The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies
Trevor Pinch editor Karin Bijsterveld editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:14th Mar '13
Should be back in stock very soon
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£162.50(9780195388947)
Written by the world's leading scholars and researchers in the emerging field of sound studies, The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies offers new and fully engaging perspectives on the significance of sound in its material and cultural forms. The book considers sounds and music as experienced in such diverse settings as shop floors, laboratories, clinics, design studios, homes, and clubs, across an impressively broad range of historical periods and national and cultural contexts. Science has traditionally been understood as a visual matter, a study which has historically been undertaken with optical technologies such as slides, graphs, and telescopes. This book questions that notion powerfully by showing how listening has contributed to scientific practice. Sounds have always been a part of human experience, shaping and transforming the world in which we live in ways that often go unnoticed. Sounds and music, the authors argue, are embedded in the fabric of everyday life, art, commerce, and politics in ways which impact our perception of the world. Through an extraordinarily diverse set of case studies, authors illustrate how sounds -- from the sounds of industrialization, to the sounds of automobiles, to sounds in underwater music and hip-hop, to the sounds of nanotechnology -- give rise to new forms listening practices. In addition, the book discusses the rise of new public problems such as noise pollution, hearing loss, and the "end" of the amateur musician that stem from the spread and appropriation of new sound- and music-related technologies, analog and digital, in many domains of life. Rich in vivid and detailed examples and compelling case studies, and featuring a companion website of listening samples, this remarkable volume boldly challenges readers to rethink the way they hear and understand the world.
The wealth of audiovisual examples in these links and the breadth of the topics covered make this handbook a valuable scholarly reference and teaching resource. Bibliographies and notes at the end of each essay and the comprehensive index increase the book's usefulness as a reference tool...Essential. * Choice *
ISBN: 9780199995813
Dimensions: 170mm x 245mm x 33mm
Weight: 966g
612 pages