Journal of Sonic Studies | Call for Papers: Soundscapes of South-East Asia

Music, radio, and TV broadcasts; blaring loudspeakers, public announcements, and street conversations; city sounds, sounds of progress, sounds of revolution, or sounds of change; sounds deliberately produced or emerging unintentionally, serving a disciplinary function or expressing forms of freedom; musical as well as non-musical (functional) sounds.

South-East Asia is filled with sounds; indeed, some people would say that it is a noisy part of the world. However, is it possible to identify a specific South-East Asian soundscape? And if so, where are the roots to be found, and how did these sounds achieve their current form?

The Journal of Sonic Studies is searching for scholarly and artistic contributions that deal with the relation between South-East Asian history, culture, society, and politics and the production, distribution, and reception of sounds, noises, and silence. The broader aim of this special issue is to establish “sound” as an analytical category that provides us with challenging perspectives on and a new understanding of South-East Asia. Therefore it does not focus on any particular historical period or research methodology, but seeks to bring scholars and artist-researchers together who share an interest in South-East Asian soundscapes.

Themes for submission may include but are not limited to:

–      The sonic identity of any South-East Asian space

–      Differences between Western and South-East Asian soundscapes

–      South-East Asian (contemporary) sound art

–      The role, position, and function of music in contemporary South-East Asian societies

–      Sonic histories of South-East Asia

–      Listening cultures of South-East Asia

–      Politics of sounds or the sounds of politics in South-East Asia

–      The role of silence in South-East Asian societies and/or discourses

–      The role of sounds in South-East Asian religions

–      Rural “versus” urban soundscapes

 

Deadline

Potential contributors are invited to submit completed essays by January 6, 2016.

For more information, or to submit an essay, please contact noise@sonicstudies.org

The Journal of Sonic Studies is a peer-reviewed, online, open access journal providing a platform for theorists and artist-researchers who would like to present relevant work regarding auditory cultures, to further our collective understanding of the impact and importance of sound for our cultures. The editors welcome scholarly as well as artistic research and also expect all contributions to have a firm theoretical grounding. Priority is given to contributions that explicitly use the Internet as a medium, e.g. by inserting A/V materials, hyperlinks, and the use of non-conventional structures. JSS invites potential contributors to use the Research Catalogue as the platform in which the submission is presented (seehttp://www.researchcatalogue.net/). Other submission guidelines can be found atsonicstudies.org/guidelines.