Urban Music Studies

Scholars Network

25/02/2024
by R. Kuchar
Comments Off on KISMIF Conference 2024 – Call open until March 15th

KISMIF Conference 2024 – Call open until March 15th

We are pleased to announce the seventh edition
of KISMIF International Conference ‘DIY Cultures, Democracy and Creative Participation’ (KISMIF 2024) which will take place in Porto, Portugal, between July 10 and 13 of 2024.

The submission of abstracts for this Conference is open to researchers, academics, activists and artists working in all areas of sociology, anthropology, history, cultural economics, cultural studies, geography, philosophy, urban planning, media and cognate disciplines such as design, illustration, popular music, film, visual and performing arts. This initiative follows the great success of the past six KISMIF Conferences (held in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2021 and 2022) and brings together an international community of researchers, artists and activists focusing on alternative music-art scenes and do-it-yourself cultures.

This year´s edition marks the 10th anniversary of KISMIF!

More information at conference website.

 

18/02/2024
by Alenka Barber-Kersovan
Comments Off on Sustainable Cities and Cultures of Music

Sustainable Cities and Cultures of Music

Music4Change invites papers, panels and workshops for the 2024 International Research School on the theme of Sustainable Cities and Cultures of Music to be held on 6th-8th November at the University of Groningen. During these three days we will explore new ways of researching cities in relation to sustainability within the realm of music in a variety of formats, including through workshops, sound walks, interactive performances, and papers. While cities prove essential entities for the development, cultivation, and transformation of musical cultures, institutions and practices, urban music-making also involves unprecedented challenges in the face of multiple global economic, environmental, and political crises. This research school seeks to explore the changing organization of musical values, activities, and preferences taking place within them. Further we seek to expand upon new and (re-)emergent musical practices to investigate more sustainable alternatives for live music performance spaces, and for media and preservation strategies, educational models, and health systems that encourage the proliferation of musical communities within and across livable, inclusive, and sustainable cities. During this international research school, we come together to explore research and innovations in the formation of sustainable musical cultures and communities, and to critically explore musical and sonic pathways towards more sustainable cities.

Themes relevant for this school may include:

  • Music and (post-)urban ecologies
  • Music media and sustainable production and reception platform
  • Music festivals and sustainable practices
  • Sustainable creativity, sonic fictions and the urban imaginary
  • Urban displacement, gentrification and responses to cultural / musical extractivism
  • Living archives and other forms of preserving critical musical practices of threatened musical communities and genres
  • Educational models which encourage environmentally, economically and/or socially sustainable music-making
  • Sustainable research methods & infrastructures for music & sound-based disciplines
  • Sustainable industrial and economic models for musicians and musical institutions
  • Sustainable music practices for health and care
  • Forms of urban engagement which draw attention to sustainability goals and issues
  • Acoustic sustainability, citizenship and DIY approaches to sustainability
  • Inclusive listening practices in urban settings
  • Sound mapping of cities in relation to ecology and biodiversity
  • Re-thinking music cities and communities in relation to mobility, nomadism and de-urbanization

More: https://music4change.eu/activities/international-research-school-2024/

 

15/02/2024
by Conference Documentation
Comments Off on Conference “Home, Work and Music: Musical Practices in Domestic Spaces” ++ Vienna, Febr. 23rd/24th, 2024

Conference “Home, Work and Music: Musical Practices in Domestic Spaces” ++ Vienna, Febr. 23rd/24th, 2024

                                                                                                                                                                                                   This conference – Home, Work and Music – explores issues and debates centred around music in domestic spaces. It will showcase current research on the empirical, methodological and theoretical implications of centring the domestic in music research.

Domestic spaces are regularly overlooked in scholarly, sectoral and policy discourses, but their significance as entangled sites of music creation and performance, and the issues raised by their visibility are striking and urgent. From basements to bedrooms, domestic settings are key nodal points where personal lives, global digital infrastructures and creative networks meet. Scrutiny of the lived realities of these digitally porous sites affords critical insights into technological mediations of musicians’ creative labour in the home.

