Comparative Media Studies MIT
spacer
spacer Home News Events About CMS Academics Research People Contact Us spacer
Courses
21A.360J/CMS.710J The Anthropology of Sound
S. Helmreich | WebSIS

Examines the ways humans experience sound and how perceptions and technologies of sound emerge from cultural, economic, and historical worlds. Consider how the sound/noise boundary has been imagined, created, and modeled across sociocultural and scientific contexts. Learn how environmental, linguistic, and musical sounds are construed cross-culturally as well as the rise of telephony, architectural acoustics, sound recording, and the globalized travel of these technologies. Questions of sound ownership, property, authorship, and copyright in the digital age are also addressed.