Re-Making Sound: An Experiential Approach to Sound Studies

(Hardback)

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Re-Making Sound is concise and flexible primer to sound studies. It takes students through six ways of conceptualizing sound and its links to other social phenomena: soundscapes; noise; sound and semiotics of the voice; sound and/through/in text; background sound/sound design; and sound art. Each chapter summarizes the history and scholarly theoretical underpinnings of these areas and concludes with a student activity that concretizes the historical and theoretical discussion via sound-making projects. With chapters designed to be flexible and non-sequential, the text fits within various course designs, and includes an introduction to key concepts in sound and sound studies, a cumulative concluding chapter with sound accompanying podcast exercise, and an extensive bibliography for students to pursue sound studies beyond the book itself.

Reviews

Re-Making Sound is splendid. Porcello and Patch advance sound studies in unique and compelling fashion and a whole generation of future scholars of the audible will be in their debt. -- Mark Smith, Carolina Distinguished Professor of History at the University of South Carolina, author of A Sensory History Manifesto (2021)
Porcello and Patch have crafted a thoughtful, wide-ranging, and ear-opening introduction to the broad and expansive field of sound studies. Re-making Sound creates a jumping-off point for students, teachers, and other readers interested in exploring the links between sound and society. -- David Novak, Associate Professor of Music, UC Santa Barbara, author of Japanoise: Music at the Edge of Circulation (2013)
Re-Making Sound is a wonderful and innovative book, offering an immensely valuable and unique introduction to sound studies. By supporting their exposition with a focus on sensory experience and a set of classroom exercises geared towards making and listening, Thomas Porcello and Justin Patchs original and timely contribution will make rewarding reading for sound focused scholars and students alike. -- Daniel Fisher, Associate Professor of Anthropology, UC Berkeley, USA, author of The Voice and Its Doubles: Music and Media in Northern Australia (2016)

Author Bio

Thomas Porcello is Professor of Anthropology at Vassar College, USA. He is co-editor of Wired for Sound: Engineering and Technologies in Sonic Cultures (2005), winner of the 2006 Klaus P. Wachsmann Prize for Critical and Advanced Study in Organology, the Society for Ethnomusicology. Justin Patch is Assistant Professor of Music at Vassar College, USA. He is the author of Discordant Democracy: Audition, Affect and the Presidential Campaign (2018).