Call for Proposals: “Sounds of Dissent”: A Practice-Based Research Symposium on Music, Sounds and the Political at Dublin City University
“Sounds of Dissent”:
A Practice-Based Research Symposium on Music, Sounds and the Political
11th – 12th April 2024
Dublin
A two-day symposium on music, sounds and the political is hosted and organised by the Dublin City University’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (DCU FHSS), and sponsored by Research, Training and Networking allowance of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions – Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Call for Presentations
We inhabit a world that grapples with multiple crises – from ecological, war, energy, living costs to democracy, human rights, social justice and equality crises. Whether as researchers, practitioners, or concerned members of the public, we are behoved to critically engage with such a world in an attempt to make sense of it and propose alternatives. One effective way to do this is through artistic practice.
A call for practice-based research (PBR) contributions to contemporary political debates is, arguably, essential for three main reasons. First, PBR goes beyond the conventional modes of knowledge production and dissemination within academia and elsewhere, and as such helps us navigate our way through complex political issues using art's power to accommodate innovative approaches and unorthodox interpretations. Second, PBR appears to have the advantage of communicating ideas in more immediate, sensuous, affective and alluring ways, thus displaying greater potential for engaging various audiences. Third and lastly, PBR both results from and generates desire for a timely and much-needed call to action for those who seek to build a better world.
We hereby invite researchers and practitioners across the disciplines to present and discuss their art-based explorations of contemporary political phenomena that are in one way or another related to music and sounds. Here, the political is broadly defined to include various domains and experiences of life that pertain to either capital “P” or small “p” political agendas (i.e., public vs. private spheres and macro- vs. micro-levels), or that serve either particularist or universalist political ends (i.e., “identity politics” vs. “politics of identification”). The request for adherence to music and sounds in this call is twofold: namely, PBR contributions should either explore the political in/via music and/or sounds (i.e., aural texts, cultures, communities, events, practices, discourses, and phenomena of all sorts) or, alternatively, use music and/or sounds to shed light on the political topics under study.
Symposium Themes
Potential themes for this PBR symposium include, but are not restricted to, the following:
- Sounding ecological crisis / Ecological crisis in and through music
- Sounding anti-capitalist and anti-globalization struggles / Anti-capitalist and anti-globalization struggles in and through music
- Sounding populism of all sorts / Populism in and through music
- Sounding post-truth, authoritarianism, and censorship / Post-truth, authoritarianism, and censorship in and through music
- Sounding struggles of minority groups (racial, ethnic, sexual, gender, cultural) / Struggles of minority groups in and through music
- Sounding all strands of feminism and queer politics / Feminism and queer politics in and through music
- Sounding health, education, housing and employment crises / Health, education, housing and employment crises in and through music
- Sounding the ethics of new technologies / The ethics of new technologies in and through music / AI and non-human actor/agency in and through sound and/or music creation
- Sounding everyday politics (from food consumption to the culture of mobile listening) / Everyday politics in and through music
- Sounding political utopias / Political utopias in and through music
- The aural ecology of the city / Sonic pollution / (Un)desirable sounds
- The aural (re-)imagining and (re-)shaping of various spheres and spaces – the public and the private, the commons and the commercial, the urban and the rural, the community and the family
Submission Details
The symposium will offer participants the opportunity to publicly display and discuss their artefacts (sonic installations, screenings, and live performances) with members of the public in a suitable environment (DCU Cregan Library & National Botanic Gardens).
Please submit an abstract (300 words for presentations), a short bio (100 words), and a sample of PBR contributions (if available) to jelena.gligorijevic@dcu.ie. The deadline to submit proposals is Friday, 10 November 2023.
Registration and other relevant details will be available in due course.