Geesteswetenschappen, Academie der Kunsten

Sound & Score brings together music expertise from prominent international researchers and performers exploring the intimate relations between sound, score and notation, and the artistic possibilities that this relationship yields for performers, composers and listeners.

This doctoral trajectory explores sound, its image and its role in relating humans and our technologies to the environment.

Worlds of sound is important for everyone who is interested in listening to music of the 20th century or for anyone involved in studying or performing contemporary music. The central question is how to interpret music in case the performer is not willing to depend on personal taste or conventions.

How can we let the sonic speak in public urban environments? What is the function and position of sound in our daily encounters with urbanity? How do we experience cities aurally? This was the topic of Marcel Cobussen's inaugural lecture on November 28th, 2016.

ACPA Professor of Auditory Culture and Music Philosophy Marcel Cobussen and ACPA PhD Supervisor Vincent Meelberg are, together with composer and Simon Fraser University Professor Barry Truax, editors of the recently published Routledge Companion to Sounding Art.

On the 13th of October, Cesko Voeten successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Cesko on this achievement!

Besides teaching BA and MA classes at Leiden University and supervising PhD candidates doing artistic research both in Leiden and Ghent, a third major component of Marcel Cobussen’s activities is (of course) doing research.

From October 2, ACPA alumnus and sound artist Budhaditya Chattopadhyay will exhibit his sound installation Expanded Object.

How can we improve the everyday sounds of the city? In his inaugural lecture on 28 November Marcel Cobussen, Professor of Auditory Culture, advocates using the expertise of sound artists to raise the quality of acoustic environments in cities.

Diversity and inclusion are important priority areas at Leiden Law School. The D&I Sounding Board was set up to gain a better understanding of the role and extent of D&I across the length and breadth of the faculty. Ten members of staff from all sections of the faculty have joined this Sounding Board…

Promotor: Carel J. ten Cate, Co-Promotor: Hans W. Slabbekoorn

Developing a model of sound organisation which drives the focus of the listener to the way inherent conditions in the production and circulation of sound media technology constitute our sound apprehension

We are developing the conceptual framework, which is new to this taxonomic group, and evaluate the current state of the art with respect to all critical parameters and transfer functions for a fully developed Population Consequences of Acoustic Disturbance (PCAD) model.

Promotor: C.J. ten Cate, Co-promotor: H.W. Slabbekoorn

Ambient sound is a standard term used by sound practitioners to denote the site-specific background sound component that provides a characteristic atmosphere and spatial information in a sound work.

This research proposal focuses on the investigation of the poetic potentials of negativity through the exploitation of failure in sound based artistic practices - a context that has not been extensively addressed.

Are there acoustic cues for settlement stage larvae in deep-sea soundscapes around hydrothermal vents?

Anthropogenic noise has been shown to affect marine animals in various ways, this may have fitness consequences at individual and population level. This thesis aims to increase insight into the quantification of sound-induced behavioural responses that are relevant to fitness, and into factors that…

Promotor: Prof.dr. A. Achucarro

How can we understand the drum-set – and thus drummer – as technological? How have technological developments affected change in drum-set performance and drum-set construction? Are the relationships between new technologies and the drummer symbiotic, or one way? To what extent are instruments and (reactive)…

Do humans and zebra finches share cognitive mechanisms that are important for speech perception?

Do natural soundscapes affect migratory decisions of fishes moving up and down rivers and is this process disturbed by vessel sounds?

To what extent is sound a stressor to fish? And are behavioural and physiological phenotypes equally sensitive to disturbance by noise pollution?

Audible Absence: Searching for the Site in Sound Production

On the 11th of January, Rasmus Puggaard-Rode successfully defended a doctoral thesis. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Rasmus on this achievement!

A project on phonology, phonetics, and the space between them.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sonic Methodologies is now available. This more than 850-page book offers methods how to study sound as well as how through sound and listening (new) knowledge can be gained.

Promotor: A. Achúcarro, Co-Promotor: G.A. Palma

We always have several ongoing studies running in our labs. Below you can find information about each one.

Tentoonstelling

ACPA alumnus Kevin Toksöz Fairbairn has just published a new book at Punctum Books - dis/cord: Thinking Sound through Agential Realism.

In this dissertation, electrophysiological (EEG) and behavioural measures are used to investigate how allophonic tonal variants and sub-phonemic features are processed during Mandarin and Dutch speech production, visual processing of written words and reading aloud.

Promotor: Prof.dr. S. Haring

'Engaging With Everyday Sounds' is a rich and inspiring exploration of the role of sounds in everyday life, including their impact on human actions, emotions, and imagination. Marcel Cobussen intertwines sonic studies with philosophy, sound art, sociology and more to create an impressively lucid and…

Music as a multi-faceted and integral part of our society.

Fishes rely heavily on sound to find their way during migration or dispersal. Many species are affected by noise pollution. Hans Slabbekoorn from the Institute of Biology Leiden received a HORIZON2020 grant of 500,000 euros to study the impact of sound conditions on movement decisions of fishes.

The current project aims to revive the idea that sound inventories are structured according to a small set of universal principles by applying insights from current phonological theory and by making use of modern database technologies and data assessing methodologies.

In addition to the hardback edition, a paperback edition is now also available of The Routledge Companion to Sounding Art, edited by Marcel Cobussen, Vincent Meelberg and Barry Truax.

Call for Papers for the Conference to be held on November 29th and 30th at Leiden University and coordinated by Prof. dr. M.A. (Marcel) Cobussen, involving Keynote speakers Salomé Voegelin, Gascia Ouzounian, Holger Schulze, and Jean-Paul Thibaud.

Using speech analysis to resolve crimes. That's what Meike de Boer (26) is aiming to do with her PhD research. 'By analysing how a person pronounces

After the Summerbreak the Honours Class entitled The Sounding City will be offered, in collaboration with ACPA and the Science Faculty. The class instructors will be Prof. Marcel Cobussen and Edwin van der Heide. They state that one of their main objectives for this course is

Distance / Fiction is a sound installation that deals with the ways listening is entwined with processes and techniques of sound mediation.

A new computer simulation shows the promising possibilities of the booming field of topology. Smartly designed mechanical structures carry sound exclusively one way and are immune to fabrication errors. Publication on 17 July in Nature Physics.

ACPA alumnus Budhaditya Chattopadhyay explores sound practices across South Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America in his new publication 'Sound Practices in the Global South: Co-listening to Resounding Plurilogues'.

Composer Paul Craenen (1972) is actually a pianist, but as part of his PhD ceremony, he performed a composition on PVC pipes. Craenen studies the position and role of the body in music. ‘I am interested in what precedes the resulting sound’.

My research focuses on theories of the sublime by the Berlin Enlightenment philosophers Moses Mendelssohn (1729–86) and Johann Georg Sulzer (1720–79).