Chris Hoff & Sam Harnett, The World According to Sound

Surrounded by an octophonic ring of powerful loudspeakers, you sit in the dark for 70 minutes, wear an eye mask, and take a sonic trip with fellow members of your academic community. You hear the vibrations of the Golden Gate Bridge, footsteps of ants, recordings made a century ago, and silence turned into music. You’re transported to 1930s Berlin, up to the ionosphere, under a sand dune, and into the middle of a choir singing in a church built in the 6th century. You hear ideas, essays, books, theories, and contemporary research all translated into soundscapes that challenge you to rethink the world through your ears instead of your eyes … and ultimately reconnect you with what makes academic inquiry so meaningful.

The performance was followed by a Q&A with co-producers Chris Hoff and Sam Harnett.

Chris Hoff and Sam Harnett are co-producers of Ways of Knowing, a podcast series made in partnership with academic institutions like Johns Hopkins, UChicago, and The University of Washington. They have published academic papers; spent a semester at Cornell as practitioners-in-residence; and performed their octophonic audio compositions at more than 50 universities, theaters, and art spaces. They previously worked in public radio, where their reporting won two Edward R. Murrow Awards for excellence in sound design and was featured regularly on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, The World, Science Friday, and other nationally-syndicated radio programs.

Prior to this event, The World According to Sound gave a lecture on Media Objects.

Sponsored by the URI Center for the Humanities, College of Arts and Sciences, and Harrington School of Communication and Media.