Sonic Frontiers. The European Central Bank (ECB) building in Frankfurt/Germany
A brief sound][talk by Sylvia Necker at Resonating Occupation workshop, University of Nottingham, 11. Mai 2018

One of the two ECB’s headquarter buildings in Frankfurt is based in a lively square located in the city centre, opposite of the Opera house and near the central station. As part of safety precautions the ECB building is surrounded by physical barriers which also mark a sonic frontier between the bank and the public space. My sound work explores this frontier through field recordings and will make it hearable. This sound approach raises further research methodological questions related to the themes of the Resonating Occupation workshop.

“Resonating Occupation” will be the second workshop held under the ERC-funded Cultures of Occupation in Twentieth Century Asia (COTCA) project at the University of Nottingham. This workshop will bring together scholars from multiple disciplines and geographic regions working at the nexus of sound, music, and foreign occupation—here defined broadly to include studies of colonialism, imperialism, conflict and war. Discussion at the workshop will revolve around the following questions:

• How does the context of occupation give rise to distinctive auditory environments and music cultures? Or, what does occupation sound like?
• How are sound and music implicated in the disciplining of colonized subjects and aural spaces? 
• How do listeners of occupation create new forms of auditory expression?
• What might comparative studies of auditory environments in different geographic and temporal contexts contribute to a better understanding of individual cases of occupation, and of occupation more generally?
• What can studies of occupation contribute to developing new research methodologies and approaches to studying sound?

Download the conference programme: 2018-05-ResOcc-workshop-programme