10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17294
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2038-3460
17294
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Trevor Pinch
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Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
David Novak and Matt Sakakeeny (eds.), Keywords in Sound, Duke University Press, 2015
Text.Serial.Journal
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Book Reviews
2016-07-08
2023-06-20
2016-07-08
2023-08-07
157-158
TS
Trevor Pinch
2016/07/08
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17294
157
Cornell University
2038-3460
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en
158
David Novak and Matt Sakakeeny (eds.), Keywords in Sound, Duke University Press, 2015
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/article/download/17294/16156
7
Book Reviews                                                               157
cept for media studies, they also find it hard to get established in Italy; b)
secondly, theoretical ones: contemporary society is heavily constructed al-
so through media, however, often the issue of the ontological status of
communication and of its media technologies does not receive the atten-
tion it deserves, especially in Italy where the reflection on communication
intended as social fact is very much influenced by the reflection on cul-
tural industry.


References
Alexander, J. (2003) The Meaning of Social Life. A Cultural Sociology, Oxford,
   Oxford University Press.
Benkler, Y. (2006) The Wealth of Networks, New Haven, Yale University Press.
Castells, M. (1996) The Rise of the Network Society, Oxford, Blackwell.
Dayan, D. and Katz, E. (1992) Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History,
   Cambridge, Harvard University Press.
Durkheim, E. (1912) The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, Eng. trans. Oxford,
   Oxford University Press, 2008.
Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence Culture, New York, New York University Press.




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   David Novak and Matt Sakakeeny (eds.)
Keywords in Sound, Durham, Duke University Press, 2015, pp. 272

Trevor Pinch, Cornell University

    Sound studies is a newly emergent interdisciplinary field. Keywords in
Sound is an attempt to address some of the foundational debates underly-
ing sound studies as well as provide thought-provoking essays on differ-
ent topics to do with sound. The theme if anything is anthropological: to
capture sound in its multifaceted nature globally and historically and to
get away from and challenge the rather narrow conception and examples
of sound prevalent in the standard Western canon. This is a promising
approach. Even an entry on a staid topic like “the Body” is given new
resonance through Deborah Kapchan’s essay which describes a sufi sing-
er in North Morocco and how she experiences her sounding body. In this
rendition sound becomes part of a new turn to ontology. The ontological
turn and posthumanism indeed provide the sounding boards for many
158                                                         Tecnoscienza - 7 (1)

contributors.
     The pedagogical idea of the volume is also a good one: to force indi-
vidual contributors to take examples from their own work and push on
the example to engage with some of the critical points of discourse swirl-
ing around sound studies. So think more Raymond Williams “Keywords”
on culture than some sort of lexicon of definitions and explanations of
useful terms. It is more a book to think with and teach with than to give
to people as an introduction to the field. It is a book to place in dialogue
with the major works in the field.
     Many of the central figures in sound studies such as, Steven Feld,
Mark Smith, Tom Porcello, Jonathan Sterne, Stefan Helmreich and
Charles Hirschkind have contributions. Authors who have carried out
major studies such as Tara Rodgers, on female contributions to electronic
music, Mara Mills on sonic technologies and disability, David Novak on
Japanoise music, and Tom Rice on stephoscopic listening are also con-
tributors.
     The major terms at the core of sound studies that one would expect
are there, such as “acoustemology” (a beautiful essay by Steven Feld on
its importance - and in only 10 pages!); “noise” (David Novak of course),
“silence” (a beautiful essay by Ana Maria Ochoa Gautier), “listening”
(Rice), and hearing (Sterne). Strangely absent is Murray Schafer’s term
“soundscape”. Although that term is today heavily criticized (as Novak
and Skeeny point out in their introduction), it is still surely worthy of an
entry. New terms such as “transduction” (Helmreich) gain truculent at-
tention. Also familiar terms such as “echo” and “resonance” are re-
worked in interesting ways. Marc Smith explores echo as a way of think-
ing about how sound does or does not appear in historical writing. Veit
Erlmann takes almost the opposite tack and offers a genealogy of “reso-
nance” on the borderlands between philosophy, science and the humanities.
     Readers of this journal will be a bit disappointed in the lack of sonic
technologies explored. Radio and phonography are covered but if the
goal was to make keywords resonate with the sonic experiences of today’s
readers, it is odd that there is little on the sonic devices and experiences
that animate todays’ listeners: music streaming, laptop DJs, mobile listen-
ing, smart phones and so on. The book indeed has a sort of “classic” hu-
manities echo to it despite of (or maybe because of) its anthropological
good intentions. Entries on “music”, “language”, “image” and “acous-
tics”, although the individual authors always run with interesting exam-
ples, reflect somehow an older genealogy.




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