Date: 22 – 23 February 2024
Location: mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Fanny Hensel-Hall & Online

The conference is organized by a group of renowned international scholars and hosted by the Department of Music Sociology at mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna:

Emília Barna, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary
Ingrid Tolstad, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway
Paul Harkins, Edinburgh Napier University, UK
Rosa Reitsamer, University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, Austria
Nick Prior, University of Edinburgh, UK

More information on conference website.

For any enquiries regarding the programme and submissions, please contact: muscids2024@gmail.com 

12/02/2024
by Alenka Barber-Kersovan
Comments Off on Resonant Fabrics – Listening to Urban Worlds

Resonant Fabrics – Listening to Urban Worlds

Soundscapes profoundly connect listeners to the places they inhabit and thereby reveal the vibrant and resonant fabrics that lie beneath the delineated spaces of visual representation. In Resonant Fabrics, Marvin Heine explores and celebrates the many-layered and ambiguously undulating sense- and soundscapes as they shape and are shaped by urban cultures and particular ways of listening. By examining historical documents, contemporary accounts, and original empirical material through a combination of actor-network-theory, ecology, and sound studies scholarship, he embraces, in a stylistically embodied and often poetic manner, the sonic urban world in all its fragile, ephemeral, yet deeply affective sonority.

More: https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-6643-4/resonant-fabrics/?c=311034657

 

18/01/2024
by Alenka Barber-Kersovan
Comments Off on This Must Be the Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better

This Must Be the Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better

This Must Be the Place by Shain Shapiro introduces and examines music’s relationship to cities. Not the influence cities have on music, but the powerful impact music can have on how cities are developed, built, managed and governed. Told in an accessible way through personal stories from cities around the world — including London, Melbourne, Nashville, Austin and Zurich — This Must Be the Place takes a truly global perspective on the ways music is integral to everyday life but neglected in public policy.
More you can find here https://repeaterbooks.com/product/this-must-be-the-place/


24/11/2023
by Alenka Barber-Kersovan
Comments Off on Singing in China, theory and fieldwork in music geography – A Shanghai case study and singing during the covid-19 pandemic

Singing in China, theory and fieldwork in music geography – A Shanghai case study and singing during the covid-19 pandemic

Dear colleagues, Dear friends,

I am pleased to announce you my PhD viva voce examination in geography, entitled:

“Singing in China, theory and fieldwork in music geography – A Shanghai case study and singing during the covid-19 pandemic”.
It will be held in French, the 28th of November 2023 from 1:00 PM in Jean-Baptiste Duroselle’s room in La Sorbonne and by videoconference. A videoconference link is now available with Zoom. You generally only have to click on the link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86125755240?pwd=aWcwQkJpcklyNUkxaHNqakY2ZnpIUT09
The viva will be held in French. To make the organisation easier, please connect from 5 to 10 minutes before the viva’s beginning planned at 1:00 PM.

Abstract
In China, singing is an activity practiced by a large number of amateurs and professionals in various places. Perceived as a vector of morality, singing has been considered for several centuries as a powerful political tool by government power. The analyses carried out in this thesis aim to highlight the contemporary nature of this political dimension of singing, which is expressed both in urban development and in terms of the supervision of the population, particularly at times for crisis.
Situated within music geography and Urban Music Studies approaches, this thesis considers singing places as geo-indicators of the socio-political organisation and urban production of the Shanghainese metropolis. The study of singing places provides information on the construction of the city as being determined by the local authorities. In particular, singing can be examined within the framework of heritage and gentrification based on cultural reconstruction strategies. This evolution of the social and urban environment of the metropolis works in tandem with urban fabric. In particular, certain singers can be observed to appropriate public spaces, during the time of their activities.
The political dimension of singing appeared more pronounced during the management of covid-19 by the Chinese government. The analysis of the effects of this pandemic on the Chinese social and political space illustrates the persistence of singing as a means of communication and advocacy, mobilised both by the government and by population. The consequences of this crisis were also at the root of a reflection on the data collection primarily online, qualified here as “mediated fieldwork”.

