*CFP* "SOUND AND LISTENING SPACES", SPECIAL ISSUE, SOUNDEFFECTS JOURNAL

Since what has popularly been called the spatial turn in the second half of the 20th century, space has been considered a social, political and cultural construct, as e.g. Henri Lefebvre points out in The Production of Space (1974). This shift in the notion of space has also affected the perception of artworks taking place in space. With sound studies and soundscape theories (e.g. Murray Schafer), the temporal artform of music has mutated into the spatial medium of sound. Whether we listen to the sounds of natural or urban environments, online playlists, audio books, curated sound art, muzac, or experience the tingling sensations of ASMR, we find ourselves as listeners positioned in an affective space filled with sound and at the same time created by sound – a social construct. These listening spaces are at the core of this issue of SoundEffects.

The intersection of spaces and sounds is currently being renegotiated owing to the revolution of digital media, with sound spaces becoming even more fluid and increasingly mobile and portable. For instance, listening to one’s own exclusive playlist or a podcast when strolling through the park creates a personal listening space. Live concerts, soundscapes, and sound art are performative spaces that produce an atmosphere on their own terms, although they can also be transmitted and saved if necessary. The space of listening becomes a selective space that changes the immanent sounds of a specific place. This mobility of modern media, as well as a deeper concern for various aspects of listening (affective, sociological, political, cultural, phenomenological etc.), make it interesting to regard the experiences of sound and music as particular listening spaces.

This special issue of SoundEffects focuses on the listening spaces that we enter, experience and create.

We invite articles concerning the following subjects (this is not an exhaustive list):

• The technology of listening 
• Mobile listening 
• The physical, social, political, phenomenological, affective, cultural, and technological aspects of listening spaces 
• Listening and places 
• The philosophy of music, sound and space 
• Sound as constructed listening space in learning environments, institutions, cities, sales etc. 
• The “live” space: performance and participation in listening spaces

Important deadlines:

Abstract deadline (300 words): 1 April 2020

Decision regarding the abstracts: 22 April 2020

Article deadline (subject to a positive review of the abstract): 1 August 2020

Published: December 2020

Please send your abstract to Therese Wiwe Vilmar: twv@cc.au.dk

Direct link to the call.

SoundEffects is an open access, international, peer-reviewed journal on sound and sound experience operating on the Open Journal System. SoundEffects brings together a plurality of theories, methodologies, and historical approaches applicable to sound as both mediated and unmediated experience. The journal primarily addresses disciplines within media and communication studies, aesthetics, musicology, comparative literature, cultural studies, psychology and sociology. In order to push the boundary of interdisciplinary sound studies into new areas, we also encourage contributions from disciplines such as health care, architecture, and sound design. As an international journal taking a humanities-based interdisciplinary approach to sound, SoundEffects is responding to the increasing global interest in sound studies. SoundEffects does not take any charge for submission, review or publishing of articles.