Sound, Politics, and the Urban Laboratory

Sound, Politics, and the Urban Laboratory

Application is now open until 28 April 2025

July 21–23, 2025 | Vienna

mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna

As part of isa – International Summer Academy of mdw, the isaResearch Summer School 2025 seeks to explore the dynamic relationship between sound, urban space, and politics. Thanks to its rich historical musical tradition, Vienna has been called and marketed itself as “City of Music” – a label that must be critically examined both as a trope as well as within the neoliberal logic of the creative industries.

Using the notion of the “Music City” as a starting point, the three-day workshop invites Ph.D. students and other early-stage researchers in the humanities and artistic research, specifically those immersed in music, sound, and urban studies, to present and discuss their own research around the topic. Taking place on campus of the mdw, this interdisciplinary forum seeks to examine the political economies of sonic expression and musicking in public space and urban life. We also encourage reflections on the fluid relationship between cities and music, borders and mobility.

Participants will be able to present and discuss their research project in an interdisciplinary framework. Experts in the respective field at the mdw and beyond will engage in conversations and act as respondents. The programme will also include a keynote lecture by an international expert, site-visits in the urban landscape of Vienna as well as options to participate in other isa events. The summer school thus sets out to explore the transformative role of sound in shaping public environments and to provide participants with an intimate interdisciplinary experience that fosters new networks and perspectives.

Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Inequality & Power Critique: How does sound influence social segregation and hierarchies in the urban environment?
• Sound in Public Space: Sound design as a means of shaping identity, security, or control.
• Mapping Urban Music Cultures: Historical and contemporary mappings of music venues and soundscapes as critical method.
• Music & Community Spaces: How do musical practices contribute to the creation and transformation of community spaces, particularly for minoritarian communities?
• Fluid Concepts: The relationship between cities and music in the context of water, borders, and mobility, e.g. the river Danube as a historical route of travel and migration
• Music & Agency: Music as a tool for claiming urban spaces, resistance, and the ‘Right to the City.’ How do regulations and governance shape sonic expression?
• Mental Health & Soundscapes: The impact of urban sounds on mental well-being and social
• Genre Evolution and New Urban Sound Aesthetics: Hip-hop, electronic music, and transcultural music scenes as forms of urban self-expression

We invite applications from Ph.D. students and other early-stage researchers from disciplines including (but not limited to) Musicology, Dance and Performance Studies, Urban Studies, Artistic Research, Queer Theory, Cultural Studies, Music Theory, Indigenous Studies, Music Sociology, Critical Race Studies, Ethnomusicology, Popular Music Studies, Post-Colonial Studies, Art History, and Film and Media Studies. Presentation proposals should be connected to the topic of the participant’s thesis or current research project.

Attendance of the summer school is free of charge, and mdw provides lunch and refreshments on-site. Limited funding to help with travel and accommodation expenses is available. The exact amount of funding will be decided on a case-by-case basis according to the requirements of the participant. Application is possible after the acceptance of your proposal with a short description of your situation and academic affiliation (or lack thereof). We are happy to organize childcare for researchers travelling with children of any age; we kindly ask to be informed of any such needs as soon as possible after acceptance.

Applications including a title, a presentation abstract, keywords, a statement of motivation, and a short bio must be uploaded via our website. The deadline for applying is April 28, 2025.

Decisions on the acceptance of proposals will be announced in early May 2025.

Contact: Kathrin Heinrich isaresearch@mdw.ac.at

Websites:

https://www.isa-music.org/de/isaresearch/

https://www.mdw.ac.at/forschungsfoerderung/isaresearch/

Organization: Kathrin Heinrich, Therese Kaufmann

Academic Advisory Board:

Univ.-Prof. Dr.habil. Lisa Gaupp, Professor for Cultural Institutions, IKM

Scott L. Edwards, PhD, Institute for Musicology and Performance Studies

Dr. Magdalena Fürnkranz, Senior Scientist, Theory and History of Popular Music, iPOP

isaResearch is mdw’s international summer school for interdisciplinary research on music and performing arts. We invite early-stage researchers, scholars, artists, and activists from various disciplinary backgrounds and academic levels to join the discourse on isa’s annual thematic focus.

Established under the former name isaScience, this forum for researchers has been part of isa, the international summer academy of mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria since 2013.

isaResearch 2025 will take place from 21 to 23 July 2025 on campus of mdw at Anton-von-Webern-Platz 1 in Vienna

Limited funding to partially support travel and accommodation expenses will again be available for students and scholars in academic precarity upon acceptance of the proposal. The exact amount of funding will be decided on a case-by-case basis according to requirements of the participant. To apply please email isaresearch@mdw.ac.at after your proposal has been accepted with a short description of your situation and academic affiliation (or lack thereof).

The isaResearch team is happy to organise childcare for researchers travelling with children of any age. Please let us know beforehand to make sure all needs can be met.

For further information please contact isaresearch@mdw.ac.at

Organisers of isaScience:

Organisation:
Kathrin Heinrich, Research Support of the mdw

Therese Kaufmann, Head of the Research Support of the mdw

Academic Advisory Board:

Univ.-Prof. Dr.habil. Lisa Gaupp, Professor for Cultural Institutions, IKM

Scott L. Edwards, PhD, Institute for Musicology and Performance Studies

Dr. Magdalena Fürnkranz, Senior Scientist, Theory and History of Popular Music, iPOP

Contact:
isascience@mdw.ac.at

SHORT:

If you are participating in a meeting via Zoom, you will be visible with your registered name and, in case of having enabled the camera, your picture. If you are participating in the discussion actively with a comment, under use of the microphone function, you are going to be heard and seen by all participants live. The lecture only shall be recorded, not however the discussions thereafter, which will only be available in the live stream. Video and audio recordings of the lecture will be produced for purposes of documentation and information of mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw).

The recording becomes part of the entire meeting records and is going to be permanently accessible to the general public in the media section of mdw (mdwMediathek). Other possible uses include e.g. publication of a transcript or of a video documentation of the meeting series. Please consult our detailed data protection information (https://www.mdw.ac.at/datenschutz/datenschutzinformation-der-mdw/).

If you do not want to be part of the recording, please use a pseudonym for participation in the Zoom lecture and do not enable camera or microphone functions while using Zoom. Those are deactivated by default by mdw in its capacity as host. An active participation in the discussion is only possible after activation of those functionalities.

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