Sound Subjects

Sound Subjects are a series of seminars and studio labs dedicated to listening as a relational, embodied, and political practice. Inspired by a range of performative, theoretical, and sonic works, the course asks:

How is subjectivity formed through sound? And how can we sound otherwise?

Blending sonic experimentation with political and heartfelt imagination, the seminar challenges the notion of sound as a passive “object” and the listener as its active interpreter. Instead, it explores subjectivity of sound and listening as a dynamic relation—between bodies, environments, texts, and technologies.

Through listening, writing, recording, mixing, and critical reading, students will develop a sound-text piece: a situated artwork that emerges from and responds to the course’s sonic and textual inquiries. This work will unfold both individually and collectively, including during three “Mashup Labs”—intensive gatherings outside the academy considered to dive deeper into the technical, editorial, and engineering dimensions of sound production.

Drawing on abolitionist visions for racial, gender, and environmental justice, students are invited to approach sound as a spatial strategy, a relational methodology, and a deeply affective partner in meaning-making.

The seminar continues the collaboration with Refuge Worldwide Radio, encouraging sound and community-building practices beyond the academy. Contributions to a collective radio broadcast will form part of the course assessment.

Main Sources:

Lawrence Abu Hamdan - (2023) Natq

Daphne A. Brooks – (2021) Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound

Ruth Wilson Gilmore – (2024) Change Everything

R. DiMaggio and Henry Giroux - (2024) Fascism on Trial: Education and the Possibility of Democracy

Stefan Helmreich – (2015) Sounding the Limits of Life

Christine Sun Kim - (2014) The enchanting music of sign language

Trinh T. Minh-ha – (1982) Reassemblage

Dylan Robinson - (2020) Hungry Listening

Ultra-red – (2014) Five Protocols for Organized Listening

Apichatpong Weerasethakul – (2021) Memoria