Call for papers | 24th Meeting of the Study Group on Historical Sources

18-22.10.2022 | Musical Instrument Museum | Africa Museum | Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

According to its mission statement the Study Group on Historical Sources is dedicated to the discussion of any kind of sources featuring music/sound, both digital and non-digital (e.g. audio and visual recordings, manuscripts, edited texts, images, musical scores, images, films) and seeks to stimulate transdisciplinary and epistemological debates on those sources within archival conditions. Following this requirement, the forthcoming meeting returns to a museum – this time in Belgium, after the meeting in Ethnological Museum in Berlin in 2006 - and proposes the following topics:

Can we decolonize archives? Is a re-reading of the archive scene necessary today to present sound documents as representative of a culture, a single group, a community or a particular place?
How do artists, performers, tradition bearers, collectors, and users (as well as institutions like museums and their curators and employees) appropriate archives and for what purpose?
What are the challenges of the digital-virtual environment in what concerns archiving (historical) sound documents?

Archives in general and sound archives, in particular, are today a vast field of inquiry. Institutions, including museums, are also engaged in this process by undertaking new ways of using sounds, other sources, or related artifacts. More importantly, sound archives are now opening their walls to new creative actions, offering residencies for artists – what Andrea Zarza Canova (2021) defines as the “rhythm of archives” – or reinventing themselves through performative sounding actions. Listening to sound archives, as Annette Hoffman argues (2015), is a performative and affective action and not a matter of silent preservation of memory. The digital fever (Steiner 2017), by its side, opened the floor to other challenges related to ethical issues, sound appropriation, or chaos, when the internet is transformed into (an)archive (Ernst 2020). According to Miguel García (2020), working with sound archives are now “practices which occur outside the realm of archives, museums, libraries and other state and private-owned institutions”.

We would like to encourage contributions that include innovative approaches to the treatment of sources for ethnomusicological research, approaching the archive through the questions above. Other themes will also be accepted.

Profile of the presentations

position papers related to new directions and proposals (30 minutes with discussion)
report papers related to ongoing work/projects or already completed (20 minutes)
panels, which should consist of at least three presenters plus a chair (120 minutes)
workshops related to technical tasks

Paper proposals, not exceeding 300 words, should be sent to the programme committee consisting of Gerda Lechleitner Este endereço de email está protegido contra piratas. Necessita ativar o JavaScript para o visualizar., Susana Sardo Este endereço de email está protegido contra piratas. Necessita ativar o JavaScript para o visualizar., Miguel A.García Este endereço de email está protegido contra piratas. Necessita ativar o JavaScript para o visualizar., and Remy JadinonEste endereço de email está protegido contra piratas. Necessita ativar o JavaScript para o visualizar..

Deadline for submissions: 30.04.2022

Deadline for results: 15.06.2022

Website | Call for papers

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Call for papers | 24th Meeting of the Study Group on Historical Sources