Sounding Knowledge Network
Lead Research Organisation:
University of the Arts London
Department Name: London College of Communication
Abstract
'Sounding Knowledge Network' responds to the visuo-centrism of conventional educational methods and the resulting lack of participative and embodied learning opportunities. It does so by investigating the potential of a Sonic Pedagogy that promotes and practices embodied, sensory and tacit learning possibilities, which are able to nurture a sensational dimension in education that can engage students within the classroom as well as the complex socio-political environments we live in (Ebner, 2019).
Current educational patterns conceptualise knowledge as predominantly visual and text-based (Gershon, 2011). This focus on visual methods and contents represents the general dominance of visual epistemologies and hierarchies that exclude many learning participants and their experiences which find no representation or cannot be grasped within this hegemonic scheme (hooks, 2009). This exclusion and limitation of the learning experience has educational consequences: disinterest and disenfranchisement of student sub-groups, resulting in gaps in educational attainment and exclusion (Ortloff, 2009), which translate into societal consequences: disengagement from the democratic process, a lack of active citizenship and cultural participation leading to social and cultural exclusion, poverty, extremism and right-wing populism.
Addressing these complex interdependencies, this network brings together a multidisciplinary group of specialists from Sound Art and Sound Studies, Education Studies, Pedagogy and Civic Education, as well as students, teachers, Early Career Researchers and other stakeholders, in order to conceptualise, test and develop sound beyond a narrow expectation of hearing a referential or objective sound (Gallagher, 2017), as radical sensory and participatory element for education. The network will establish Sonic Pedagogy and the practice of Aural Literacy as modes of teaching and learning that can admit the "sensational" (Springgay, 2011), support participative and plural teaching and learning, and thus a participative and inclusive civic identity and agency. The project is developed in the triangulation of Sound Studies, Sound Arts and Education (Pedagogy and 'Bildung'), and within the frame of a 'sonic turn' in arts and social science (Eng, 2017).
The network will be realised through five events: Three online meetings - two to exchange expertise and methods, and one to evaluate possibilities for transfer and impact; and two offline workshops, to create, test and apply Sonic Pedagogy in the form of a toolkit which, as Zine-Workbook, will be available online and in print to be used as a manual for teaching and learning from sound. There will be an online manifestation via the UAL and CRiSAP websites, as well as social media presence. The online presence serves to document and archive, to produce additional material and to expand the network and disseminate the research globally. Social media enables faster exchanges and plural authorship, to bring the networking events to a broad public in a very immediate way. This will trend the idea of a Sonic Pedagogy and create a popular imagination, important to reach academic and popular impact. Each network event will be edited into a radio programme, broadcast both in Germany and the UK. These will open the project to an international audience, offering an opportunity to experience the benefits of a Sonic Pedagogy and its transferable tools. The insights of the network will further be publicised through two peer-reviewed articles and a conference presentation.
Key issues under investigation are:
- The multi- and transdisciplinary working between Sound Studies, Sound Arts and Pedagogy;
- The connection between lack of attainment among student subgroups, social exclusion, lack of civic agency and a visual focus in education;
- The scholarly and public understanding of the benefits of a multisensory, participatory and embodied pedagogical practice.
Current educational patterns conceptualise knowledge as predominantly visual and text-based (Gershon, 2011). This focus on visual methods and contents represents the general dominance of visual epistemologies and hierarchies that exclude many learning participants and their experiences which find no representation or cannot be grasped within this hegemonic scheme (hooks, 2009). This exclusion and limitation of the learning experience has educational consequences: disinterest and disenfranchisement of student sub-groups, resulting in gaps in educational attainment and exclusion (Ortloff, 2009), which translate into societal consequences: disengagement from the democratic process, a lack of active citizenship and cultural participation leading to social and cultural exclusion, poverty, extremism and right-wing populism.
Addressing these complex interdependencies, this network brings together a multidisciplinary group of specialists from Sound Art and Sound Studies, Education Studies, Pedagogy and Civic Education, as well as students, teachers, Early Career Researchers and other stakeholders, in order to conceptualise, test and develop sound beyond a narrow expectation of hearing a referential or objective sound (Gallagher, 2017), as radical sensory and participatory element for education. The network will establish Sonic Pedagogy and the practice of Aural Literacy as modes of teaching and learning that can admit the "sensational" (Springgay, 2011), support participative and plural teaching and learning, and thus a participative and inclusive civic identity and agency. The project is developed in the triangulation of Sound Studies, Sound Arts and Education (Pedagogy and 'Bildung'), and within the frame of a 'sonic turn' in arts and social science (Eng, 2017).
