research New England Social Media Collective)
Welcoming Remarks: Patrick O'Shea (Electrical and Computer Engineering; Vice President and Chief Research Officer, Division of Research, University of Maryland) and William Cohen (English, University of Maryland)
Introduction: Scott Trudell (English, University of Maryland
Reception to follow in the second floor lobby of Tawes.
Friday, March 28, 2014
9:00 am to 11:00 am
Concurrent Sessions
- Session A: Seminar: “Media Studies: A Status Update." Those admitted will be notified by email. Jonathan Sterne (Art History & Communication Studies, McGill University; Visiting Researcher, Microsoft Research New England Social Media Collective) Moderator: Matthew Kirschenbaum (English & MITH, University of Maryland)
- Session B: Workshop: “Visualizing Sound” 3136 Tawes Hall Shannon Collis (Art, University of Maryland)
- Session C: Workshop: “Embodying Sound: Performances of Queer and Raced Expectations” Women’s Studies Multimedia Studio, 0135 Taliaferro Hall Jarah Moesch, Cameron Mozafari, Michelé Prince, and Melissa Rogers, University of Maryland
11:15 am to 12:45 pm
Ulrich Recital Hall, 1121 Tawes Hall
Panel: Transcultural Listenings. Moderator: Barry Pearson (English, University of Maryland). Respondent: Michael Austin (Media, Journalism, and Film, Howard University)
- Tsitsi Jaji (English, University of Pennsylvania): "Dunbar's Compensations: On Five Gifts of Song"
- Karen Ordahl Kupperman (History, New York University): "Music as the Path to Universal Language"
- Krista Ratcliffe (English, Marquette University): "Rhetorical Listening: Cultural Logics as Enthymemes"
12:45 pm to 1:45 pm
Second Floor Lobby, Tawes Lunch
1:45 pm to 3:15 pm
Ulrich Recital Hall, 1121 Tawes Hall
Panel: Politics of Sound: Noise, Silence, Text. Moderator: Randy Ontiveros (English, University of Maryland). Respondent: Shaun Myers (English, Northwestern University)
- Jenny Stoever-Ackerman (English, SUNY Binghamton): “The Siren’s Song: The Poetics and Politics of the Auditory Imagination in Ann Petry’s Fiction”
- Carter Mathes (English, Rutgers University): “"Acoustic Ghostwriting: Rap Aesthetics and Late 20th Century African American Literary Experimentation"”
- Scott Trudell (English, University of Maryland): “’Thwick-a-Thwack’: Thomas Dekker’s Politics of Noise”
3:15 pm to 3:30 pm
Second Floor Lobby, Tawes Hall
Coffee Break
3:30 pm to 4:30 pm
Ulrich Recital Hall, 1121 Tawes Hall
Keynote Address: "Sound Effects: Incidental Sound as Text and Performance in the Transition from Silent to Sound Movies in the American Film Industry"
Emily Thompson (History, Princeton University)
Introduction: Christina Walter (English, University of Maryland)
4:30 pm to 4:45 pm
Break
4:45 pm to 5:45 pm
Ulrich Recital Hall, 1121 Tawes Hall.
Conversation: Sounding the Humanities, Sounding the Sciences
Mounya Elhilali (Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University), Kari Kraus (iSchool and English, University of Maryland), Jonathan Sterne (Art History & Communication Studies, McGill University; Visiting Researcher, Microsoft Research New England Social Media Collective), Jonathan Z. Simon (Biology/Electrical and Computer Engineering/NACS/institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland)
Moderator: Kari Kraus (iSchool and English, University of Maryland)
5:45 pm to 7:00 pm.
Second Floor Lobby, Tawes Hall
Public Reception
Saturday, March 29, 2014
9:30 am to 10:00 am
Second Floor Lobby, Tawes Hall
Coffee and Breakfast
10:00 am to 11:30 am
Ulrich Recital Hall, 1121 Tawes Hall
Keynote & Petrou Lecture
: “(The External World) When a Stranger Appears”
Fred Moten (English, University of California, Riverside)
Welcoming Remarks: Bonnie Dill (Women's Studies; Dean, College of Arts and Humanities) and William Cohen (English, University of Maryland)
Introduction: Zita Nunes (English & Comparative Literature; Director Center for Literary and Comparative Studies)
11:30 am to 1:00 pm
Second Floor Lobby, Tawes
Lunch
- Browse Poster Sessions
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm
Ulrich Recital Hall, 1121 Tawes Hall
Panel: Technologies of the Voice I. Moderator: Thomas Ward (English, United States Naval Academy) Respondent: Michael Israel (English, University of Maryland)
- Wes Folkerth (English, McGill University): “John Gielgud and Shakespeare’s Voice on Film”
- Yopie Prins (English and Comparative Literature, University of Michigan): “The Ebb of Sound”
2:00 pm to 2:15 pm
Second Floor Lobby, Tawes Hall
Coffee Break
2:15 pm to 3:30 pm.
Ulrich Recital Hall, 1121 Tawes Hall
Panel: Technologies of the Voice II Moderator: Seth Forrest (Humanities, Coppin State University). Respondent: Melanie Kill (English, University of Maryland)
- Tanya Clement (School of Information, University of Texas at Austin) “Early Information Theory and the Cultural Studies of Sound: Introducing High-Performance Sound Technologies for Access and Scholarship (HiPSTAS)”
- Jentery Sayers (English, University of Victoria): “Between Spool and Page: Storage, Memory, and Magnetic Wire in the Mid-Twentieth Century”
3:30 pm to 3:45 pm
Second Floor Lobby, Tawes Hall
Coffee Break and Announcement of Prizes for Poster Session
Judges: Karen Ordahl Kupperman, John Macintosh, Fred Moten, Emily Yoon Perez, Jentery Sayers
3:45 pm to 5:00 pm
Ulrich Recital Hall, 1121 Tawes Hall
Closing Roundtable Discussion with speakers and audience
Moderator: Mary Helen Washington (English, University of Maryland)
Scott Trudell (English, University of Maryland), Tsitsi Jaji (English, University of Pennsylvania), Yopie Prins (English and Comparative Literature, University of Michigan), Fred Moten (English, University of California, Riverside), Jonathan Sterne (Art History & Communication Studies, McGill University; Visiting Researcher, Microsoft Research New England Social Media Collective)
Sponsors
The Center for Literary & Comparative Studies; the Division of Research; the Petrou Lecture Series in the Department of English; The Graduate School; the College of Arts and Humanities; the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; the Potomac Center for the Study of Modernity; the Transatlantic Studies Area Group in the Department of English; the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities; the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Program; the Office of Diversity & Inclusion; the Office of Undergraduate Studies; the Departments of History, American Studies, Women's Studies, Art, Art History, and English.
Organizers & Planning Committee
Mary Helen Washington, Scott Trudell, Emily Yoon Perez, Zita Nunes, Karen Nelson, and John Macintosh
Conference Visitor Information
Find information on parking, lodging and transportation to the University of Maryland.