This workshop series is designed for researchers involved in the Emmy Noether Research Group: Sound System Epistemologies (DFG). It offers an in-depth exploration of postqualitative and posthumanist approaches, focusing on how to ethnographically study the bodily and material dimensions of artistic and cultural practices within sound system cultures.
Participants will engage with fundamental epistemological debates, such as questioning anthropocentric perspectives, embracing ontological plurality, and understanding knowledge as relational and emergent. The series also addresses methodological implications, including conducting research beyond representation, positioning the researcher as part of sociomaterial entanglements, and navigating ethical considerations.
A central theme will be working with heuristic and sensitizing concepts like body, technology, knowledge assemblage, entanglement, and vibrancy, offering new ways to approach sound as an epistemic medium. Practical sessions will introduce methods tailored to sound culture research, including (auto-)ethnographic observations, soundwalks, listening sessions, sound-based interviews, and the use of video stimulated recall in embodied contexts. Participants will also explore innovative analytical approaches such as diffractive analysis, mapping and cartography methods inspired by Deleuze, Guattari, and Braidotti, and visual or sound-based coding techniques.
The workshops aim to equip researchers with theoretical and practical tools while creating space for collaborative discussion and the development of strategies to analyze the complex entanglements of bodies, technologies, spaces, and sound in cultural practices.
The workshop series will kick off on 4 July 2025 and will be held at the Institute of Musicology at Humboldt University. If you’re interested, just drop a line to mail@matthias-haenisch.de.