The network will be realised through five events: Three online meetings - two to exchange expertise and methods, and one to evaluate possibilities for transfer and impact; and two offline workshops, to create, test and apply Sonic Pedagogy in the form of a toolkit which, as Zine-Workbook, will be available online and in print to be used as a manual for teaching and learning from sound. There will be an online manifestation via the UAL and CRiSAP websites, as well as social media presence. The online presence serves to document and archive, to produce additional material and to expand the network and disseminate the research globally. Social media enables faster exchanges and plural authorship, to bring the networking events to a broad public in a very immediate way. This will trend the idea of a Sonic Pedagogy and create a popular imagination, important to reach academic and popular impact. Each network event will be edited into a radio programme, broadcast both in Germany and the UK. These will open the project to an international audience, offering an opportunity to experience the benefits of a Sonic Pedagogy and its transferable tools. The insights of the network will further be publicised through two peer-reviewed articles and a conference presentation.
Key issues under investigation are:
- The multi- and transdisciplinary working between Sound Studies, Sound Arts and Pedagogy;
- The connection between lack of attainment among student subgroups, social exclusion, lack of civic agency and a visual focus in education;
- The scholarly and public understanding of the benefits of a multisensory, participatory and embodied pedagogical practice.
| Description | As we are still in the research phase none of the key findings are conclusive or finalised, but research so far has shown a much more than anticipated need for a sonic educational resource, such as this project is trying to develop and disseminate. The participants of the network meetings have been unambiguous in their articulation of need, and we have received numerous emails to know more about the network and interests to hear about its findings and the resource it is trying to build. We are engaging with these interested parties to clarify their need to be able to develop a nuanced and applicable outcome. |
| Exploitation Route | The outcomes in process, as they are currently will be worked into a Zine-toolkit, which will be freely distributed for use in teaching and workshopping across disciplines. |
| Sectors | Education,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | https://crisap.org/research/projects/sounding-knowledge/ |
| Description | As part of narrative findings of non-academic impact we can state that we are contacted by teachers and teacher trainers to know more about the network to gain tools for their teaching. While this narrative does not prove impact, it shows paths to impact that are developing and on which we will continue to report. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Education |
| Impact Types | Societal |
| Description | Collaboration with Dr. Werner Friedrichs |
| Organisation | University of Bamberg |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Salomé Voegelin's practice works through participatory, collective and communal approaches and pursues sonic pedagogies that trouble the lines of knowledge from an uncertain and plural listening. Through this collaboration she has brought a sound studies perspective to examine pedagogical practices in the pursuit of developing a sonic pedagogy. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Werner Friedrichs researches in the field of civic education (Politische Bildung). His focus is on the development of a concept of civic education that is not oriented at imparting knowledge about political institutions, actors and several political procedures. Rather, it is about the question of positioning - as an articulation of political subjectivity. In his conception, the practice of becoming political takes place on the border between space and place. For this, the ways of subjective situatedness must be made tangible, which are produced with the help of things, architectures, movements, facilities, or assemblies. He has brought this valuable valuable perspective to help develop the notion of a sonic pedagogy. |
| Impact | Sounding Knowledge Online Meeting: 29 September 2022 (multi-disciplinary: sound studies, sound arts, civic education, pedagogical studies). Sounding Knowledge Online Meeting: 6 October 2022 (multi-disciplinary: sound studies, sound arts, civic education, pedagogical studies). Aural Literacy Workshop 1: 2-3 December, 2022 - University of Bamberg, Germany (multi-disciplinary: sound studies, sound arts, civic education, pedagogical studies). Aural Literacy Workshop 2: 9-10 February, 2023 - University of the Arts, London (multi-disciplinary: sound studies, sound arts, civic education, pedagogical studies). |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Collaboration with Kerstin Meissner |
| Organisation | University of Bayreuth |
