Authors’ Workshop in cooperation with the Research Group: Epistemes of Modern Acoustics at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

                
Sound objects — harps, organs, tuning forks, noise level meters, echoes, inner voices, or the harmonies of the spheres—have a long history that is deeply entangled with the cultural and sociopolitical configuration of these objects, the knowledge of professional and lay users, and scientific expertise. Sound Objects in Flux brings these enmeshments to light, tracing the ways in which sound objects oscillate between concrete sound, instrumental objectification, and theoretical concept. Initiated in 2016, the Working Group asks when and how research became concrete objects, and what agency these objects have accrued in the domains of knowledge, science and cultural heritage. By focusing on the global, long-term, and large- scale reconfiguration of sound objects and their manifold relationships with cultural and scientific practices, the Authors’ Workshop will explore and reframe the assumptions made in more general studies on the formation of scientific objects. Dealing with the ephemerality of sound allows us to explore overlaps between material objects, immaterial objects, and knowledge about those objects. Objects are in flux; they never “act” or stand alone. It is through sociopolitical or scientific negotiation, translation, and transmission that objects cross boundaries of nations, social units, or disciplines.

Organized by Viktoria Tkaczyk, Rebecca Wolf, and Leendert van der Miesen

Programme