Gerard Ryan Visiting Researcher
We are delighted to confirm that Prof Gerard Ryan, from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Barcelona, will be joining us as a Visiting Researcher in Music between 16th Feb – 16th April, as Researcher in Residence in Newcastle University’s Sound + Environment Research Group.
During the visit Gerard will undertake a programme of workshops, collaborative research and dissemination activities under a broader project on listening to consumption. The work builds on his previous contribution to the Sound + Environment symposium in Newcastle and is structured around several interrelated strands.
A couple of upcoming events:
Weds 18th Feb, 2pm – 4pm, Farrell Centre: Workshop & Electromagnetic Soundwalk (CLICK HERE FOR SIGN-UP, PLACES LIMITED): The workshop will introduce the conceptual framing of the electromagnetic soundwalk as a way of listening to the infrastructures of consumption, followed by a guided walk in and around central Newcastle. A debrief session will then invite participants to reflect on what they heard and how this alters their understanding of everyday consumer environments. The activity can be offered to students across Music, Architecture, Landscape Architecture and related disciplines, and potentially opened to wider university staff and local partners. Poster attached.
Weds 4th March, 1pm – 2pm, Henry Daysh Building, 6.02: Record Covers as Research: Talk by Gerard Ryan as part of APL research seminar series. To be followed by a record cover design workshop.
Weds 11th March, 3pm – 5pm, Henry Daysh Building, 5.15 – Workshop on Album Cover Design & Parafictional Research: The workshop would introduce parafiction as a mode of embedded inquiry and invite participants to design LP or cassette covers and associated materials as speculative research devices. Working with students from Music, Fine Art and Architecture, the workshop would explore how graphic design, text and packaging can stage questions about consumer culture while circulating as plausible cultural objects.
Collaborative Research: Collaborative research during the visit will focus on four interrelated strands that treat listening as a way of studying consumption. First, a project on mukbang videos examines how amplified ingestion sounds organise mediated togetherness, asking what it means to “eat with” others by listening rather than sharing a table. Second, a taxonomy of consumption sounds seeks to map the diverse acoustic phenomena that structure everyday consumer life, from signals and alarms to curated silences, in order to give researchers and practitioners a clearer vocabulary for working with sound. Third, a study of silence in waiting rooms explores how quietness and low-level ambient noise shape the felt experience of waiting, treating silence as a form of sonic infrastructure that guides attention, conduct and judgements of time. Finally, work on the sound of formats investigates the handling noises and playback artefacts of media such as vinyl, cassettes and streaming platforms, treating these format sounds as part of how value, memory and authenticity are produced in contemporary consumption.
Throughout the visit Gerard would be very much interested in participating in existing research activities, including research seminars, immersive sound concerts, interdisciplinary meetings, and teaching where appropriate. The aim is to integrate the visit into the ongoing life of the university rather than treating it as a stand-alone residency.