| Country | Germany |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Salomé Voegelin's practice works through participatory, collective and communal approaches and pursues sonic pedagogies that trouble the lines of knowledge from an uncertain and plural listening. Through this collaboration she has brought a sound studies perspective to examine pedagogical practices in the pursuit of developing a sonic pedagogy. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Dr. phil. Kerstin Meißner researches, writes and teaches at the intersections of critical pedagogy, cultural practice and educational philosophy. Kerstin's research interests are: Praxeological and Relational Perspectives on belonging as "becoming-with" Critical Diversity Studies (focus: Racism Studies, Decolonial Education, Education in the Migration Society, East/German Migration Histories) Cultural and political education, with special emphasis on socio-ecological-technical transformation and new materialism Educational potentials of sound, sonic pedagogy, aural literacy Qualitative social research (focus: discourse and dispositif analysis) Knowledge production and science communication |
| Impact | Sounding Knowledge Online Meeting: 29 September 2022 (multi-disciplinary: sound studies, sound arts, civic education, pedagogical studies). Sounding Knowledge Online Meeting: 6 October 2022 (multi-disciplinary: sound studies, sound arts, civic education, pedagogical studies). Aural Literacy Workshop 1: 2-3 December, 2022 - University of Bamberg, Germany (multi-disciplinary: sound studies, sound arts, civic education, pedagogical studies). Aural Literacy Workshop 2: 9-10 February, 2023 - University of the Arts, London (multi-disciplinary: sound studies, sound arts, civic education, pedagogical studies). |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Collaboration with Kevin Logan |
| Organisation | University of the Arts London |
| Department | Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice (CRiSAP) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Salomé Voegelin's practice works through participatory, collective and communal approaches and pursues sonic pedagogies that trouble the lines of knowledge from an uncertain and plural listening. Through this collaboration she has brought a sound studies perspective to examine pedagogical practices in the pursuit of developing a sonic pedagogy. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Kevin Logan is an artist, researcher, and educator based in London. His work engages cross-disciplinary fields and incorporates installation, sound, moving-image, and performance. Kevin has exhibited and performed internationally. His audio-visual works have been screened worldwide, including at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; the Pompidou Centre, Paris; GlogauAir Art Centre, Berlin; LOOP Festival, Barcelona; Soundcrawl Festival, Nashville, Tennessee; Reelworld Film Festival, Toronto; Videoholica, Varna, Bulgaria; Video Art Festival Miden, Kalamata, Greece; Moozak Festival, Vienna; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei. Kevin has designed the sound for several award-winning short films and animations. He has had sound works released on compilation media and broadcast, and currently delivers a monthly hour-long radio show for RTM.FM. He also runs the experimental music Bandcamp label £aBowl Releases. He has worked collaboratively with a variety of art practitioners and organisations throughout his career and embraces socially engaged practices. He is a founder member of the collective thickear, who formed in London in 2012-2016. Their work engaged concepts of exchange and public transaction, and they have performed participatory works and commissioned pieces throughout Europe. Kevin studied BA (Hons) Fine Art [1993] and MA Multimedia Arts [1999], both at Liverpool JMU, and MA Sound Arts [2012] at London College of Communication, UAL. In 2018 he completed a PhD with CRiSAP, at University of the Arts London. This practice-led research explored sonic-thinking through mediation, performance, and pedagogic and curatorial outcomes. His theoretical and experimental texts are published in print and online, and he presents regularly at conferences and symposia. |
| Impact | Sounding Knowledge Online Meeting: 29 September 2022 (multi-disciplinary: sound studies, sound arts, civic education, pedagogical studies). Sounding Knowledge Online Meeting: 6 October 2022 (multi-disciplinary: sound studies, sound arts, civic education, pedagogical studies). Aural Literacy Workshop 1: 2-3 December, 2022 - University of Bamberg, Germany (multi-disciplinary: sound studies, sound arts, civic education, pedagogical studies). Aural Literacy Workshop 2: 9-10 February, 2023 - University of the Arts, London (multi-disciplinary: sound studies, sound arts, civic education, pedagogical studies). |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Aural Literacy Workshop 1: Creating Tools - Transdisciplinary working. 2-3 December, 2022 - University of Bamberg, Germany |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Sounding Knowledge Network met in Bamberg, Germany for the first of our off-line Aural Literacy Workshops. The core team (consisting of Salomé Voegelin, Werner Friedrichs, Kevin Logan, Kerstin Meissner, Michael Gallagher, Abigail Hirsch and Timothy Smith) were joined by project participants Ingeborg Okkels, Marcus Wachter, Shanti Suki Osman, Selmar Schülein, Steffen Pelzel, Yosa Peit, as well as PhD students from the University of Bamberg, Verena Männer, Julian Schröter, Jana Ziel, Hanna Sophia Kaufmann, Ana Patricia Schultz, Vincent Weikert, Manuel Krauss and Lukas Barth, and Maxim Himmelspach from the University of the Fine Arts Braunschweig. The workshop participants were tasked with building on the work achieved during two online