Listening to Everyday Sounds
PART OF THE SOUND STUDIES LECTURE SERIES
Marcel Cobussen
Webinar 29 september 14:15-16:00
"I will speak of two projects I'm working on:
The first one is an e-pub on everyday sounds and sonic materialism, comprising of a collection of brief texts, soundfiles, and photos, and the second one consists of reports on the potential sonic improvement of seven public spaces in the city center of Rotterdam.
Almost inevitably, these projects start to form, inform, and transform one another. I will present some rather simple topics: how do “we” (“humans” as “non-professional listeners”) listen or experience everyday sounds? How can “we” discover the unfamiliar within these familiar sounds? And how can “our” listening to everyday sounds lead – if necessary or desired – to certain interventions that might “improve” the sonic quality of “our” environment."
Marcel Cobussen
Full Professor of Auditory Culture and Music Philosophy at Leiden University (the Netherlands) and the Orpheus Institute in Ghent (Belgium). He studied jazz piano at the Conservatory of Rotterdam and Art and Cultural Studies at Erasmus University, Rotterdam (the Netherlands).
Cobussen is author of several books, among them The Field of Musical Improvisation (LUP 2017), Music and Ethics (Ashgate 2012/Routledge 2017, co-author Nanette Nielsen), and Thresholds. Rethinking Spirituality Through Music (Ashgate 2008). He is editor of The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sonic Methodologies (Bloomsbury 2020, co-editor Michael Bull), The Routledge Companion to Sounding Art (Routledge 2016, co-editors Barry Truax and Vincent Meelberg) and Resonanties. Verkenningen tussen kunsten en wetenschappen (LUP 2011). He is editor-in-chief of the open access online Journal of Sonic Studies (www.sonicstudies.org). His PhD dissertation Deconstruction in Music (Erasmus University Rotterdam 2002) is presented as an online website located at www.deconstruction-in-music.com.