Redhead, L and Birtwistle, Andy, eds. 2025. Journal of Sonic Studies 28 (2025) - Materials of Sound, Journal of Sonic Studies, 28. 2212-6252 [Edited Journal]

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Abstract or Description

The last decade has witnessed what has been characterised as a material turn in the arts and humanities, which has shifted attention from the role played by language and discourse within culture to that of objects, technologies, materials, and non-human organisms and processes. New ways of thinking about materiality prompted by developments in realist philosophy, including new materialism and speculative realism, have raised important questions about the place of the material in arts and culture, nonhuman agency, the relationship between technology and culture, anthropocentrism, and the environment. However, consideration of the sonic has not always been at the forefront of these discussions – perhaps because sound has been understood to be immaterial or addressed in ontological ways that privilege its sources. In this way materialist approaches to the sonic raise the possibility of rethinking the nature of sound itself, and thereby what is at stake in it.
In this special issue of the Journal of Sonic Studies we explore how new ways of thinking about materiality might contribute to our understanding of sound, and at the same time how sound might contribute to developing ideas on materiality.

This special issue continues and builds on the Journal’s discussion of sonic materiality in its two ‘Materials of Sound’ special issues edited by Caleb Kelly (2018 and 2019) and focuses on two fundamental questions: what is sound’s materiality and what is sonic materialism?

The responses to this question comprise both articles and sound artworks that specifically address the issue of sonic materiality.

Item Type:	Edited Journal
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Music
Date:	15 July 2025
Item ID:	39216
Date Deposited:	15 Jul 2025 15:26
Last Modified:	15 Jul 2025 15:26
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/39216

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