meetings (see here for a list of participants), which took place in September and October 2022 and explored the practical and theoretical frameworks of sound in education, and education through sound. The first of these online meetings explored 'Positionalities' through an exchange of expertise, methods and tools as well as through presentations and discussion, to find the problems and promises of a Sonic Pedagogy. The second online meeting developed these positionalities through a focus on methodologies of teaching and learning through plenum discussions and breakout sessions, comparing methods, aims, methodologies and finally arriving at four speculative scenarios which subsequently became four questions which provided a conceptual starting point for our work in Bamberg: How can we use/produce sounds to grasp the material and spatial process of the political positioning-in-the-world/society? In what ways can a playful engagement with sound create a site for relational and experiential learning? And how might these sonic practices positively disrupt epistemic power structures and preconceptions? How can we use sounding and listening to create space for non-representationality? In what ways can we use Sounding and Listening to grasp and practice something that is unfamiliar/new to the students? These questions structured and informed our aim to produce a teaching toolkit in Bamberg. The participants split into four groups, each tasked with thinking through their allocated question to create methods and tools for an applied scenario that might generate a Sonic Pedagogic moment . At the end of the first full day we came back together in plenum to present our tentative findings before enjoying a wonderful dinner in the beautiful old town of Bamberg, where less structured but fruitful discussions on sound, education, politics and art continued and networks were strengthened. The following half-day was spent developing these ideas further, with each group attempting to generate concrete text-scores, instructions, methods, tools, and pathways that could be communicated and ultimately transferred across pedagogical scenarios to create cross-disciplinary and applied possibilities for the promotion and testing of Aural Literacy. These outcomes will be developed, responded to, applied and tested further in the next meeting which will take place in in February 2023 in London, when the core team, adjunct members, together with PhD students from the University of the Arts London and invited experts from Sound, Music, Pedagogy and Education will meet to together work towards the stated aim of the project: to create a Zine as a workbooklet for a Sonic Pedagogy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://crisap.org/research/projects/sounding-knowledge/news/ |
| Description | Aural Literacy Workshop 2: Application of the Tools. 9-10 February, 2023 - University of the Arts, London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | On the 9th and 10th of February 2023, the SKN, Sounding Knowledge Network, met in London, to build on the work done in the two online meetings (see here for a list of participants) that had explored and developed educational "positionalities" in relation to sound, as well as during the previous Aural Literacy workshop in Bamberg in December 2022, that had worked with these positionalities in a more applied and developmental mode. The core team (consisting of Salomé Voegelin, Werner Friedrichs, Kevin Logan, Kerstin Meissner, Michael Gallagher, Abigail Hirsch and Timothy Smith) were joined by project participants Paul Nataraj, Irene Revell, Hannah Kemp-Welch, Lisa Hall, Sunil Chandy, Nicol Parkinson, Julia Schauerman, Hector MacInnes, Cannach MacBride, Giada Dalla Bonta, Mark Peter Wright, Holger Schulze, and Jilliene Sellner. Prior to this London workshop, the core team met several times to consider how the ideas prepared online and tested and developed during the Bamberg workshop might contribute to the articulation and practice of a viable Sonic Pedagogy. In this way they designed the tasks that would enable the workshop participants of this London event to query and develop these ideas towards a critical application. The four speculative scenarios that had been developed online and that were subsequently articulated through the four questions which had provided a conceptual starting point for the work in Bamberg, were re-visited to arrive at four new questions/statements to start the work towards an applied pedagogical toolkit: How can sound be used to make the topological production matrices of political spaces perceptible/detectable? How to Re/Un-Do 'dominant ideologies of knowing and being' using Sounding/Listening practices? How to use sound to facilitate an ongoing democratic becoming? How to use sound to introduce the fragile, uncertain, non-systematised into the visual regime of education. To frame and guide this work, on the first day of the workshop, Salomé provided a short introduction and context and Kevin gave a presentation on the history of 'Zines', clarifying how this DIY, Punk, political activist, etc. format was going to be employed as the means and medium to publish and advocate for a Sonic Pedagogy. This was followed by Kerstin and Werner's detailed explanation and analysis of 'Politische Bildung', which (in its most simplistic terms) is a particularly German discipline and educational subject concerned with political education and political/democratic