The subject of unwanted, unruly, or otherwise transgressive sound has proved to be fertile but problematic territory across a wide range of academic disciplines, professional practices, and creative endeavours. At one end of the scale, acousticians and sound designers aim to eliminate and control unnecessary environmental sound, working on the premise that noise damages human health, economic productivity, and meaningful communication. At the other, a thriving artistic scene finds noise to be a rich source of creative inspiration, making music out of electronic distortion and mechanical sound, challenging conventional aesthetic norms and political rationales. A thriving field of research in the humanities identifies noise as a fundamentally social problem: rather than intrinsically good or bad, humanities scholars argue that unwanted sound is a field of contestation: social groups stake competing claims for whose sounds belong and whose do not, who has the right to make a sound and who does not, and who can have respite from everyday sound and who cannot. As a matter of public and health policy, noise has long been problematic precisely because it is experienced and defined differently by different people, for reasons of social, physical and neuro diversity. This workshop will bring together different kinds of researchers and practitioners to showcase diverse current approaches to noise across disciplines and to identify new, shared, ways of working.

• 15 January 13.00-15.00
  Public Session 1: Positioning Noise
  At this session, each speaker will deliver ‘position papers’ outlining their work on noise, offering definitions, examples, challenges, and ideas for future research
• 15 January 18.00-19.30
  Public Concert
  A chance to hear creative works inspired by the workshop theme of ‘Negotiating Noise’
• 16 January 16.00-18.00
  Public Session 2: Manifesting Possible Futures
  Workshop participants will present the outcome of their time together by presenting three new manifestos for noise. These will bring together different disciplinary perspectives into new agendas for working with sound.

 Co-organised by James Mansell (University of Notthingham) & Sanne Krogh Groth (Sound Environment Centre at Lund University)