Image: Zac Gudakov (2020)
The 2025–2026 ASCA Cities seminar will take up the theme of ‘Sound Cities’ to explore how sound not only resonates in the urban environments, but also how sound shapes our conceptualizations of and experiences in the city. In the first session on Friday 6 Feb 2026, 15.00-17.00 in room 0.16 (E-lab) at the University of Amsterdam, Turfdraagsterpad 9, Amsterdam, we will engage with two texts – and one podcast episode – that approach urban soundscapes as a theoretical, conceptual and methodological issue.
Co-organized by Carolyn Birdsall, Linda Kopitz and Alex Gekker, the seminar sessions are open to all and aim to bring together perspectives from from media and culture, cultural geography, sound studies and musicology, environmental humanities, anthropology and technology studies as well as architecture and design research. For more information and registration, please contact Linda Kopitz (l.kopitz@uva.nl).
Readings
– Rodgers, Scott. 2025. “Urban Soundtracks”. The Mediated City Podcast. https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-zrhjx-17d565b
– Beer, David. “Tune Out: Music, Soundscapes and the Urban Mise-en-Scène”. Information, Communication & Society 10, no. 6 (2007): 846–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180701751031.
– Raimbault, Manon, and Danièle Dubois. 2005. “Urban Soundscapes: Experiences and Knowledge.” Cities 22 (5): 339–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2005.05.003.
Optional Reading
– Tosoni, Simone, Zlatan Krajina, and Seija Ridell. “The Mediated City Between Research Fields: An Invitation to Urban Media Studies ‒ Introduction.” International Journal of Communication 13 (October 2019): 11–11. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/13546.
All readings can be accessed via this shared Surfdrive folder as well.
Following Sessions
Fri. 13 Feb. 2026: Sébastien Darchen (University of Queensland), “Underground Music Cultures and Music-Making in Los Angeles”, Time: 3-5pm, Location: room 0.16, Turfdraagsterpad 9, Amsterdam.
Fri. 20 Mar. 2026: Naomi Bueno de Mesquita and Tzlil Sharon (Amsterdam University of the Arts), “Polyphonic Archive”, Time: 3-5pm, Location: room 0.16, Turfdraagsterpad 9, Amsterdam.
Fri. 24 Apr. 2026: Alfredo Thiermann Riesco (École Polytechnique Fédérale Lausanne), “Radio-Activities: Architecture and Broadcasting in Cold War Berlin”, Time: 3-5pm, Location: room 0.16, Turfdraagsterpad 9, Amsterdam.
Fri. 22 May 2026: Sandra Jasper (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg) and Jonathan Prior (Cardiff University), “Urban Bioacoustics: Listening to Animal Voices in the GDR”, Time: 3-5pm, Location: room 0.16, Turfdraagsterpad 9, Amsterdam.