Description:

In recent years, Sound Studies has emerged as a vital area of study and practice at the crossroads of the humanities and sciences, one where compelling questions and groundbreaking projects have begun to emerge. This “sonic boom” can be heard reverberating from cutting-edge Hollywood sound design, to the work of engineers using digital tools to playback recordings made decades before Edison, to research that “sonifies” deep space images, to biomedical studies of the connection between music, language and the brain, to the expansion of podcasting across media industry sectors, and the Museum of Modern Art’s first major exhibit on sound.

Meanwhile, the academic study of sound–as a structuring aspect of social and cultural life, as a domain of artistic expression, and as a component of perception and cognition crucial to human communication–has proven to be a fertile strategy for interdisciplinary dialogue, inspiring unorthodox inquiries into media technology, urban studies, musicology, acoustic anthropology, architectural sound design, film studies, digital games and storytelling, auditory neuroscience, biomedical engineering, computer programming and the history of radio and television. The result has been a rash of award-winning books, growth of sound laboratories, founding of new scholarly associations, publication of several Sound Studies readers, launches of new journals, and the appearance of Sound Studies courses–and all this despite the fact that the field has remarkably little formalized presence in academic departments.

Sound Studies is clearly booming. But how do we best sustain it? What are the challenges and opportunities facing Sound Studies at this critical moment in its history? How might it take root in the academy and usefully grow? How should Sound Studies be institutionalized and what are the implications for existing disciplines?

The Sonic Boom: Sustaining Sound Studies conference will draw on Northwestern’s intellectual resources to address these questions through agenda-settingpresentations by top scholars.

The keynote talk will be delivered by seven-time Academy Award-winning sound designer and director, Gary Rydstrom (Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Monsters, Inc., Minority Report, Finding Nemo, Lincoln).