Reading List: An Introduction to Audio in the Arts & Humanities | New Humanities Lab

Week 1: Sound and Knowing

Welcome to the New Humanities Lab at the Indianapolis Arts and Humanities Institute. During Fall 2023, we will be focused on audio technology and its role in shaping inquiry in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. To get us started, we are going to do a little exploration to answer two questions: 1) how have people worked with sound to develop new ways of knowing the world, and 2) how does this work help us think about new ways for talking across the disciplines?

The readings, videos, and music below are arranged in two sections. In the first section, “Concepts,” you will be introduced to a few concepts that we will be using throughout this semester (e.g. soundscape, sound maps, field recording, biophony, ethics). Take notes on the new ideas that you read about so we can discuss them in our weekly meeting. We will be referring back to these ideas throughout the year. In the second section, “Application,” you will read, listen, and watch how humanities artists, and scientists have used audio in their work. It will become apparent pretty quickly that thinking about knowledge through sound has lots of applications—and that many of these applications rely on creative engagement across the scholarly disciplines. Pay attention to the ways in which the scholarly disciplines inform each other. We will talk about these in our weekly meeting.

Concepts

Application

Week 2: Sound Studies

At the end of this session, students will have a sense of the field known as Sound Studies as well as some of the reasons that many scholars consider it an important field. They will continue to practice on the H1n recorders and learn how to use the Podtrack equipment for multi-track recording. 

CONCEPTS

  • Violeta Nigro Giunta and Nicolò Palazzetti, “‘New Avenues for Listening.’ Sensory Culture in the Digital Age and the Persistence of Utopia: An Interview with Michael Bull,” Transposition. Musique et Sciences Sociales, no. 6 (December 15, 2016), https://doi.org/10.4000/transposition.1580.

APPLICATION