Class Cultural Studies

This CU is important in the field of Sound Studies in that Cultural Studies provides a theoretical framework and critical approach to the ways in which sound, its production, circulation, reception and expressions, as well as the values associated with it, participate in and are impregnated by culture. Here, culture is understood in its multiple forms.  Drawing on the work of various philosophers, anthropologists, sociologists, historians, musicologists and cultural critics, and examining significant examples of sound experiences in both high and popular culture, the CU aims to explore how sounds, their creation, design, technological mediation and consumption, as well as the modes and practices of listening, influence and are influenced by processes of cultural identification, domination, valorisation, expression and symbolisation.

Not applicable

1. A brief introduction to cultural studies  1.1 What is culture? Conceptual and disciplinary issues.   1.1.1 The notion of "culture" and its multiple meanings. 2. What are sound studies in relation to cultural studies?  2.1 How to think about sound in the context of its culture?  2.2 Sounds: material or immaterial culture? 3. Ways and variations of listening  3.1 Listening as a cultural activity and skill.  3.2 Social, cultural and technological contexts of listening. 4. An economy/politics of sounds: cultural aspects of their production, distribution and consumption  4.1 Cultural industries and musical subcultures  4.2 Musical genres, taste and social distinction  5. Sound geographies and utopias: imagination, deterritorialisation and sound fiction  5.1 A soundscape radioscope  5.2 The sounds and music of cities  5.3 Sounds in motion 6. Resonances: Subjectivities, expressions and affections in the age of social media 6.1 Musical avatars 6.2 ID 6.3 Sound bodies 7. Cultures and technologies of silence

In addition to the theoretical presentation of content and encouraging continuous student participation, there will be constant use of audio and visual examples (films, reports, YouTube videos, excerpts from musical works and sound art). One of the assessment moments, the short essay on personal sound experience, will be used, on the one hand, to stimulate critical thinking and self-awareness, but also to allow the teacher to get to know the students better, promoting interaction in the learning process. The remaining assessment moments aim to promote scientific autonomy (final research project) and examine knowledge assimilation (written test).

- Adorno, T., The Culture Industry. Selected essays on Mass Culture, Londres and New York: Routledge, 1991 - Attali, J., Bruits. Essai sur l'économie politique de la musique, Paris: Fayard/PUF, 2001 - Barker, C. & Jane E. A., Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice, 5th Ed., Los Angeles - London: SAGE, 2016. - Bijsterveld, K., Sonic Skills. Listening for Knowledge in Science, Medicine and Engineering, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. - Bourdieu, P., A Distinção - Uma Crítica Social da Faculdade do Juízo, Edições 70, 2010. - Bull, M. (Ed.), The Routledge Companion to Sound Studies, London - New York: Routledge, 2019. - Cage, J. Silence - Lectures and Writings, Hannover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1963 - Cox, C. & Warner, D. (Eds) Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music, New York - London: Bloomsbury, 2017. - Schulze, H., Sound Works. A Cultural Theory of Sound Design, New York: Bloomsbury, 2019. - Schulze, H., Sonic Fiction (The Study of Sound), New York: Bloomsbury, 2020.