Affective Atmospheres : Site-specific sound, neighborhood music and the social formation.

Affective Atmospheres: Site-specific sound, neighborhood music and the social formation

Conference organized by

Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Arts and Humanities, American University of Beirut.

Abstract

The seminar invites scholarly and artistic contributions that make stimulating and fertile connections between sound and the society. The aim is to consider the idea of social formation (Althusser et al) that comprises an ever-evolving atmosphere of a place. Sonic atmosphere (aka ambience or ambient sound) indicates the essential background sounds, which are present in a site, place, area or location. From a position of social awareness, it is crucial to understand how the emergent and contingent sonic atmosphere of a site is constituted with multiple social influences, including but not limited to neighboring and socially diffused music and site-specific sounds that are part of the everyday ambience, which is not static but historically transformative. Likewise, social music (LaBelle 2001), as well as sounds and music diffused in urban or rural environment (e.g. Azaan or street demonstration) generate site-specific associations e.g. emanating from and reflected within a specific locale, or city. These elements require critical listening and investigation not only to understand the atmospheric layers they may suggest, but also to speculate their historical constituents as well as their contribution to or influences from the processes of social formation. Often such an inclusive idea of atmosphere proliferates a sense of plurality and multiplicity embedded in the public and social life of a place engaging the sociality in a more affective means. In this seminar, the various everyday iterations and social aspects of site-specific music and sound will be examined to locate how they engage with the contingent collectivity and fluid historicity of the site within a spirit of inclusion, contributing to the studies of sound, ambiances and social life. A series of concerts and live performances by invited artists, and screening of a number of film and video works will complement and enrich the discourse of the seminar with a practice-based approach.

Keynotes

• Professor David Toop, CRiSAP, University of the Arts, London
• Professor Marcel Cobussen, ACPA, Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
• Professor Cathy Lane, CRiSAP, University of the Arts, London
• Prof. Ashish Avikunthak, Harrington School of Communication, University of Rhode Island