The intergenerational transmission of knowledge is crucial to the survival of any culture. Within the realm of sonic street technologies, this transmission occurs in the household, at sound system sessions, in workshop settings—or in record shops. Practitioners have consistently highlighted the significance of passing knowledge from elders to younger generations, as seen during the UK […]
Scoping out existing research and documentation on sonic street technologies is an essential starting point for any further investigation. For this reason, SST has committed to publishing annotated bibliographies on the various sound system scenes across the globe. These bibliographies are meticulously compiled by local researchers and include not only academic publications but also films, […]
With SST researchers working in and with local scenes, it’s a pleasure to highlight some of the ongoing activities – namely the Knock-em Down Sound System programme. Part of the SST Australia’s work this offers a public programme as well as providing an opportunity for research. Andrew Belletty is leading the Knock-em Down Sound System […]
The long term objective of the SST project is to establish sonic street technologies as an area of study. Therefore, having students and younger scholars getting involved is very important. We are pleased to welcome to the SST blog PhD candidate and sound system practitioner Giovanni Mugnaina from UNIBO (Italy) to report on the 8th […]
Almost three years into the project, our research on the street music technologies of the Global South moves forward at a good pace. To reach the goal of establishing Sonic Street Technologies as a new area of study at the intersection of cultural studies, STS, and popular music studies, scoping out the state of the […]
SST has just published an article in the peer-reviewed journal Performance Matters entitled Jamaican Sound Systems and Knowledge Systems: Practice-Based Research (PBR) in Popular Culture. The article is authored by principal investigator Julian Henriques and senior research assistant Brian D’Aquino, and discusses the theoretical and methodological implications of conducting practice-based research on sonic street technologies in […]
ST is always ready acknowledge scholarship exploring black music and technology. As well as well as the work of sound system and other professionals, researchers also have a valuable role to play in helping to give recognition and respect to the creativity that often starts at street level. Dr Monique Charles is an inspiring Black […]
Sound System Outernational #9: Premiere of UK Generation 2 Generation documentary film 6pm, Saturday 6th May 2023, Goldsmiths, University of London SST is proud to support Sound System Outernational #9, to be held at Goldsmiths University, London on Saturday 6th May 2023. SSO#9 will premiere the UK Generation 2 Generation documentary film, a compelling account […]
Continuing the recap of our 2022 activities, this week we’re going to focus on our research methodology. The three SST principles of collaboration, respect and recognition, and sharing findings described in Part One of this blog have both informed and been informed by our working research methods. These are both quantitative and global in the […]
Las SST bajo el volcán: la presentación en 4s El 08 de diciembre de este año tuve la oportunidad de acompañar al equipo de Sonic Street Technologies a la conferencia anual de 4s en Cholula, México. La ocasión sería especial no sólo porque sería la primera vez que presentaría los avances de mi trabajo de […]
By Aadita Chaudhury This last week, the Sonic Street Technologies team headed to Cholula, Mexico to be part of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Conference at Cholula, Mexico. Each year, the 4S conference brings together researchers, practitioners and students of the discipline of science and technology studies, and configures and examines new […]
In the spirit of outernationalism for Sound System Outernational #8 SST asked for a report on the event we sponsored from Marcus Ramusyo Brasil, one of our Brazilian research collaborotors. This day long marathan session – from 10.30 am to 10.00 pm – was very well attended with about 150 participants, more than thirty of […]
Researching the dynamic living music scenes that surround SST presents certain challenges. Not least amongst these is that the material we gather is most often oral, or social media posts, rather formal written records, let alone statistics. With SST this is always with the consent and participation of the professionals and aficionados of these scenes. […]
SST is proud to support Sound System Outernational #8, to be held in London on Saturday 5th of November 2022. SSO#8 UK Sound System Reasoning Day: Continuities and Disruptions, brings together sound system operators from around the UK and across different generations. We aim to celebrate and exchange knowledge about how sound system culture and […]
Here at SST, we are always searching for the ways that sound system cultures and their impact becomes more noticed throughout the wider culture and other media platforms. For many of us, the SST project has been a portal into a whole world of musical expressions that were previously unfamiliar to us. As someone whose […]
Sound system cultures have intimate histories that implicate them in global networks of ecologies, infrastructures, and multiple instances of environmental and energy justice issues. In this blog, Sonic Street Technologies Research Assistant, Aadita Chaudhury reflects on some of the ways these domains intersect and interact at the site of sound system culture’s development and practice. […]
Continuing the series drafting the theoretical basis of SST Research (see pt. 1, pt. 2, and pt. 3), this blog considers the difference sound makes. It develops the idea of thinking knowledge through sounding – rather than image or text as the conventional metaphors for epistemic knowledge – is a fruitful way of revealing the […]
SST is excited to be partnering with the Institute of Caribbean Studies and the Reggae Studies Unit for the 7th Global Reggae Conference, to be held at University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica, between 16 and 19 of February, 2022. Over the last fifteen years […]
As researchers deeply invested in the popular culture of sound systems and other SST, we are well-aware that these are ongoing scenes established long before we arrived. Each specific SST operates within an existing ecology, that has developed usually across decades and below the radar of official or academic recognition. The knowledge that is produced […]
Continuing the series drafting the theoretical basis of SST Research (see pt.1 and pt.2), this second part goes into some detail on the nature and characteristics of black knowledge and its production. This identified kinds of knowledge that are situated, embodied and shared. Such ways-of-knowing can be described as vibrational in terms of the standard […]
We are glad to announce the publication of the Sound System Outernational (SSO) guest-edited special issue of the Journal of World Popular Music – Volume 8, Number 1, available here. Edited by SSO team members Brian D’Aquino and Oana Pârvan, the special issue features some of the contributions originally presented during the international symposium ‘SSO#5: […]
Second in a series of blogs on SST research (read here the first piece), this article considers different knowledge systems in order to locate, recognise and give value to the ways-of-knowing of audio engineers. Knowledge comes not only from data, information or scientific laws; it is also embodied in the techniques and practices of SST engineering. Appreciating this is one of the major […]
Technology will save us, big tech tells us; others are more sceptical, offering low-tech solutions as less destructive of human life and the planet. Certainly, the technological transformation of substantial sections of humanity needs to be better understood. The claim here it that this understanding is already present amongst us […]