Journal of Sonic Studies
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About this portal
The portal is used to publish contributions for the online OA Journal of Sonic Studies, the storage of A/V materials, and the storage of previous issues.
contact person(s):
Marcel Cobussen ![](/rc/images/email.gif)
,
Vincent Meelberg ![](/rc/images/email.gif)
url:
http://sonicstudies.org/about
Recent Activities
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The Legacy of Broadcast Stereo Sound: The Short Life of MTS, 1984-2009
(2018)
author(s): David Sedman
published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
Multichannel Television Sound (MTS) is an innovation that brought new dimensions in sound to American television from the 1980s to the 2000s. This article explores the brief history of MTS and its rise to prominence, with a particular focus on both the early “experimental” years of MTS sound and its short-lived “golden era.” The article concludes with an evaluation of the lasting impact of the technological shift from monaural to multichannel sound design. Although there were numerous technical and industrial challenges to MTS sound, its introduction was essential to the development of television sound design prior to the introduction of Digital and Dolby surround sound in the early 2000s.
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White Noise and Television Sound
(2018)
author(s): Justin St. Clair
published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
Two of the most notable critical accounts of television sound from the 1980s are John Ellis’s “Broadcast TV as Sound and Image” (1982/1999) and Rick Altman’s “Television/Sound” (1986), both of which argue that television audio sustains, focuses, and directs audience engagement with the medium. This essay uses the work of Ellis and Altman to contextualize another televisual text from the 1980s, Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise (1985/1991). DeLillo’s engagement with television sound is characterized by a somewhat contradictory double logic. On the one hand, he anxiously echoes circulating theoretical critiques, offering—as do Ellis and Altman—that television audio expressly manipulates an inattentive audience. Simultaneously, however, DeLillo productively utilizes television sound as a literary device, interjecting snippets of audio into the novel as a method of engaging topics ranging from corporatization to cultural anxiety.
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Introduction: Rethinking Theories of Television Sound
(2018)
author(s): Carolyn Birdsall
published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
Studies on television sound typically begin by emphasizing that television, unlike film, relies more heavily on sounds than images and that the sound practices used in the production of television’s primary genres (including news, sports, game shows, sitcoms, commercials, etc.) are based on practices developed not for film sound but rather for radio. For example, in his 1982 book Visible Fictions John Ellis argues that television, unlike film, employs sound “to ensure a certain level of attention, to drag viewers back to looking at the set” (Ellis 1982: 128). Sound is more important for television, in other words, because it appeals to the sense of hearing rather than the voyeuristic pleasures of the cinematic gaze. Rick Altman’s 1986 essay “Television/Sound” similarly argues that film viewers assume “the stance of the voyeur,” while television employs sound to draw the viewer’s attention away from “surrounding objects of attention” (Altman 1986: 50). Altman also argues that the television soundtrack “serves a value-laden editing function, identifying […] the parts of the image that are sufficiently spectacular to merit closer attention on the part of the intermittent viewer” (Altman 1986: 47). Altman thus concludes that the average viewer watches television intermittently, and the soundtrack enables these “intermittent viewers” to follow the program even if they are not watching the images.
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Reflections on Sonic Environments
(2018)
author(s): Vincent Meelberg
published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
At home, whether in the study or in the bedroom; outside, while shopping or jogging; at a dance event or in a gym – we are always surrounded by sounds. Sounds of (background) music, sounds of sirens, the silent drone of a PC, buzzing mosquitoes during a sultry night, sounds of neighbors, footsteps at the front door of my dwelling, sounds produced by my body. Accidental sounds or results from sound design; disturbing or pleasant sounds; attracting attention or registered (almost) unconsciously …
This essay consists of 15 short reflections on sounds in our everyday life, sounds which were topical while working on this contribution. A kind of sonic diary.
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SOUNDMAPPING: Critiques And Reflections On This New Publicly Engaging Medium
(2018)
author(s): Jacqueline Waldock
published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
Soundmaps have captured the imagination of acoustic communities, libraries and radio stations alike. These interactive maps have placed soundscape collections and research in a more public and interactive space than ever before. However, does this new form reflect some of the polarizations of past sound projects or are there new fractures to be considered, such as gender, economy and the domestic/public divide? This paper will reflect upon the challenges and hierarchies that have developed alongside this new medium and will begin to critique and question this new form of sound engagement.
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On the Performance of Sound. The Acoustic Territory of Post-War Sarajevo
(2018)
author(s): Evy Schubert
published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
This article concludes a research on the acoustic territory of post-war Sarajevo and a history of its acoustic performance. It will demonstrate the results of the investigation of the participation, contribution and perception of the selected soundscape in terms of its socio-political context.
The research focused on two primary questions. First: can urban sound be a direct mirror image of the underlying socio-political condition and, thus, a performance of its source? Second: can, therefore, political peace have its own sound?
For this research, the city of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, was chosen. There were two main reasons for its selection, one geographical and the other historical. Sarajevo lies in a narrow valley and is surrounded by hills, a geography comparable to an old Greek amphitheatre, with many of the same acoustic implications. On the mountaintops surrounding the city, you can hear the total sound image as well as detect singular sounds. During the war, between 1992 and 1995, these mountaintops were occupied by Serbian military forces, creating a circular front line without exit that isolated the city from the rest of the country and the world. This led to the assumption that Sarajevo must have a unique and rare acoustic history.