Auralities

The ‘Auralities’ research network is concerned with investigating, debating and understanding practices of audition, broadly conceived. Our heading is necessarily in the plural: practices of audition are shaped by wider cultural practices that shift across different times and places; differences between ‘hearing’ and listening’ have preoccupied philosophers and scientists alike; and even definitions of sound itself presume a normalized baseline of human sound perception (traditionally cited as 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz), averaged across large populations. On an individual level, too, pluralities prevail, as audition is typically understood as a psychoacoustic process that involves two ears – ‘binaurality’ – in which sound, space and time become closely entangled. Our seminar will explore these plural facets of sound, hearing and listening by bringing together scholars and practitioners from a range of disciplines across the humanities, social and natural sciences.

In particular, we aim to extend the current domains of sound studies chronologically, geographically, biologically, and culturally, to question assumptions about shared norms of hearing/listening. We are thus especially interested, somewhat paradoxically, in what we might understand as a post-aural moment in sound studies, where literal audition or the presence of audible sound are no longer presumed as a necessary part of aurality.

To join our email list, contact Dr Andrea Grant

Administrative assistance: networks@crassh.cam.ac.uk