MASSmcr Lecture series 2020/21
We are going to kick off our lecture series with Dr Stefanie Alisch from Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. She is the interim Chair of the Theory and History of Popular Music at Humboldt University Berlin. With one leg in popular music studies and one in ethnomusicology she also DJs occasionally. Her research spans Broken Beat, Kuduro, Mazurka in the Atlantic realm and most recently Sound System Epistemologies.
Abstract: Towards an Epistemology of Sound Systems - Knowledge of Kuduro’s interactive vocal practice Animação
Sound system cultures of the Black Atlantic such as reggae/dancehall (Back 1988, Stolzoff 2000), jungle/drum&bass (Belle-Fortune 1999) or kwaito (Steingo 2016) have been portrayed in ethnographies. The knowledge required to perform sound system practices, however, has only rarely been construed through an academic lense (Henriques 2011). Operators wield knowledge about technology, room and electro acoustics. Selectors (i.e. DJs) draw on musical knowledge in order manipulate audiences through sound. Deejays (i.e. MCs) must know verbal and bodily-performative ways of directing the audience’s attention on top of knowing the tunes and knowing how to hold a dance together or direct individual dancers. They also disseminate knowledge over the microphone. In this paper I introduce the Angolan EDM form kuduro and focus on knowledge production through kuduro’s interactive vocal practice “Animação” drawing on field research in the Angolan capital Luanda 2011 and 2012.
Upcoming sessions:
21st January: Siân A. Williams (Digitisation Manager - Unlocking Our Sound Heritage, North West) – LGBTQ + MIXTAPE: an immersive re-imagining of BBC Radio Manchester news stories at the height of protest against Section 28 and the AIDS crisis
18th February: Maciej Smółka (Jagiellonian University in Kraków) – City-specific musical sounds: Relationships between people, places and spaces
18th March: Hillegonda Rietveld (London South Bank University)– Frictions between sonic and visual cultures in the context of immersive electronic dance music events
15th April: MASSmcr Symposium @ Digital City Festival Manchester
20th May: Rosa Reitsamer (University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, Austria) – TBC
17th June: Architects Of Rosslyn – Performance: Natural Rites
Tickets for this sessions as well as the others can be booked on Eventbrite for free: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/massmcr-lecture-series-tickets-131471740515?aff=erelexpmlt