Keywords: singing, music geography, socio-spatial dynamics, urban organisation and production, covid-19 pandemic, “online” fieldwork, political communication.
Best regards,

Sarah DEFOIN–MERLIN
Doctorante en géographie
UMR 8586 Prodig
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne – UFR 08

17/11/2023
by Alenka Barber-Kersovan
Comments Off on Singing in China, theory and fieldwork in music geography

Singing in China, theory and fieldwork in music geography

Dear colleagues, Dear friends,

I am pleased to announce you my PhD viva voce examination in geography, entitled:

“Singing in China, theory and fieldwork in music geography – A Shanghai case study and singing during the covid-19 pandemic”.

It will be held in French, the 28th of November 2023 from 1:00 PM in Jean-Baptiste Duroselle’s room in La Sorbonne and by videoconference. The link will be available a few days before the viva.

The examiners are:
– Ms Sara Adhitya, Senior Research Fellow, University College of London
– Ms Manuelle Franck, Professeure des universités, Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales
– Ms Marie Gibert, Maîtresse de conférences, Université Paris Cité
– Mr Thierry Sanjuan, Professeur des universités, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (thesis supervisor)
– Ms Isabelle Thireau, Directrice d’études, École des hautes études en sciences sociales

Keywords: singing, music geography, socio-spatial dynamics, urban organisation and production, covid-19 pandemic, “online” fieldwork, political communication.

Best regards,

Sarah DEFOIN–MERLIN
Doctorante en géographie
UMR 8586 Prodig
Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne – UFR 08


04/10/2023
by Alenka Barber-Kersovan
Comments Off on Reimagining Music Venues: Toward New Models of Conservation and Innovation for Ontario’s Live Music Spaces

Reimagining Music Venues: Toward New Models of Conservation and Innovation for Ontario’s Live Music Spaces

Co-authored by Daniel Silver and Jonathan Bunce this project has been carried out as a collaboration between the University of Toronto – School of Cities and Wavelength music. The research findings underscore the importance of fostering an adaptable and resilient live music ecosystem in Ontario. The proposed policy recommendations aim to provide practical paths toward this goal, offering a transformative blueprint to uplift and revitalize the Ontario live music scene. This endeavour, although complex, holds the promise of a more vibrant and sustainable live music industry, resonating powerfully with the broader cultural and economic vibrancy of the province.

Download the full report here.

22/09/2023
by Alenka Barber-Kersovan
Comments Off on New Geographies of Music Urban Policies, Live Music, and Careers in a Changing Industry

New Geographies of Music Urban Policies, Live Music, and Careers in a Changing Industry

Edited by Ola Johansson,  Séverin Guillard and Joseph Palis this book

  • provides an accessible and succinct overview of current discussions on cities and contemporary music policies
  • offers novel insights spanning the fields of urban and cultural geography, urban policy, music and media studies
  • Features interdisciplinary analyses and topical case studies by global experts

More https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-99-0757-1#toc

17/07/2023
by Alenka Barber-Kersovan
Comments Off on The Sound of a City: A Study of the Phenomenon

The Sound of a City: A Study of the Phenomenon

 Maciej Smółka examines in his new publication the sound of a city in terms of the relationship between music and the cultural specificity of a given urban area. This cultural phenomenon becomes apparent when artists from a region create music, which indisputably linked to its place of origin, such as in the case of the Nashville Sound, the psychedelic rock of the San Francisco Sound, Prince’s the Minneapolis Sound, or the Seattle Sound. The publication presents a theoretical tool how to research, analyse, interpret, and define the sound of a city.

More https://www.peterlang.com/document/1369553