Hi Everyone,

Mack Hagood, one of the candidates for the CMS job search will be
giving a talk today which I believe will be of interest to many AIMS
folks. Hope to see some of you there!

Presentation: “Sonic Technologies of the Self”
Friday, 1/25
Williams Hall 160
2:30-3:30pm
In this talk I’ll give an overview of my research on “audio-spatial
media,” technologies used to create a sense of physical and
psychological space through the mediation of sound. These white noise
machines, noise-canceling headphones, tinnitus maskers, nature
recordings, and mobile sound apps are media designed to add a level of
personal technological control in relations between sound, space,
self, and other. Audio-spatial practices and technologies work to
control attention rather than to transmit information, though they are
often used to facilitate concentration on a spreadsheet or
entertainment content. Thus my research both complicates and augments
screen-centric theory in media studies, reflecting how media practices
reshape, remix, bridge, and separate spaces to structure the
possibilities of embodied experience and copresence.

Bio:
Mack Hagood is a doctoral candidate at Indiana University’s Department
of Communication and Culture, where he does ethnographic research in
digital media, sound studies, and popular music. He has taught courses
on sound cultures, global media, ethnographic methods, and audio
production. He and his students won the Indiana Society of
Professional Journalists’ 2012 Best Radio Use of Sound award for their
documentary series “I-69: Sounds and Stories in the Path of a
Superhighway.” His publications include studies of indie rock in
Taiwan (Folklore Forum) and the use of noise-canceling headphones in
air travel (American Quarterly). He recently completed an article on
combat Foley in Fight Club and is now finishing his dissertation,
titled “Sonic Technologies of the Self: Mediating Sound, Space, Self,
and Sociality” You can learn more about his work at
www.mactrasound.com.