Conference Review
Music, Sound and the Reconfiguration of Public and Private Space
18-19 April 2008
Summary Abstract
The conference addressed the ways in which music and
sound, particularly as they are technologically mediated, have come to
play a pivotal role in reconfiguring the boundaries between the
‘public’ and the ‘private’, enabling individuals, groups and
institutions to establish new and often contested boundaries between
them and creating new kinds of musical and auditory experience. Papers
examined these themes in relation to physical, virtual and social
spaces. They charted how music and sound are used to mark territory,
place and social identities, to humanise space and attract sociality
and to discourage human contact and block off sociality. The conference
set in dialogue perspectives from
historical musicology, ethnomusicology, sociology and psychology,
auditory culture and media studies. Eighteen papers were given, 30
speakers participated, and attendance was 65. The conference was linked
to a sound art concert at Kettle’s Yard; it drew additional funding
from the British Academy and the Institute for Musical Research.
Event Report
The conference aimed to address the ways in which music and sound, particularly as they are technologically mediated, have come to play a pivotal role in reconfiguring the boundaries between the ‘public’ and the ‘private’, enabling individuals, groups and institutions to establish new and often contested boundaries between them and creating new conditions for musical and auditory experience. Papers examined these themes in relation to physical, virtual and social spaces. They charted how music and sound are used increasingly to mark territory, place and social identities, to both humanise space and attract sociality and to discourage human contact and block off sociality. Although some of these developments were apparent with analogue audio technologies and can be traced back to the 19th century, they were greatly exacerbated in the late 20th century bydigitisation and by music’s privileged relations with the internet, both of which render music individualized and mobile to an unprecedented degree. Papers examined the manner in which musical and acoustical dynamics have become integral to the imagination and construction of social, physical and virtual spaces, as well as the ways in which these dynamics are both experienced and negotiated.
The conference crossed between the arts, humanities
and social sciences, setting in dialogue perspectives from musicology
(Nicholas Cook, Suzanne Cusick, Richard Middleton, Sumanth Gopinath,
John Deathridge, Nikolaus Bacht, Roger Parker, Ben Walton),
ethnomusicology and anthropology of music and sound (Georgina Born, Tom
Rice, Philip Bohlman, Martin Stokes, Ruth Davis, Jason Stanyek, Byron
Dueck, Martin Clayton), sociology and psychology of music (Tia Denora,
Eric Clarke, Nicola Dibben), auditory culture, sound and media studies
(Michael Bull, Tom Rice, Jonathan Sterne, James Lastra, John Drever,
David Toop, Joanne Tacchi), geography (George Revill) and critical and
cultural theory (Steven Connor, Ben Etherington and others). It brought
together leading theorists of music, sound, mediation and modernity, as
well as those engaged in rich empirical research – historical,
contemporary and cross-cultural – with the
objective of debating these issues and developing new interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives.
The conference was organised into six sessions. 1)
Urban and mobile music / sound had papers on the transformation of
musical and urban experience by the iPod and walkman (Michael Bull), on
the contemporary soundscape of Hong Kong (John Drever), and on the way
contemporary mobile audio technologies are synergistic with ubiquitous
computing
and new modes of biopower (Sumanth Gopinath and Jason Stanyek), with a
response by Byron Dueck. 2) Sounding and sensing musical space had
papers on the analysis of the complex forms of spatialisation and
virtual intimacy given by recorded music (Eric Clarke), on the
intensely dialogical forms of Islamic sermonising circulated by
cassettes in
contemporary Turkey (Martin Stokes), and on the potential to ‘listen to
paintings’ through a reading of Nicolaes Maes’s ‘The Eavesdropper’
(David Toop), with a response by Nikolaus Bacht. 3) Designing mediated
music / sound had papers on the forces behind the encoding of digital
music in the MP3 format, a particular model of musical subjectivity
that has become a global standard (Jonathan Sterne), on conceptualising
how mediated music produces ramifying forms of privatised and
public-making musical experience (Georgina Born), and on the history of
‘sound design’ in mainstream American cinema through an analysis of Apocalypse Now
(James Lastra), with a response by Steven Connor. 4) Music, sound, and
the everyday had papers on the role of radio in fostering the affective
dimensions of ordinary life (Jo Tacchi), on how mediated music creates
rhythms and modes of control in the workplace (Nicola Dibben and Anneli
Beronius Haake), and on uncontainable sound, the problem of boundaries,
and the sonic abject in a London hospital (Tom Rice), with a response
by George Revill. 5) Music, identity and ‘othering’, and the politics
of space had papers on the changing nature of public musical space in
post-secular Europe (Philip Bohlman), on classical music and the
politics of space
(Nicholas Cook), and on music and the reconfiguration of sacred space
through an analysis of the pilgrimage to the island of Djerba, Tunisia,
by Arab jews (Ruth Davis), with a response by Ben Walton. Finally, 6)
Music: Torture, Healing and Love had papers on the use of music in
torture and the ‘weaponisation of music’ to effect the disintegration
of
subjectivity (Suzanne Cusick’s work presented in her absence by Tom
Rice), on music as a means of reconstructing damaged subjectivities
through community music therapy (Tia Denora), and on music’s capacity
to deconstruct the subject through the spectral qualities of recording
and its ethical undecidability and potential (Richard Middleton), with
a
response by Ben Etherington. This was a rich programme, and the
responses added greatly to the discussions that ensued. The programme
engendered a series of themes running through the event as a whole,
including music’s capacity both to reinforce and to transform identity;
the need to conceptualise the relational nature of musical / sonic
publicness and privateness, their proliferation, nesting and zoning;
and the need to conceptualise listening as a complex, multi-focal
activity, one that is socially and culturally conditioned, that is
ill-served by existing models of listening and that demands to be
retheorised.
