Re-Making Sound

Re-Making Sound is concise and flexible primer to sound studies. It takes students through six ways of conceptualizing sound and its links to other social phenomena: soundscapes; noise; sound and semiotics of the voice; sound and/through/in text; background sound/sound design; and sound art. Each chapter summarizes the history and scholarly theoretical underpinnings of these areas and concludes with a student activity that concretizes the historical and theoretical discussion via sound-making projects. With chapters designed to be flexible and non-sequential, the text fits within various course designs, and includes an introduction to key concepts in sound and sound studies, a cumulative concluding chapter with sound accompanying podcast exercise, and an extensive bibliography for students to pursue sound studies beyond the book itself.

Thomas Porcello is Professor of Anthropology at Vassar College, USA. He is co-editor of Wired for Sound: Engineering and Technologies in Sonic Cultures (2005), winner of the 2006 Klaus P. Wachsmann Prize for Critical and Advanced Study in Organology, the Society for Ethnomusicology.
Justin Patch is Assistant Professor of Music at Vassar College, USA. He is the author of Discordant Democracy: Audition, Affect and the Presidential Campaign (2018).

Figures
Biographies
Preface
Introduction
1. Soundscape: Sound, Space, and Listening
2. Noise: From the Everyday to the Exceptional
3. Voice: Hearing and Ascribing Individual and Social Identity
4. Sound on the Page: Echoes and Resonances in Writing
5. Sound Design/Designing Sounds: Intentionally Crafted Sonic Worlds
6. Sound Art: What is Sound? Debates and Examples
Concluding Exercise: Putting the Pieces Together Through Audio Narratives
Acknowledgments
Index