The course introduces you to the possibilities and challenges of using sound to preserve knowledge and memories, spanning institutional and personal domains. Looking at different techniques for building archives in documentary film, family recordings and mixed media art, you will learn about history, ethics and methods for using sound in the context of archives.

Course Description

SESSION 1: ARCHIVES AND COUNTER-ARCHIVESArchives have become a core subject for academics and contemporary artists that dissect the relationship between institutional power and colonial violence. The first session introduces the theories around archives and counter-archives across archival art and ethnography, touching on David Zeitnlyn’s ‘Anthropology in and of the Archives’.

SESSION 2: SONIC ABSENCE
Jumana Manna’s 2015 film ‘A Magical Substance Flows into Me’ deals with new ways of reactivating sound archives with those who contributed to its creation as she uses her mobile phone to replay sounds from Palestine across local households. We will discuss the role of sonic absence from the archive and its relation to colonial violence, considering Michelle Caswell’s writing on archival representation.

SESSION 3: BEARING WITNESS
How do we listen to stories of those who cannot speak? Looking at the work of Mounira Al-Solh, we will discuss the importance of oral storytelling and micro-histories displayed in tactile art forms, including textile art and mixed media installation from Lebanon and Palestine.

SESSION 4: SOUNDWALKING
This session will involve a practical exercise to introduce soundwalking as a methodology to archive the sounds and feelings of spaces and places that affect us. Using our mobile phones and prompts for recording, we will cover how soundwalking can be employed as a tool to archive acoustic environments of the present.

SESSION 5: FAMILY ARCHIVES
Our own stories matter, but it can be difficult to record a close family member or distant relative about their past experiences. We will look at the methods and ethics of recording family archives, with a focus on trauma-informed interview techniques, sensory elicitation, and ethnographic to preserving personal stories.

SESSION 6: PRESERVING SOUND FOR THE FUTURE
After recording sounds of people, places, and the environment, what do we do with them? This session introduces the basics of metadata, from technical formats to contextualising information. We will also cover how different online and offline spaces can preserve and display sound recordings to support their survival and access for different audiences.