This is a past event
Noise is a complicated concept which definition is controversial. Depending on the objective decibel value and the subjective understanding of what is considered as unwanted sound, there can be various interpretations. When technology developed into the industrial age, noise was completely changed and has become both a serious social issue and a serious environmental issue. This is not only because the amount of noise has increased exponentially, but also because the nature of noise has been changed fundamentally. The noise problem in modern society is a technical problem with electricity at its core. The entire nature is wrapped in a huge power grid and has become a large recording studio. Nature has been instrumentalized by sound. Sound sources are everywhere, and sound devices are everywhere. At this point, the soundscape of nature has been completely changed, and the pure sound of nature are gradually disappearing.
In the era of industrialization, modernization, and globalization. The noise problem reflects a power relationship, as those who produce noise are usually the strong, at the top of the power structure; while those who suffer from noise are usually the weak things that do not generate economic benefits, and the weak people who are at the bottom of the power structure. In this power game, capital has created an expensive modern tranquility and also created this "era of tinnitus."
Prof. Qiushi XU, Assistant Professor at the School of Design, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), China, is a scholar of Sound Studies and STS (Science and Technology Studies). From 2020 to 2022, Prof. XU was a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts at SUSTech. In 2020, she gained her Ph.D. in Philosophy of Science and Technology from Tsinghua University, China, and was in a joint Ph.D. program in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University, U.S.A. She obtained an MA in Cultural and Creative Industries at King's College London, UK, got a BA in Recording Arts and a BA in Journalism from the Communication University of China. Prof. XU has been researching sound technology and sound art, the sound of musical instruments, noise and environmental studies, sound design, sound and gender, and sound, body, and medicine in different cultural contexts. Currently, she serves as one of the editors of the Encyclopedia of Sound Studies by the Bloomsbury Publishing. In addition, Prof. XU is a curator of sound who organized pioneering exhibitions of sound installation in China. She is regarded as one of the main figures in sound studies in China.
- Speaker
- Prof. Qiushi Xu
- Venue
- MacRobert Building, MR055
- Contact
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Please contact Dr Christina Ballico (christina.ballico@abdn.ac.uk) if you wish to join the event via Teams.