Guest Lectures

 The World According to Sound offers the following talks for students, faculty, and the public. In the past, we have guest-lectured in a variety of departments: English, creative writing, music, astronomy, rhetoric, communications, media studies, critical theory, journalism, and science and technology studies.

The Myth of Artificial Intelligence

How did AI become conflated with human intelligence, and how is this myth being used to build infrastructure, rewrite laws, and alter norms that will fundamentally change how we work, recreate, communicate…and ultimately think about what it means to be human? Based on this 2-part documentary produced in collaboration with Cornell University.

Words Matter: How Tech Media Helped Write Gig Companies into Existence 

A talk about tech reporting, journalism, and gig work based on this paper published with Cambridge University Press.

Media Objects

We’re surrounded by media—not just when we look at our phones, turn on the TV, or get on the internet. Everything from Tupperware and office plants to buttons and smartphone apps is exerting pressure on what we think, how we think, and what is even possible to think. Based on this 5-part series produced in collaboration with Cornell University.

The World According to Sound and New Forms in Media

For the last decade, Chris Hoff and Sam Harnett have been pushing the boundaries of the audio medium, from their original 90-second sound pieces on All Things Considered, to their octophonic live shows and ongoing podcast series about academic research. In this talk, the pair explain their evolution, deconstruct the different formats they’ve worked in, and make a case for why we need more diverse forms in the radio and podcast world.

The Pabulum of Public Radio and Podcasting: Why It’s Bad and How Academia Can Help

A lecture about public radio, podcasts, academic publishing, and intellectual discourse in the US based on this paper published in the Public Humanities, a journal published by Cambridge University Press.

Cosmic Visions

Here we explore the intersection of the humanities and astronomy, from Kepler’s fiction and Dante’s cosmology to the landscape paintings that shaped Hubble telescope images and the sonification used to communicate about gravitational waves. Based on this 12-part series produced in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University.

An Inexact Science

Cell, black hole, natural selection, deep time…science is filled with metaphors. This highly inexact and subjective way of thinking is not just necessary for communicating about science, but for the entire scientific process—from the formulation of hypotheses and interpretation of data, to the development of humankind’s most revolutionary theories. Based on this 2-hour documentary produced in collaboration with the University of Chicago.

Octophonic Composition

A lecture suited for sound studies, journalism, film, and music students. We break down our process for composing works for an octophonic speaker array, and talk about why this form has great potential not just for music, but journalism.