subjectivity. It finds no exact equivalent in the UK education system and thus provides a vital conjuncture for this bilingual and bi-cultural project. After this the participants worked in four groups through their respective research questions/statements. By the end of the first day, each group had formulated a work in process toolkit, which they presented to the plenum. The conversations continued well into the evening, over a delicious workshop dinner. The following day, each group handed over their toolkits to a different group, and each was tasked with testing, debating and augmenting these speculative approaches. Shaping them into a viable, usable set of instructions, scores, invitations or lesson plans, etc., that could be used by teachers and students in cross-disciplinary, real-life educational settings. The SKN team are extremely grateful for the energy and enthusiasm that all participants brought to the workshop. We are excited to take what was achieved to the next stage, which will be the development of a 'Zine' to be designed and published in an open access format later this year. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://crisap.org/research/projects/sounding-knowledge/news/ |
| Description | Presentation at AR@K symposium at Kristiania in Oslo - 14 & 15 March 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | How to Do Things with Sounding Knowledge. Or: Crowdsourcing an Original Contribution to Sonic Pedagogy. My contribution to AR@K23 is motivated by my current involvement in the Sounding Knowledge Network project (S_K_N), which in turn is informed by my ongoing research into Sound Arts and pedagogic performativity. S_K_N is a AHRC (UK) funded research network that responds to the visuo-centrism of conventional educational methods. Working transnationally, between the UK and Germany, S_K_N develops the relationship between education and sonic practice, using the latter's relational and embodied sensibility to review and re- practice trends in critical and experimental teaching theory across national boundaries. The S_K_N project is led by Prof. Salomé Voegelin (PI). S_K_N brings together a multidisciplinary group of specialists from Sound Art and Sound Studies, Education Studies, Pedagogy and Civic Education, as well as students and teachers, to conceptualise, test and develop sounding and listening as radical and inclusive, sensory and participatory strategies for education. My performance-presentation will introduce the aims and objectives of S_K_N, and more generally the agency of practice- led sonic thinking. In bypassing the usual lecture format this provocation will explore collective and speculative knowledge sharing, with attendees being encouraged to participate using both spoken and non-verbal forms of articulation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.kristiania.no/om-kristiania/kalender/arak23/ |
| Description | Sounding Knowledge Online Meeting: 29 September 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Taking place on 29 September 2022, this meeting explored positionalities of the practical and theoretical frameworks of sound in education, and education through sound, presentations, exchanges of good practice and discussion. The development of these positionalities occurred through collective evaluating strategies, technologies, methods as well as consequences of Aural Literacy to create a shared understanding of Sonic Pedagogy that is able to respond to low educational attainment and high exclusion rates, which especially affect already marginalised communities, and have an effect on social, economic and civic participation. Attendees: Salomé Voegelin, Werner Friedrichs, Kevin Logan, Kerstin Meißner, Abigail Hirsch, Michael Gallagher, Lisa Hall, Edder Wiliams, Mark Peter Wright, Johannes Salim Ismaiel-Wendt, meLê yamomo, Markus Gloe, Maria Westvall, Suvani Suri, Elsa M´bala and Nicole Furlonge. Together, we exchanged expertise, methods and tools through presentations and discussion, to find the problems and promises of a Sonic Pedagogy. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://crisap.org/research/projects/sounding-knowledge/events/ |
| Description | Sounding Knowledge Online Meeting: 6 October 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Taking place on 6 October 2022, this meeting explored positionalities of the practical and theoretical frameworks of sound in education, and education through sound, presentations, exchanges of good practice and discussion. The development of these positionalities occurred through collective evaluating strategies, technologies, methods as well as consequences of Aural Literacy to create a shared understanding of Sonic Pedagogy that is able to respond to low educational attainment and high exclusion rates, which especially affect already marginalised communities, and have an effect on social, economic and civic participation. Attendees: Salomé Voegelin, Werner Friedrichs, Kevin Logan, Kerstin Meißner, Abigail Hirsch, Michael Gallagher, Lisa Hall, Edder Wiliams, Mark Peter Wright, Johannes Salim Ismaiel-Wendt, meLê yamomo, Markus Gloe, Maria Westvall, Suvani Suri, Elsa M´bala and Nicole Furlonge. Together, we focused on methodologies of teaching and learning through plenum discussions and breakout sessions, comparing methods, aims, methodologies. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://crisap.org/research/projects/sounding-knowledge/events/ |