International seminar „Contours of Sound“ brings together anthropology, film and sound studies.
As part of the seminar, Ernst Karel (Harvard University, USA) will give a presentation, “Sonic ethnography: Phonography and the 'sound object' in anthropology”. He will discuss the possibilities of recorded sound as a medium for ethnographic work, and present recent audio pieces from the Sensory Ethnography Lab.
Next slot
of the seminar will present a series of sound walks produced in a collaboration
between members of MoKS (Centre of Art and Social Practices) and students and
staff of the Social & Cultural Anthropology of Tallinn University. The
theme of the sound walks focus on the theme of “listening” and seeks to bring
up questions relating to understanding the sonic potentials of the city of
Tallinn and to understand these potentials on their own terms.
Thirdly, the seminar will unfold in the format of an interactive workshop that will feature the soundtracks of documentaries from previous editionsof the Worldfilm Festival as well as classics of the ethnographic film genre. The purpose of this exercise is to listen to the documentaries and consider the sonic qualities of the documentary's narrative.
The last event in the programme is a round table discussion with filmmakers that will discuss the role that sound plays in the filmmaking craft. Moderators of this session and the round table “Sonic Design in Contemporary Ethnographic Cinema” are Patrick Mcginley (aka Murmer) and dr. Carlo Cubero (University of Tallinn)
The language of the seminar is English. Seminar is organized jointly by the Estonian National Museum in cooperation with the Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory (EU, Regional Development Fund).