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Workshop 3 – 2024

Sound in Urban Environments from a Social Sciences Perspective: Field Recording, Sonic Archives, and Sound Documentary.

 

Invited tutors

  • Dr Nicolas Puig, anthropologist, URMIS, IRD, Paris
  • Dr Rémi Boivin, Postdoctoral fellow in sociology, AMU, Aix-Marseille
  • Amna Ilyas, visual and sound artist, Vasl Artists’ Association, Lahore
  • Bénédicte Barillé, Department of image and sound, EHESS, Paris
  • Fanny Dujardin, PhD candidate in arts theory, AMU, Aix-Marseille

Abstract

In this workshop, we will explore sound from a multidisciplinary perspective, focusing on its role as both a subject of study and a device for understanding social and cultural phenomena. The main goal is to deepen our understanding of how sound can be used as a research tool and in creative endeavors. The workshop will be divided into three main parts. Firstly, we will review the current state of sound studies, focusing more particularly on the anthropology of sound and related fieldwork methods, which may include collecting soundscapes or conducting interviews. Additionally, we will address oral survey techniques, sound archives, and ways of articulating voice with sound. Secondly, we will dedicate time to fieldwork in an urban environment with a given topic, where we will collect different types of sound (close or distant, a voice, atmosphere) in a specific location with an objective of producing a short and experimental sound documentary. Lastly, students will collectively present their work and mock research projects at the end of the workshop.

W3 schedule

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4th
14:30-16:00 Objectives of the workshop and roundtable
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5th
Comparative approaches in sound studies
9:30-11:15 Ethnography of Sound Perceptions in Cairo Nicolas Puig

The making of the “new Marseille” (France): telling urban and cultural transformations through sound Rémi Boivin

11:15-11:30 COFFEE/TEA BREAK
11:30-13:00 Recording oral history: from survey to archive Bénédicte Barillé

Unearthing Sound: Excavating the Anthrophony of the Past Amna Ilyas

An introduction to sound documentary as creative writing Fanny Dujardin

13:00-14:00 LUNCH BREAK
14:00-15:45 Introduction to sound recording techniques Bénédicte Barillé & Fanny Dujardin
15:45-16:00 COFFEE/TEA BREAK
16:00-17:30 ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION (ALL WORKSHOPS TOGETHER)
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6th
Approaching the field: from theory to practice
9:30-11:15 Designing a research protocol for collective fieldwork
11:15-11:30 COFFEE/TEA BREAK
11:30-13:00 Designing a research protocol for collective fieldwork
13:00-14:00 LUNCH BREAK
14:00-17:30 Supervised fieldwork practice at Empress Market: observation, recording, taking notes, etc.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7th
9:30-11:15 Debriefing fieldwork: listening, naming, classifying sound (Media Lab)
11:15-11:30 COFFEE/TEA BREAK
11:30-13:00 Debriefing fieldwork: listening, naming, classifying sound (Media Lab)
13:00-14:00 LUNCH BREAK
14:00-15:45 Group work: preparation of knowledge/project restitution supervised
15:45-16:00 COFFEE/TEA BREAK
16:00-17:30 Group work: preparation of knowledge/project restitution supervised
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8th
9:30-11:15 Group work continues
11:15-11:30 COFFEE/TEA BREAK
11:30-13:00 Group work continues
13:00-14:00 LUNCH BREAK
14:00-16:00 Plenary group presentation by trainees
16:00-16:30 COFFEE/TEA BREAK
16:30-18:00 Valedictory Address

Feedback from resource persons, students and trainers

Delivery of certificates

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

READINGS

Vincent Battesti, Nicolas Puig, “The sound of society”: A method for investigating sound perception in Cairo. The Senses and Society, 2016, Contemporary French Sensory Ethnography, 11 (3), p. 298-319. https://hal.science/hal-01380972

Vincent Battesti, Nicolas Puig, “Towards a sonic ecology of urban life: Ethnography of sound perception in Cairo”. The Senses and Society, 2020, 15 (2), p. 170-191. https://hal.science/hal-02890453

Timothée Brochier, Nicolas Puig, “The Sound of Silence: An Immersive Approach to Spearfishermen’s Ecological Knowledge Along the Dakar Coastline”. Journal of Ethnobiology, 2023, 43 (2), p. 125-139. https://hal.science/hal-04281800

Michael Bull (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Sound Studies, London: Routledge, 2018.

Adriana Cavarero, For More than One Voice. Toward a Philosophy of Vocal Expression. Standford University Press, Standford, 2025.

Knut Ebeling, 2016, “The Art of Searching. On Wild Archaeologies from Kant to Kittler”, The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics, n° 51, p. 7–18.

Yannis Hamilakis, 2013, Archaeology_and_the_Senses. Human experience, memory, and affect. Cambridge Unviersity Press, Cambridge.

David Howes, The varieties of Sensory Experience: A Sourcebook in the Anthropology of the Senses,Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991.

Ari Y. Kelman, “Rethinking the Soundscape: A Critical Genealogy of a Key Term in Sound Studies”, The Senses and Society, 2010, 5(2), p. 212-234. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233598095_Rethinking_the_Soundscape_A_Critical_Genealogy_of_a_Key_Term_in_Sound_Studies

Tim Ingold, “The Temporality of the Landscape”, World Archaeology, Vol. 25, No. 2 , 1993.

Tom Rice, “Ethnographies of sound”, in Michael Bull (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Sound Studies, London: Routledge, 2018.

R. Murray Schafer, The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World, Destiny Books, 1993.

Georg Simmel, The Metropolis and Mental Life, 1903.

Georg Simmel, Sociology of the Senses, 1907.

ONLINE RESOURCES

Sonic relations

Locustream Soundmap

Gens de la Seine

The Map of Sounds

A Slightly Curvy Place HKW

Freesound

Felix Blume